Sleeper (1973)

USA
written and directed by: Woody Allen
starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, John Beck
comment: 14th August, 2015

-"You must understand that everyone you knew in the past has been dead nearly two hundred years." -"But they all ate organic rice!"

It is a rather frenzied tornado of uncoordinated ideas, or at least that's my impression. Allusions of silent slapstick comedy, and especially Chaplin's "Modern Times", are strong and omnipresent. I've always wanted to use the word "allusion" in a sentence, so I hope I've done it properly. But it's hard for me to take this film "seriously" because Woody's been squeezing out his works so rapidly they sort of all blend into one vague shape and although some ideas may be interesting, eventually it all just seems as a make-believe play between some friends in a park on a Saturday afternoon. You can sense a creative mind behind it, but it's like only a required minimal amount of thoroughness was put into shaping the result. It does not feel like the makers put their heart into it, and that's hard for me to process, especially since it's a film about fighting for freedom. Maybe that's the point and Woody doesn't believe in fighting or freedom, but that would still be a no from me. But I do have to add that the thing I appreciated about "Sleeper" the most was the immitation of Marlon and Vivien.