Review of Love and Death (2013) by Denisse D — 02 Dec 2007

This is genius. Although set in 19th century Russia, it is really just a series of vaudeville gags interspersed with silent comedy-style slapstick. The gags come so thick and fast that there's no time to tell if any actually fall flat. For me, the best thing about the film is Diane Keaton. She can be annoying in other contexts (eg Sleeper), but her performance is spot on in this film. She does saucy, slightly unhinged (and cross-eyed) and wracked-with Bergmanesque- angst ("Wheat!") really well There are too many funny bits to quote here so I'll just stick with: "That is incredibly jejune" "That's jejune?" "Jejune!" "You have the temerity to say that I am talking to you out of jejunosity? I am one of the most june people in all of the Russias".

And for some reason the line: "Who? Oh that's droll!" has me falling about every time for reasons I can't fully explain.

And the scene where Sonja accidentally gets hid on the head with a bottle and slides down the wall...I usually detest slapstick, but lose it every time I watch that scene.

I hate to say this, but there's a lot to be said for the "early funny ones"...