Der Schläfer (1973)

Der Schläfer: Directed by Woody Allen. With Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, John Beck, Mary Gregory. A nerdish store owner is revived out of cryostasis into a future world to fight an oppressive government.

“We are blessed that Woody was around, making movies as interesting as this when he was.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlready with this one, he began his vast exploration of movie techniques and devices that would last 25 years or so.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe idea is simple in this one: he wanted to use film slapstick from a bygone era. How better to situate that than to move the whole picture into a future era?u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWe have some truly classic stuff here. The banana joke, The mirror joke. The robot pantomime. The acting out of the Jewish dinner (done in later movies too). The inflated man joke. You can find all these in any number of Keaton. Marx, Laurel u0026amp; Hardy movies.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe unifying string of time travel, a romance, the leader and his nose is too weak to make this a solidly recommended outing. And it wouldnu0026#39;t be for a couple years until Woody cared about the cinematography at all.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI had forgotten how pretty Diane Keaton was. Very.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eTedu0026#39;s Evaluation — 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.”