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Love and Death

1975

Action / Comedy / War

25
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 100% · 25 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 90% · 10K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.6/10 10 42589 42.6K

russia napoleon bonaparte duel execution napoleonic wars wheat

Plot summary

In czarist Russia, a neurotic soldier and his distant cousin formulate a plot to assassinate Napoleon.

Director

Woody Allen Photo
Woody Allen

Top cast

Diane Keaton Photo
Diane Keaton as Sonja
Woody Allen Photo
Woody Allen as Boris
James Tolkan Photo
James Tolkan as Napoleon
Jessica Harper Photo
Jessica Harper as Natasha
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
707.54 MB
1280*694
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles
23.976 fps
1 hr 25 min
Seeds 3
1.34 GB
1920*1040
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles
23.976 fps
1 hr 25 min
Seeds 19

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Cineanalyst 7 / 10

An Unlikely Pairing: Allen's Farce and the Russian Novel

"Love and Death" is one of Woody Allen's "early, funny ones," before he made darker and more serious films, such as "Stardust Memories" (1980) where Allen's line about his own oeuvre originates. He made "Annie Hall" (1977) next, and his career would never be the same. On the other hand, being a parody of 19th-century Russian literature, "Love and Death" is full of esoteric references. The major throughline is Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace," but there's enough Fyodor Dostoevsky here for me to have reviewed it as part of my mission to see a bunch of "Crime and Punishment" pictures after reading the book. Moreover, Allen would go on to make three movies (thus far) more heavily and singularly inspired by this particular novel: "Crimes and Misdemeanors" (1989), "Match Point" (2005) and "Irrational Man" (2015). It's interesting to compare how he went from "Love and Death," which is non-stop comedic frivolity complete with a gag being performed at every moment to "Match Point," where there are no jokes.Indeed, "Love and Death" is not only an homage to literature, but also to early screen comics. There's even a scene where the sound goes out for some silent slapstick, and the fourth-wall-breaking absurdity of the whole thing seems to be especially indebted to the Marx Brothers. As for the Russian connection, though, there are extended mock-philosophical discussions, angst over the existence of God, somber soliloquies, multiple suitors and lovers for everyone, subplots upon subplots and periphery character galore, a lot to do with class and nationality, and... wheat, I guess. (I love that in a blog post from Alistair Ian Blyth that one of my favorite films of the 1910s, "After Death" (1915), which is based on the prose of Ivan Turgenev, is brought up to help explain the supposed importance of wheat in Russian literature.)Some of the Dostoevsky references are obvious. Allen has a conversation in a jail cell that entirely exists of characters and titles from his stories, including some gossip about a local named "Raskolnikov" who murdered two women. Additionally, Diane Keaton's character is named "Sonja," the hooker with a heart of gold who instigates Raskolnikov's regeneration in the book. "Love and Death" offers the best character summary of Sonja, though, from her own lips: "I'm half saint, half wh-re" (IMDb censorship, you know). And, naturally, Allen plays the atheistic foil to her pious promise land. Best of all, however, is how the connection with Napoleon between "War and Peace" and "Crime and Punishment" is exploited in this film with two other words surrounding the conjunction. Sonja decides that she and Allen's Boris should kill Napoleon for the benefit of humanity, which is akin to the rationale of Raskolnikov for murdering the pawnbroker. Ironically, Napoleon was also his role model for this "extraordinary" act. Boris mixes up the roles further by comparing himself to an insect, which is what Raskolnikov said of the pawnbroker, and claiming Napoleon as a great man. Looking at the parodic adaptation this way gives one as much whiplash as Allen and Keaton's philosophical repartee. To top it off, there are two Napoleons.There are some allusions to non-comedic films here, too. The ones to "Battleship Potemkin" (1925) and "Persona" (1966) seemed most conspicuous to me. Although "Love and Death" is a lightweight affair, and the jokes are hit and miss, it rewards those who've seen and read what it parodies. And, admittedly, Russian novels such as "Crime and Punishment" were just asking for this sort of loving pillory.
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Reviewed by ma-cortes 7 / 10

Fun satire on ¨War and peace¨ and other novels , being compellingly written , played and directed by Woody Allen

This movie is considered to be a spoof of Russian Novels . It is set in czarist Russia, 1812 , a neurotic Boris Grushenko (Woody Allen) wishes to marry his distant cousin (Diane Keaton) . Although both of whom take two divergent ways in their lives, those paths cross once again . When Napoleon threatens to invade the Russian Empire, the coward soldier is forced to enlist to save his natal nation . Later on , Boris and his lover cousin formulate a scheme to assassinate Napoleon (James Tolkan) . At the end he is detained and the condemned man reviews his past life .

Amusing picture fable is plenty of the filmmaker's signature angst-ridden philosophical comedy . Hilarity slips into vulgarity rather too often in this usually in-and-out early Woody Allen comedy which embroils the little man in Russia invaded by Napoleon . Like a Russian soldier , the gags and funny sketches fire off in all directions . There is a lot of spoofs and even Bergman's ¨The seventh seal¨ and ¨Persona¨ and jokes for moviegoers . As the movie featured the Death character of The Grim Reaper , Allen is known to be inspired and influenced by Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman who had featured the Grim Reaper in his film The seventh seal (1957) ; in the Bergman film the Grim Reaper wears black robes whereas in this film he wears a white gown . The picture is ironical about major Russian novels particularly the works of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky . In fact , the movie title is a play on words of such Russian novel titles as Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace" and Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" . Nice acting by Woody Allen at his best , as a condemned man who reviews the follies of his life . His comic style paid homage to a number of classic comedians which included Bob Hope , Charles Chaplin and The Marx Brothers . Intermittently hilarious , pre-Annie Hall Allen fare , it is is one of eight cinema movie collaborations of Woody Allen and actress Diane Keaton, Allen co-starring in six of them and directing seven of them . These are the followings : Play It Again Sam , Sleeper , Interiors , Manhattan , Radio Days , and Manhattan Murder Mystery . It is fun enough to make wish there were more of it and you will have to keep your eyes peeled to spot notorious secondaries as Jessica Harper , Harold Gould , Olga Georges Picot , Féodor Atkine , Gérard Buhr , Howard Vernon and James Tolkan as Napoleón and his double and about ¨fifty-four supporting players" .

Witty as well as classical musical score contributes much . At the beginning the soundtrack was taken from Igor Stravinsky music , but , subsequently , Woody Allen took Sergei Prokofiev's lighthearted score that worked far better . The movie's big battle sequence features Sergei Prokofiev's cantata music from Sergei M. Eisenstein's epic Alexánder Nevsky (1938). Colorful as well as evocative cinematography by Ghislain Cloquet , being shot on location in Hungary and Paris , France . Lavish and stunningly produced by Charles H. Joffe , Allen's ordinary producer . This enjoyable motion picture was vigorously directed by Woody Allen , being his sixth film as director and here to ridicule Russian novels such as "The Idiot", "The Gambler", "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina", "Crime and Punishment", and "The Brothers Karamazov". Woody Allen has said that this movie was "my funniest picture to that time".

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