Love and Death
Directed by Woody Allen
Written by Woody Allen
1975/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant
Sonja: Oh don’t, Boris, please. Sex without love is an empty experience.
Boris: Yes, but as empty experiences go, it’s one of the best.
Woody Allen is still working up to Annie Hall levels of story telling in this hit-or-miss gag fest spoofing War and Peace and a bit of Bergman.
Boris (Allen) is a cowardly, wise-cracking Russian peasant. He is in love with his cousin Sonja (Diane Keaton) who loves his brother and, eventually, everybody in St. Petersburg after she marries a smelly herring merchant when the brother marries somebody else. Sonja is a psuedo-intellectual and has long nonsensical conversation with Boris and others.
Boris is drafted to fight in the war with France. He accidentally becomes a hero. During a lull in the war, he has a one-night stand with a Countess. Her fiancé challenges him to a duel. On the eve of the fight, which he expects to lose, he asks Sonja to marry him. She agrees figuring she has nothing to lose. When Boris prevails, she goes through with the ceremony. Eventually she falls in love with him.
Sonja decides that the two should assassinate Napoleon. Boris is not enthusiastic to say the least but goes along with the plan.
This has a high IMDb user rating but it did not wow me on original release or on this latest viewing. There are some funny gags and Allen’s technical proficiency is clearly growing.
