Guerre et amour

Another irresistible mix of comedy, satire and romance from Woody Allen. This time with music by Prokofiev. I was thrilled by the scene in which the commander lectures the soldiers that if the Russians kill more French, they win, and conversely if the French kill more Russians, then they will win. When Allen's character responded to this speech with the perfectly natural question "They're gonna win what?", I knew I was going to love this movie. And there was still about an hour to go! (05/01/2014)

My uncritical self would probably write that this is an excellent satirical comedy, where 5 out of 10 jokes cause dangerous fits of laughter, that the dialogues have wonderful flow and juice, and that the dishevelled Woody Allen is unbeatable for his role. But my critical self would counter that it's a far-fetched piece of crap where 5 out of 10 jokes come across as stilted and contrived, that the juicy dialogues are in many cases the epitome of stupidity, and that Allen is a complete moron whose character is hidden behind a bunch of big talk and moralising. And taking one side would mean partially defining the style of appraisal for Woody's other films, which would be a bit unfair, and also further elaborating on the "why, what and how". I will remain neutral this time and keep this confrontation with Woody's famous being and non-being indefinitely in the "Second Chance" folder. Then we'll see. :-) (22/08/2013)

Film criticism does place other pieces of Allen's work above Love and Death, but for me, it is in first place. It is a matter of the heart because Allen parodies literature and films that I know intimately and grew up with. This film will be appreciated by those who have read War and Peace, as poor Lev Tolstoy receives the most mockery, but in general, anyone who has read classical and romantic thick novels from the 19th century and seen historical epics from the 60s. Allen is at the peak of his condition here and literally brims with humor in the style of college pranks and caustic intellectual sarcasm. Pleasantly short length. Overall impression: 95%. (14/01/2008)

It was a lot of fun. After not getting anything out of a couple of his films, I crossed Woody Allen from the list of directors I would follow, but after this I think I will give him another chance. (08/06/2011)

Woody Allen once again used his main weapons in Love and Death – a ridiculously ugly face, sarcasm, and perfect knowledge of the plot of classical literature, which he turned into a wood shed without piety. Parodies of the broad Russian soul, overly philosophized novels and historical feature films sometimes break into complete farce (again, one cannot fail to notice Allen's fondness for grotesque, but at the same time it is necessary to draw a parallel with the paradoxical exaggeration of the Monty Python school). Allen, on the one hand, takes advantage of the exaggerated "canceling" of the environment, while on the other hand, we have the performance of a purely "Allenian" main character, full of uncertainty, ridiculousness, self-parody, and an inferiority complex. Love and Death, in its short passage, will perhaps step on many stereotypes of historical and war films (Kubrick's Barry Lyndon was filmed in the same year, by the way – see the scene with the pistol duel :o))), yet I cannot say that I was just having fun the entire time. There were many dead spots, but in the end it is impossible not to appreciate the aptness with which the cannonball of Allen's humor hits the genre dusters and causes them to explode. (28/09/2005)