Allen on Bergman

Rating: 8/10 (14 January 2012)

Love and Death marks a very distinct transitional phase for Woody Allen, being the very last of his oddball comedies and the most sophisticated of them. It combines, essentially for the last time for Allen, incredibly silly puns and one liners that would fit in a Mel Brooks movie ("I think we should divide his letters... do you want the vowels or the consonants?") with clever satire and parody on Bergman and Dostoevsky. It's probably my ignorance in Russian classic literature that prevented me from enjoying it more, but I loved the loving Bergman spoofs and young Woody's quirky, neurotic humor. I can't name it as one of my favorite Allen films but it certainly holds its own as a fresh, hilarious piece.