The Master's Eye

Rating: 9/10 (19 May 1999)

I thank the world for Woody Allen. Whatever his weirdness and personal problems, he is one of those people who sees the insanity, the beauty, and the possibilities of everything we are. He is the humble commentator who can take the familiar and push it to the nth degree and do it with style. "Love and Death" was part of his heyday. He takes on the entire history of Russia, Dostoevsky, Pasternak, Eisenstein, and Tolstoy, and plays with every nuance that is available. Boris is the same cowardly creature that bumbles his way through all of life, but like Groucho Marx, he always knows when he comes upon the moment.
I would just like to talk about some of my favorite scenes, and these are far from complete:
When they drop the village idiot, whom they have adopted, at the Village Idiot's Convention. There are a huge group of similar figures, dancing around, their fingers in their mouths.
The eating of snow to survive the Zhivago winter.
The little piece of land.
The long philosophical discussion that ends in their saying that all they ever talk about is sex.
The meeting with the countess, the destroyed room from a blistering sexual encounter. Yet, five minutes have passed on the clock.
Sonja's willingness to marry Boris only if he can assure her that he will be killed the next day.
The slapstick attempt to kill the Emperor.
The visual quotations from all the great Russian films; especially reversing the positions of the lion statues from standing to sitting; the opposite of Eisenstein in Potemkin.
I could go on, but I just need to say that this is one of those films that grow more wonderful, the more you know. Woody Allen did this when he was less filled with angst and more of an observer of what culture has blessed us with. No one could parody like Woody Allen and this is a masterpiece.