Love and Death (1975)

Into his eighties, Woody Allen is prolific as ever, his annual output has been tenaciously consistent, although these most recent ones seem to have lost his mojo after the unexpected resurgence of plaudits for MIDNIGHT IN Paris (2011) and a Cate Blanchett Oscar-bait showcase BLUE JASMINE (2013).So one might feel more inclined to visit Allen's time-honroured earlier works, LOVE AND DEATH, his sixth feature, a kooky war parody gets certain inspiration from classic Russian novel. During the Napoleonic Wars, Boris Grushenko (Allen), is the weakling of his Russian family, a bookish pacifist, the characteristic Allen-esque persona, pining for his twice-removed cousin Sonja (Keaton), but the latter doesn't reciprocate with the same feeling, apart from their unbidden philosophical babble. When Napoleon (Tolkan, impersonates the personage with po-faced drollness) invades Austria, Boris and his brothers are enlisted in the Russian Army and sent to the front. However incompetent Boris is as a front-line soldier, a ludicrous and scarcely credible plot-device makes him a war hero.Reunited with Sonja, who has just widowed after the departure of her herring merchant husband Voskovec (Frieder), Boris tactfully has his wicked way with a man-eater Countess Alexandrovna (Georges-Picot), and miraculously survives from a duel between him and the latter's enraged lover and marksman Anton (Gould), more significantly, he takes advantage of Sonja's sympathy (who can refuse a man's dying wish?) and they marry eventually although it is to Sonja's great chagrin, according to her ideal theory of love's three aspects: intellectual, spiritual and sensual, Boris has never even been on her to-do list.Time comes to the rescue, Sonja gradually softens her harsh view towards Boris, who instead, is plagued by the notion of suicide, since childhood, death has always fascinated and engrossed him, from his surreal dream of men coming out of coffins, to a chance meeting with the Grim Reaper himself as a child, until a tête-à-tête with a dead soldier in the battleground. Just when their relationship ameliorates and they decide to start a family, Napoleon invades the Russian Empire, Boris proposes to flee, but Sonja broaches a bold plan to assassinate Napoleon out of ire. Together, they impersonate as the visiting Spanish count and his sister, to meet Napoleon at his headquarter in Moscow, but the dispute between murder and moral conscience troubles Boris, when the crunch arrives, can he administer the coup de grâce? Or, is it a death knell for him to finally be take away by the Grim Reaper?Throwaway jest aplenty, gallows humour delights, even the smart-aleck himself candidly confesses "my disgustingness is my best feature", LOVE AND DEATH remarkably buries Allen's usual pedantic pretension one inch beneath the tongue-in-cheek farce, also a full-blown Diane Keaton begins to upstage Allen with her comedic bent and emotive voltage.Blatant homages to Ingmar Bergman's THE SEVENTH SEAL (1957) and PERSONA (1966) aside, the movie also pays tributes to various comedians with slapstick humour and self-conscious doublespeak, adopting a fine selection of passages from modern-classic Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev, LOVE AND DEATH wallows in Woody Allen's idealistic vim and vigour, not his best, but definitely belongs to the brighter side.

After spending the entire Christmas holiday in bed with a burning- hot fever,I decided that I would start the year by looking at the loves and deaths of Woody Allen.The plot:Waiting to be put in front of a firing squad, Boris Grushenko starts to look back on his life.Decades earlier:Despite being the smartest member of the family,Boris finds himself being completely ignored,with Boris secret desire to ask his second cousin Sonja being blown to bits,by Sonja's sudden decision to get married.Telling everyone within ear shot that his not suitable to be a solider,Boris is pushed by his family to join the Russian army,in their fight against Napoleon.Whilst he barely has a clue about how to use weapons,Boris finds himself becoming a war here,after he and 13 others are the only soldiers to have survived a war against the French.With her husband having recently died,Sonja decide,that whilst she may never love him,that Boris is someone that she likes,who she will give her hand in marriage to.Getting set to finally settle down,Boris finds his life to become more hectic than ever,when Sonja hatches a plan to assassinate Napoleon.View on the film:Whilst the European-on location filming was such a joyful experience that lead actor/writer/director Woody Allen would not film out of the US again until 1996's Everyone Says I Love You, (with this movie having Allen try and deal with a crew that barely spoke English,everyone (apart from Allen!) getting food poisoning,a falling out with original studio Fox,constant bad weather,Allen and other cast members getting seriously injured,and to top it all off,the negatives to the battle scenes being damaged,which led to them having to be re-shot!)Allen reveals a surprisingly sharp eye for the vast scope of the films battle scenes,with Allen using tightly held shots to show the "sheep" on the battlefield.Along with casting a wide net for the battle scenes,Allen also smashes down the 4th wall with a stylish force,as Allen goes from showing Boris dreams in a minimalist manner,to Boris & Sonja delivering spidery monologues in front of an unsettling stoic camera.Written after Allen had read War & Peace at a rather quick pace, ("It's about Russians!!") the screenplay takes a perfect approach to the satirising of Russian novels,by skilfully mixing jokes designed for those who have read the books, (such as the ending being a riff on Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment)and those who haven't (such as Boris village looking like the dour dead zones featured on the paperback cover of Russian novels.)Along with satirising Russian novels,Allen makes sure to keep the loves & deaths of Boris at the heart of the movie,with Boris upbringing having a whimsical folk charm which is matched by the slap-stick joy of his attempt to kill Napoleone.Running across the battlefield terrified,Woody Allen gives an excellent performance as Boris,with Allen combining his wicked one- liner delivery with a fantastic hapless nature,as Boris finds things to have gone way over his head.Giving the title a touch of beauty,Diane Keaton gives a superb performance as Sonja,with Keaton casting a warmth across Sonja's face,as she slowly falls in love for Boris,whilst Jessica Harper gives an atmospheric performance as Natasha,as each character discovers their love and death.

I'm a huge Woody Allen's fan, I may not like everything he does, but for this one I bowed to you, sir.I remember seeing a clip of this movie a really long time ago. back then I had no idea which movie it was, later on came Internet and the world shrank and opened.My only reference was that it was Woody's, developed in Russia, and his character's name: Boris.A few years now, I found it, and had the chance to enjoy, (for me), the best movie I've ever seen. Remembering that I even seen this twice in a row, and it was totally worth it.This movie is for all of us who enjoy really good jokes or just like to see quality films.

Love and Death marks a very distinct transitional phase for Woody Allen, being the very last of his oddball comedies and the most sophisticated of them. It combines, essentially for the last time for Allen, incredibly silly puns and one liners that would fit in a Mel Brooks movie ("I think we should divide his letters... do you want the vowels or the consonants?") with clever satire and parody on Bergman and Dostoevsky. It's probably my ignorance in Russian classic literature that prevented me from enjoying it more, but I loved the loving Bergman spoofs and young Woody's quirky, neurotic humor. I can't name it as one of my favorite Allen films but it certainly holds its own as a fresh, hilarious piece.