Brilliant intellectual comedy

Rating: 10/10 (31 January 1999)

"Love and Death" is one of the funniest movies Woody Allen directed. It contains enough slapstick for at least three films. For cineasts it is even more fun to watch it because of the disrespectful insinuations on nearly every film that has been made after a russian novel. The influences of Dostojewski, Tolstoi, Groucho Marx and Ingmar Bergman are mixed up and the result is an intellectual comedy about a coward named Boris Grushenko who by accident becomes a highly decorated war hero in the russian fight against the invading Napoleon. Allen´s decision to use Sergej Prokofjew´s music contributes to create a bewildering atmosphere. I liked "Love and Death" when I was a child because it simply made me laugh. I even like it more today because every time watching it it reveals more of its subtle humour.