Love And Death
"Truly original filmmaking. Wonderfully funny. Allen's new movie is his best." -New York Magazine
Woody Allen reinvents himself again with the epic historical satire that is a "wonderfully funny and eclectic distillation of the Russian literary soul" (New York Magazine). One of his most visual, philosophical and elaborately conceived films, Love and Death "demonstrates again that [Allen] is an authentic comedy genius" (Cosmopolitan).
Cowardly scholar Boris Grushenko (Allen) has the hots for the beautiful Sonja (Diane Keaton), but cold feet for the Napoleonic Wars. Devastated by news of Sonja's plans to wed a foul-smelling herring merchant, Boris enlists in the army -- only to return home a penniless hero! Finally agreeing to marry him, Sonja settles down with poor Boris, to a rich life of philosophy, celibacy and meals...of snow. But when the French troops invade Russia and Sonja hatches a zany scheme to assassinate Napoleon, Boris learns -- in a hilarious but fatal coup attempt -- that God is an underachiever, there are no girls in the afterlife...and that the angel of death can't be trusted!
Member Reviews
Couldn't stop laughing - ShawnConnery
Watched Broadway Danny Rose and laughed every minute. Thought Woody Allen couldn't get any funnier until I watched this, where I laughed every 3.4 seconds. Woody Allen and Diane Keaton are perfect, his humour (except for the sexual) is bizarrely wonderful, and the screenplay is definitely one of the best in this type of comedy.Absurdly Lovely - FilmJunkie
I was beginning to question whether or not I really do love Woody Allen movies as much as I think I do, and then this little treat came along and assured me that Allen is a genius.
This film deals with the modern existential dilemma of life, love and death set in Czarist Russia during the Napoleonic Wars. Allen plays Boris, a man forced into the war and many other strange situations when all he really wants to do is marry his cousin ("twice removed") Sonia (the angelic Diane Keaton). It is equal parts absurdity and Fellini homage, a feat that could only really be attempted by Allen.
Allen struts through this comedy like Buster Keaton with Groucho Marx's humour and the sensibility of a writer raised on Sid Caesar (as Allen was). He is the pathetic little man, like Keaton, who is able to acheive greatness with a sparkling wit and scandalous double entendre, like Marx, and make a scathing cultural commentary, like Caesar, at the same time.
Diane Keaton matches Allen with her own brand of absurdity. Where Mia Farrow is Allen's neurotic muse and Scarlett Johansson seems now to be his sexual muse, Keaton is, undoubtedly, his comedic and intellectual muse. There is one scene (pictured below) in which the two of them are caught in the same frame bouncing back and forth through their subconscious melodrama that it pure ridiculous hilarity.
It seems like it wouldn't work, but it is one of my favorite Allen comedies.Woody sends up Russian cinema / literature - Superdave
Back when Woody Allen movies actually sought to entertain, this was one of the best. The familiar Woody nebbish is caught up in the sweep of historical events paralleling those in War and Peace. Typically, Woody is the reluctant hero and revolutionary. He would rather pursue the promiscuous Diane Keaton, than fight in the Napoleonic Wars, but he cannot avoid his comic destiny in this romp which has many clever references to famous Russian films and novels, notably the 1968 Sergei Bonderchuk version of War and Peace and the silent 1925 Battleship Potemkin.
Member Reviews
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Couldn't stop laughing - ShawnConnery
Watched Broadway Danny Rose and laughed every minute. Thought Woody Allen couldn't get any funnier until I watched this, where I laughed every 3.4 seconds. Woody Allen and Diane Keaton are perfect, his humour (except for the sexual) is bizarrely wonderful, ...Absurdly Lovely - FilmJunkie
I was beginning to question whether or not I really do love Woody Allen movies as much as I think I do, and then this little treat came along and assured me that Allen is a genius.
This film deals with the modern existential dilemma of life, love and ...Woody sends up Russian cinema / literature - Superdave
Back when Woody Allen movies actually sought to entertain, this was one of the best. The familiar Woody nebbish is caught up in the sweep of historical events paralleling those in War and Peace. Typically, Woody is the reluctant hero and revolutionary. He ...