Love and Death is also a comedy by
New York director,
Woody Allen, and stars himself, alongside
Diane Keaton and James Tolkan.
Released in 1975, Allen plays Boris Grushenko a cowardly serf drafted into the war against Napoleon, when all he'd rather do is write poetry and obsess over his beautiful but pretentious cousin, Sonja. Sonja’s fine with this, as she’s not attracted to Boris at all electing instead to marry a herring salesman. So, taking his collection of butterflies with him, Boris heads for boot camp.
From the start of his training, Boris is quite obviously 'different' to the other soldiers. When the rest of the soldiers visit a brothel, Boris visits the opera, and his lampooning of the drill sergeant is hilarious. These differences also show in battle, and when all of his comrades charge towards the French army to their deaths, Boris hides in a cannon. This cowardly streak serves him well when he is fired into a tent of French officers, instantly killing them and making him making him a national hero.
Upon his return, he gets into some trouble with Countess Alexandrovna,
and her marksman lover challenges him to a duel.
In a moment of weakness, his cousin agrees to marry him thinking he'll be killed in the duel, but miraculously he survives, and the pair move into a cottage together and when war breaks out again the couple must hatch a ludicrous plot to assassinate Napoleon, which involves them impersonating Spanish Royalty, in order to keep Boris out of yet another war.
The film spoofs everyone from Kafka to Tolstoy, and mercilessly parodies Sergei M. Eisensteins classic, Battleship Potemkin.
As is typical of Woody Allens work, this film contains some fantastic quotes, some of which are shown below :-
Sonja: Judgment of any system, or a priori relationship or phenomenon exists in an irrational, or metaphysical, or at least epistemological contradiction to an abstract empirical concept such as being, or to be, or to occur in the thing itself, or of the thing itself.
Boris: Yes, I've said that many times.
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Boris: I have no fear of the gallows.
Father: No?
Boris: No. Why should I? They're going to shoot me.
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Sonja: There are many different kinds of love, Boris. There's love between a man and a woman; between a mother and son...
Boris: Two women. Let's not forget my favorite.