“Sleeper,” Woody Allen’s highly inventive parody, spoofs the sci-fi movie genre, classic dystopian novels, and of course screwball and slapstic comedy (from the silent and sound eras).
This film followed such light and forthy–essentially plotless–comedies as “Take the Money and Run,” Bananas,” “Everying You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask.”
Made five years after the “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Sleeper” not only parodies Kubrick’s seminal picture; there’s a cameo by Douglas Rain as an evil computer, spoofing HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey.” It also caricaturizes sci-fi books, such as George Orwell’s “1984” and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.”
Stylistically, the movie alludes to, and borrows from, slapstick silent comedy (Buster Keaton, Chaplin, slipping on a giant banana peel.), and, of course, the Marx Brothers whose work Allen has professed to admire.
An auteurist work, “Sleeper” was directed, co-written, and stars Allen, who for this picture also composed the soundtrack.
The plot?
Allen plays Miles Monroe, a jazz clarinet musician and owner of a Greenwich Village health food store, who all of a sudden finds himself in the future, circa 2173.
It turns out he was getting a treatment for ulcer in a New York hospital. When the operation fails, the doctors put him into the deep freeze.His first steps after waking from a long sleep is to stagger around like “Frankenstein.”
Miles is thought to be a subversive alien by the totalitarian regime, suspected of aiming to overthrow its dictator. To prevent his capture, he disguises himself as a robot. The chase scenes that follow include some hilariously funny slapstick scenes, in which he outwits the cops, giant computers and robots—and practically every and any possible threat.
Miles’ romantic interest is the eccentric Luna Schlosser, a rich, pretentious intellectual, played by Diane Keaton, Allen’s muse and real-life companion at the time. Jointly, they try to kill the wheel-chaired dictator, who holds a white dog.
There are many sight gags, some of which physical in the manner of a silent comedy of Buster Keaton. In what would become a prophetic image, the McDonald’s logo shows trillions of hamburgers sold
There are witty barbs aimed at contemporary issues and figures. An observer remarks, “It’s hard to believe that you haven’t had sex for two hundred years.” “Two hundred and four, if you count my marriage, Allen corrects him,
“What ever happened to Norman Mailer?” someone asks. To which Allen responds, “He donated his ego to science.”
“Sex and death. Two things that come once in a lifetime. But at least after death you’re not nauseous.”
Allen even pays tribute to Tennessee Williams’ best known drama and movie, “A Streetcar Named Desire,” with him playing Vivien Leigh’s Blanche DuBois and Diane Keaton as Brando’s Stanley Kowalski
Despite its necessarily fragmented nature, “Sleeper” is a tight, well-edited picture by pro Ralph Rosenblum. Joel Schumacher, who designed the costumes for the film, later became a writer and a director.
Cast
Miles Monroe (Woody Allen)
Luna Schlosser (Diane Keaton)
Erno Windt (John Beck)
Dr. Nero (Marya Small)
Dr. Orva (Bartlett Robinson)
Dr. Melik (Mary Gregory)
Rainer Krebs (Chris Forbes)
Dr. Dean (Peter Hobbs)
Jeb Hrmyhmg (Spencer Milligan)
Sears Wiggles (Stanley Ralph Ross)
Credits:
Produced by Jack Grossberg
Directed by Woody Allen
Screenplay: Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman
Camera: David M. Walsh
Editor: Ralph Rosenblum
Music: Woody Allen
Production design: Dale Hennesy
Art direction: Dianne Wager
F/X: A.D. Flowers, Jerry Endler
Costumes: Joel Schumacher
Running time: 88 Minutes
