One of Woody Allen's best films, a very funny parody of Russian novels like Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. It is distinctly shorter than a novel, but packs a lot of very funny lines. It has discussion of moral philosophy as well as God, love, death, and sex. This film is least like Allen's other films, mostly because it is set in the 17th century. The idea of the story is that three Russian brothers are sent off to fight against Napoleon and the Russians win by accident. It is less about the plot and more about the dialogue that attempts to be overly philosophical and ends up just being hilarious. If you are going to see only one Woody Allen film, this would be high on the list.
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Sometimes I worry that I've lost the plot. My twitchin' muscles tease my flippant thoughts. I never really dreamed of heaven much until we put him in the ground, but it's all I'm doing now - listening for patterns in the sound of an endless static sea. ~ Conor Oberst
This site is now (mostly) an archive of my writing on film from November 2004 - May 2008. I will link to my articles elsewhere and post the occasional Twitter review.
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We are lonesome animals. We spend all of our life trying to be less lonesome. One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say-and to feel- ‘Yes, that is the way it is, or at least that is the way I feel it.’ You’re not as alone as you thought. —John Steinbeck
2 comments:
This film is beyond funny. Any time IFC shows it, I'm there. You still might check out Husbands and Wives when you have a chance...
I'm still trying reconcile what, if anything, Woody is saying when the angel visits and says he'll be pardoned, but he receives no pardon... is that Woody's existential critique, or just a way to end the film?
Paul
It's probably both. I think it is also the irony that everything has worked out so well without divine intervention up to this point, that when it does arrive it has the opposite effect as it would in Dostoevsky, it is deception rather than truth. It might also be Boris seeing what he wants to see. You had to know that death was going "to bother" and make sure they met again.
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