Love and Death (1975) is Woody Allen’s sixth outing as director.
This movie breaks from tradition in that it doesn’t open with Dixieland jazz playing over black-and-white credits. This time around it’s Mussorgsky’s The Great Gate at Kiev from Pictures at an Exhibition over black-and-white credits.
But not breaking from tradition are two of Woody’s favorite cinematic themes: love and death.
My favorite parts of the movie are:
- Woody’s voiceover narration, which is witty and clever. As usual.
- Woody as a child: “I recall my first mystical vision. I was walking through the woods thinking about Christ. If he was a carpenter I wondered what he’d charge for book shelves.” (Suddenly, the young lad encounters Death.)
- The philosophical debates conducted in earnest seriousness despite the incongruity of the setting.
- The opera scene with Woody flirting with Countess Alexandrovna, played by Olga Georges-Picot, a French actress who committed suicide on 19 June 1997. She was 57.
Death is a recurring topic in Woody Allen movies. So is a protagonist with Continue reading