Love and Death (1975)

Very best movie i ever watch

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

The trick behind making a comedy like this, is to at least give an illusion that you are tying the gags and the skits together into a narrative (see: Monty Python's the Holy Grail). This is this movie's biggest flaw, because the narrative changes direction in the middle. Or rather, it gets a direction, as the first half was more fleeting. Once the story gets going (with the "Napoleon"-plot), it's a bit more enjoyable as a movie (rather than a string of gags), but even still it's kind of half hearted.There are some really funny moments, like physical gags, jokes, references and word play, but it's not really enough to justify the entire movie as one story. The performances are also good, both the extras and bit parts, and Diane Keaton's comic performance. Woody Allen plays himself, but does so as well as always.

Woody Allen wrote and directed this, one of his two most amusing comedies. Not funny/serious, like "Annie Hall," which may be his best film ever, but at times hilarious.Allen and Diane Keaton, who plays his distant cousin, are Russians during the Napoleonic era. The climax is their attempt to assassinate Napoleon after he captures Moscow.The plot is ridiculous and encompasses the war, the tangled love affairs, duels, the tendency in Russian novels towards philosophizing and brooding about God, the distinction between aristocrats and serfs. It borrows heavily from Dostoyevsky and especially Tolstoy's "War and Peace." Its cinematic touchstones are Sergei Eisenstein and Ingmar Bergman -- some shots parody exactly the images from both.There are too many jokes to list, and it would be a bad idea to even think about it. I'll direct the viewer's attention to two.(1) Allen and Keaton attempt to knock out the Ambassador from Spain by hitting him over the head with a wine bottle. The Ambassador is alerted at the last moment. What follows is a speeded-up silent comedy shtick in which Allen and Keaton try to convince the Ambassador that it was just a game. The illustrate the game by hitting each other over the head with the bottle and laughing as they do so. No music, just a CLUNK each time the bottle lands on somebody's head.(2) Allen is about to be executed but receives a message from God that the Emperor will spare him at the last moment. This sends him into an epiphany in which he looks heavenward and recites a soliloquy about the meaning of life and the prophecies from the Bible. He's carrying on with banalities about how the wicked man will be delivered into the hands of his enemies. The spotlight on him is extinguished but he adds quickly, "Wait, not yet! I'm not done with the wicked man." It skewers a number of sacred cows, God and the belief in an afterlife among them.Some of the wisecracks fall a little flat but there are scenes and set pieces that lift it far above most comedies of the decade. He flirts with the paramour of a marksman and is challenged to a duel. The challenge should be to the viewer: Try not to laugh.

I can't imagine another director in their prime tackling the Russian mindset, their war and poverty with as much silly and reckless abandon all in the name of comedy without pushing viewers over the edge. Woody pontificates to the audience turning a spiritual ethos on its head and still making some sense while parodying Russian literature while translating the literal into the parlance of our times. Diane Keaton's funniest movie ever. She completely delivers line after line to keep the plot moving while Woody does his nervous comedy routine with music to warm the cossacks! The bits are all very straight forward even if the literature they are mocking is above my pay grade.

I'm a huge Woody Allen's fan, I may not like everything he does, but for this one I bowed to you, sir.I remember seeing a clip of this movie a really long time ago. back then I had no idea which movie it was, later on came Internet and the world shrank and opened.My only reference was that it was Woody's, developed in Russia, and his character's name: Boris.A few years now, I found it, and had the chance to enjoy, (for me), the best movie I've ever seen. Remembering that I even seen this twice in a row, and it was totally worth it.This movie is for all of us who enjoy really good jokes or just like to see quality films.