Just what I expected

Crappy film

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This 1975 movie, both written and directed by Woody Allen, has got to be one of his very best! Starring Allen and Diane Keaton as Boris and Sonja, two Napoleonic era figures who participate in constant philosophical debates with each other! Boris is in love with his twice-removed cousin Sonja, but she is in deeply in love with a herring merchant! When Sonja becomes widowed, she very reluctantly agrees to wed the smitten Boris, only because she believes he is going to be killed in a duel the following day. Much to her chagrin he survives, and they then begin discussing starting a family. But when that plan is interrupted by Napoleon who is looking to invade the Russian Empire, they concoct a scheme to assassinate him!Allen considered this to be one of his funniest movies up until this point (1975). Quite frankly, I think it's one of his funniest movies of all time!

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.

Not quite top 5 Woody Allen but top 10? For me definitely, and of my viewings(which have not been in order of release, very random actually) of his films The Purple Rose of Cairo was the last film of his that got the 10/10 rating. Love and Death is a beautiful-looking film, lush scenery and opulent costumes as well as beautifully shot, of his pre-Annie Hall films Love and Death is his best-looking and quite possibly also among his overall filmography. The music is very memorable and fits perfectly, sprightly, stirring and lush, of the music scores of Allen's films Love and Death is among the favourites. With a script that crackles with wit and quotable lines, truly rewarding references to Bergman, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky(which are easy to spot and get) and fun knockabout comedy set pieces with homages to silent film, Love and Death is among Allen's funniest and insightful films writing-wise. The philosophical stuff Allen includes is very intelligently incorporated and nothing comes across as biased or offensive, Allen has plenty to say and does so in a way that has his style all over it without feeling self-indulgent. The story is enormously entertaining from start to finish, very silly but in an endearing and genuinely hysterical way, once you get the references Love and Death is quite possibly among his most accessible films as well. Allen does a terrific job directing and his performance as a purposefully anachronistic character is just as great. No complaints to be had from the rest of the cast either, Diane Keaton in particular is sublime in one of her better performances in a Woody Allen film. Overall, a fantastic film, his best Pre-Annie Hall film, one of his best films overall and possibly one of his most accessible along with Purple Rose of Cairo and Sleeper. 10/10 Bethany Cox

An underrated masterpiece. An apotheosis to Ingmar Bergman. Funny and intellectual at the same time ( which is something completely normal to every Woody Allen movie, but this one is maybe one of my favorite, followed by Annie Hall, Midnight in Paris and Bullets over Broadway ).I myself am Bulgarian and have always found the Russian culture extraordinary and extremely sophisticated. The parody with all the greatest Russian authors came to me as a best surprise.Some eternal questions ( mostly about love and death. But there were some about love, too ) contribute to become this film an amazing piece of art.10/10.