Good Woody

Rating: 8/10 (14 September 2008)

It's an odd thing to experience art fresh and then re-experience it with greater knowledge about it and its sources. As example, as a Woody Allen fan I'd watched his terrific 1975 satire Love And Death, filmed in Hungary and France, probably ten or twelve times, fully getting all the references to Fyodor Dostoevsky's and Leo Tolstoy's works, but I had never been in the position of viewing the film having knowledge of all the sly European cinema references; especially those which poke fun at Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman's canon.
Love And Death was the last 'purely comedic' Woody Allen film before he entered his great Golden Age, starting with 1977's Annie Hall and ending with 1992's Husbands And Wives. It was a romp, or as one of the aliens in 1980's Stardust Memories said, 'We enjoy your films. Particularly the early, funny ones.' It was also a great showcase of his comedic talents in synch with those of Diane Keaton. No other foil- male nor female, has ever come close to the chemistry that duo exhibited. Of course, like almost all his films, Allen wrote, as well as directed this film. and it represented a step up from his earlier works, like Bananas, Take The Money And Run, or SleeperÂ…. The film succeeds and holds relevance today because its references and humor are timeless, but also because it works whether you get the references or not. Thus, it is both low and high comedy, and no one has ever done that better than Woody Allen- be it getting shot out of a canon, or psychobabbling with Diane Keaton over objectivity vs. subjectivity. Yes, it is not as deep and alternately hilarious as later Allen masterpieces like Hannah And Her Sisters or Crimes And Misdemeanors, but it is every bit as enjoyable, and that's more than can be said for the bulk of films out there. Just ask your Village Idiot!