Sleeper
| Year: | 1973 |
| Director: | Woody Allen |
| Writer: | Woody Allen |
| Cast: | Woody Allen, Diane Keaton |
I've always been something of a Woody Allen fan, and now that most critics agree he's more or less gone off the rails and is only just crawling back with Melinda and Melinda, I was interested to see what his really early stuff was like.
One thing you can say about Allen is he's mostly played the same character throughout his career - presumably himself. He's the same neurotic Jewish New York nerd here he has been ever since.
But Sleeper features a much thicker story against which Allen plays out his characterisations and their tangled, fraught relationships. In all his more modern movies, he's been much more interested in the latter and focused less on an actual narrative.
A health food store owner Miles, he's bought out of cryogenic sleep centuries in the future where scientists want to train him to lead a rebellion against an oppressive government where he meets vivacious future flower girl Luna (Keaton) and tries to stay out of the way of the fearsome secret police.
Partly signature Allen witticisms on the state of society, partly a quite well thought out picture of the future, and containing a lot more overt and slapstick comedy than just his trademark dialogue.
One thing you can say about Allen is he's mostly played the same character throughout his career - presumably himself. He's the same neurotic Jewish New York nerd here he has been ever since.
But Sleeper features a much thicker story against which Allen plays out his characterisations and their tangled, fraught relationships. In all his more modern movies, he's been much more interested in the latter and focused less on an actual narrative.
A health food store owner Miles, he's bought out of cryogenic sleep centuries in the future where scientists want to train him to lead a rebellion against an oppressive government where he meets vivacious future flower girl Luna (Keaton) and tries to stay out of the way of the fearsome secret police.
Partly signature Allen witticisms on the state of society, partly a quite well thought out picture of the future, and containing a lot more overt and slapstick comedy than just his trademark dialogue.