OH MY GOSH!!!!!!! Shandor!!!!! I can't believe it!!!!! I'm dropping everything and watching this right now! THANK YOU!!!!!!!! I'm blown away! I never thought I'd see a reaction to this!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!
It’s a movie that is Dostoyevski (there is a list of Dostoyevski titles in Boris’s conversation with his father in jail, for example) and Tolstoy as seen through the lens of Bergman. My favorite of his early, pre-Annie Hall, silly comedies, I’ve probably seen it 30 times. Great reaction. You have the perfect aesthetic for Woody’s films.
I had, like another commenter, thought of it as a parody of War and Peace, especially near the end when they're rattling off facts about characters we haven't heard of. But The Seventh Seal is a good thought, too, especially since Allen is a fan of Bergman. His movie Hannah and Her Sisters included Bergman's favorite actor, Max von Sydow.
Nice to see another Allen film. Keep ‘em coming. For sure there was some references to “The Seventh Seal” and the shot of the almost merging faces was referencing another Bergman film “Persona” Looking forward to more.
You should review and watch Woody's dystopian comedy, "Sleeper", (1973), also with Diane Keaton, about a jazz musician and vegetarian deli owner (Allen, who else?) who goes into the hospital for a simple operation and wakes up 200 years in the future in a technocratic medicratic police state where they hunt down those who don't conform. I think it's my favorite of all the Allen movies, it so brilliantly and wittily satirizes the genre and all to that great jazz score, I think you'd really like it.
This is my Favourite Woody Allen Film! If you're up on Napoleonic History and Russian Literature this might be the Funniest Movie of all time! .... Almost every Line is a Clever Joke!
This has long been one of my favorite movies! Sort of an Ingmar Bergman/Marx Brothers version of War and Peace with plenty of existential philosophy mixed in...makes perfect sense!
Great choice of movie and great commentary. Many, if not most, reactors are terrified to be the first one to react to a movie. Clearly, you are not. Hey, you might want to check out Woody Allen's "Annie Hall." It's the same type of humor.
This is my second favorite movie of Woody's. His (1993) Manhattan Murder Mystery ((not his (1979) Manhattan movie)) is my favorite. A comedy/mystery again pairs Woody and Diane. Not as silly but is brilliant. Always loved Woody's writing and directing. As always, enjoyed your reaction of Love and Death.
Fantastic, fantastic reaction. You were the most perfect reactor I can think of for this wild (and underrated!) comedy classic! You got it. You totally got it. And yeah, Woody LOVES Bergman! Many of his movies are sort of comedic versions of Bergman films, at least in part. (Fellini also) This was the last of his early "silly" comedies, the ones that first got him famous. I totally love this movie, it was the second one of his I had seen. I was only six, but I was mesmerized by it! The film before this, "Sleeper" is another great one, it takes place in the future! A futuristic sci-fi comedy! Then he made this period piece! Brilliant! After "Love And Death" he started one of his greatest eras, the more mature work of "Annie Hall", "Manhattan" and "Stardust Memories". Then he made a string of yet more classics with Mia Farrow, each one completely different: "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy", "Broadway Danny Rose", "The Purple Rose Of Cairo", "Hannah And Her Sisters", "Radio Days", "Crimes And Misdemeanors" and "Husbands And Wives" (and other films as well). Then he reunited with Diane Keaton for one last movie "Manhattan Murder Mystery". After that, I'm not a big fan of his work, it just took a step down for me. But every one of those movies I just mentioned, you will absolutely enjoy and they're the bedrock of his reputation. They're all unified by Woody Allen and Diane Keaton or Mia Farrow....and fantastic cinematography. All are classics. (His early ones too: Take The Money And Run, Bananas, Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex, and Sleeper, those are all great. Obviously some are greater than others, but you'll be happy you watched every single one of them, I promise!!! Just as much as this one! THANK YOU SHANDOR! i will rewatch this reaction, many times!
PS: If "Play It Again Sam" is your favorite movie of his so far, then you are going to LOVE "Annie Hall". His early films are 100% jokes. Starting with "Annie Hall", the films are much more complex, and sometimes overlapping with real drama. After this, it's much more multi-dimensional. ("Play It Again Sam" had been a play, that's why it's not as wild as his other early work).
I love Woody Allen's existential humor. My favorite of his movies is Bullets Over Broadway (1994). He's not in it but the main character, a writer played by John Cusack, is unequivocally his voice, and the movie centers around this hypothetical posed early on: "Let's say there was a burning building and you could rush in and you could save only one thing: either the last known copy of Shakespeare's plays or some anonymous human being. What would you do?" It looks at the point of view of the artist creating his/her own moral universe. Naturally all the characters have a different way of answering that question. Also, Jennifer Tilly won an Oscar for it and she is (chef's kiss) as Olive, the girlfriend of the ganster who's putting up the money for the play they're putting on. It's one of the few movies I consider to be nearly perfect.
I hope you continue your Woody Allen journey on this channel! His movies cover such a wide range of styles and moods - from very silly to very dramatic and everything in between. Love and Death is one of my favorites because it strikes a great balance. (And just the idea of placing Woody Allen with his glasses and hair and New York accent in the middle of Tsarist Russia is hilarious to me.) A few of my other favorite Woody Allen films are Sleeper, Annie Hall, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Hannah and her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Bullets Over Broadway...
14:45 Dude! Every movie has one bit that is esoteric, and you missed it. "I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas." Ah, too melodramatic. Only later did I realize that it was T.S. Elliot.
2:43 I agree. I was 20 years old when this movie sparked something in my brain. I'm 61 now and just figured out Kant a couple years ago. It took my 41 years to understand him.
2:05 This bit here got my brain roiling. Because it's not gibberish though spoken fast enough so you can't quite understand and will nod your head trying not to appear dull. The dialogue by Keaton is Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.
Woody Allen movies post Annie Hall were made by man who became jaded and didn't care that he was not associated with the naive characters he portrayed.
Really the only one? Just out of interest how many have you seen, and have you seen more of his 70’s era films? If not, deffo check out more from this era.