The satire and film genre of parody has been used for good and for evil. There are some brilliant parodies, such as Mel Brooks’ satire on the class monster movies, Young Frankenstein, while others, such as any film that’s title ends in movie are less than perfect. In my opinion the most brilliant example of parody, is Woody Allen’s Love and Death. The film lovingly makes fun of Russian literature, philosophy, and the films of Ingmar Bergman. All of those topics aren’t exactly what most people would think of as good material for parody, and that’s exactly what makes the film so brilliant.

The basic plot is that Woody Allen’s character Boris is in love with his cousin Sonja. After Sonja marries his brother he goes off to war. By pure chance he becomes a hero. He eventually marries Sonja, and they decide they have to try and assassinate Napoleon. But as in most early Woody Allen films, plot doesn’t really matter. The film is much more a collection of skits filled with a wonderful combination of jokes and obscure references.

Anyone who has read the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky would clearly appreciate this film due to the many references. I sadly have only read one book a piece from both of these authors, but even I was picking up on usage of character names, and parodies of different novels. Once I have dove further into the works of these two masters I am sure I will be able to appreciate this film even more.

Philosophy is made fun of constantly with phrases like, “A: Socrates is a man. B: All men are mortal. C: All men are Socrates. That means all men are homosexuals. Heh… I’m not a homosexual.” Also many characters participate in discussions that appear to just be filled with meaningless complicated words, which shows the absurdity of philosophers and philosophical discussion, such as, “So who is to say what is moral?” “Morality is subjective.” “Subjectivity is objectivity.” “Moral notions imply attributes to substances which exist only in relational duality.” “Not as an essential extension of ontological existence” “Can we not talk about sex so much?” But of course it ends with a joke.

The films of Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, are obviously being parodied with lines like “I never want to marry. I just want to get divorced.” The film also shows the character of death which is a direct send up to Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. In addition the famous shot of two faces from Persona is directly stolen in the film.

I will admit that one of the joys of the film is getting all of the little references, but Woody Allen has always been the comedian for intellectuals. In all of his films he makes biblical references, mentions obscure philosophers, and discusses art-house films. Yet for each intelligent joke, there is an immature sex joke. And this balance is what makes him so brilliant and so funny.