I love him like a brother, just not one of mine (Love And Death (DVD))

Member Name: paranormalhandy

Product:	Love And Death (DVD)
Date:	16/05/09 (29 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An atmopsheric and hilarious film

Disadvantages: No DVD extras

"Love & Death" is an important milestone in Woody Allen's career. It marks the last movie he would film outside the boundaries of New York City for nearly twenty-five years, and in atmosphere and tone it is also the last of his "pure" comedies, where getting laughs was the top priority. Perhaps a good modern analogy is English comedy writer Richard Curtis - "Love & Death" is Woody Allen's "Blackadder", whereas later films like "Manhattan" or "Annie Hall" are "Notting Hill" and "Love Actually" (more metropolitan, but ultimately blander).

In fact, fans of Blackadder and other historical comedies will find a thrill of recognition in the style of "Love and Death". Allen plays fast and loose with anarchronisms and historical cliches, and even if you don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of Dostoyevsky, he paints his parodies of Russian literature with such broad strokes that as long as you know what snow is, you should probably be able to pick up on the jokes. A rattling soundtrack of Prokofiev (including Christmas favourite, "Troika", under a Bergman-aping dance routine at the end) also adds some flavour to the borsht.

At the film's centre is Woody Allen's character Boris Grushencko, a wisecracking but cowardly 18th century Russian who through no fault of his own finds himself enlisted as an infantryman, facing the invading troops of Emperor Napoleon. Of course, Allen's performance is very similar to his previous leading characters (Virgin Starkwell, Fielding Mellish, Miles Monroe, etc) - all of which act as a simple conduit for Allen's put-upon, nebbish stand-up and characterisation. This time however, and perhaps more obviously than at any other point in his career, Allen is also busy divining the work of his own two major influences - The Marx Brothers (he and co-star Diane Keaton ape and parody earlier Marx Brothers routines at certain points in "Love and Death") and film director Ingmar Bergman (whose films are also quoted throughout the movie).

The film also includes a hilarious performance from Diane Keaton, as his mercenary cousin Sonja. Boris is unrequitedly in love with her from the beginning of the film, and following several heart attacks from various suiters and husbands, Sonja eventually agrees to marry Boris, who is now back home as a war hero, after a series of fortuitous moments on the battlefield. He has let slip to her that he is set to fight a duel the following morning with one of the finest shots in all Russia, and is guaranteed to die in the process; and only it is only in these circumstances does Sonja get engaged to him. In fact, Boris' rival misses; he has a Damascan conversion mid-shot and suddenly declares he wants to "devote my life as I once did in my childhood - to my singing! La la la-la-la!" (to which Boris mutters: "I shoulda shot 'im ... ") So, Sonja - almost catanoic with dissapointment - is forced to marry Boris after all.

An almost silent sequence of scenes, including much physical comedy with a lobster, follows and we see the couple fall in love in a Russian agrarian community: they befriend the village idiot and embrace a simple life (apart from occasional protacted conversation about morality and philosophy). Soon, however, Sonja's mercenary nature rears its head again. And entirely through her cajoling, Boris reluctantly finds himself as the proposed assassin in the middle of a plot to murder Napoleon.

Napoleon's arrival (a characterisation that would later re-appear almost wholesale in Terry Gilliam's 1980 movie "Time Bandits") marks a change in tone to the movie, as Allen's wisecracks become even more Groucho-like in his Imperial prescence. Shades of Charlie Chaplin's satirical masterpiece "The Great Dictator" also permeate these scenes - and parallels between "Love & Death" and Allen's early film "Bananas" can be drawn, as Allen sends up the very ideas of revolution and corrupt power in equal measure.

I don't want to ruin the end of the film by going too much into the final scenes, but suffice is to say that they return to more sturdy and recognisable Allen territory, as Boris meets members of his family he has not seen since the beginning of the film, and the Church is lampooned mercilessly. The music and the dialogue bring the film to a satisfying, goose-bumpy climax. Although, for me, it's actually rather sad, as the credits ends, to realise that Woody Allen would never been as funny or as free with his writing again.

Like all other early, budget Woody Allen DVDs, the extras on this disc are very scant indeed - just a trailer and "animated menus" (which is a bit like saying the ability to fast forward or pause is a special feature). But it really is a brilliant comedy, well worth seeking out, even if you find his later, hand-wringing work rather cloying.

Summary: The point where Woody jumped his first shark