Love and Death Love and Death takes place in Russia during the Nineteenth century when Napoleon was invading the country. Woody plays Boris, a Russian and one of three brothers who are sent off to fight for their country. Boris is the pacifist in the family and wants to marry Sonia, his cousin played by Diane Keaton, instead of going to fight. Unfortunately, Sonia wants a man who can satisfy her mentally, emotionally and sexually. Boris tells her, "yea, there aren't too many of us left." Love and Death is a return to the smart comedy that was Woody Allen's Play it Again, Sam. The film at times is deeply philosophical, and dissects both love and death in deep discussions and humorous monologues. Taking his collection of butterflies with him, Boris heads for boot camp. The boot camp in Love and Death is a mirror of the boot camp in Bananas. Guns fall apart, Boris is out of synch with the other soldiers and when the soldiers visit a brothel Boris visits the opera. The costumes and the sets in the film are very historically minded. Besides the fact that Woody wears his modern day glasses and has a New York accent, the historical achievements of the film are down to the very last detail in some scenes. The battle sequences after Boris leaves boot camp are rather goofy, and looking closely you notice many soldiers standing around while others are fighting. Sheep show up for the battles as well. In the first of Battleship Potemkin parodies, a soldier has one side of his eyeglasses broken while blood pours down his cheek just like the bleeding woman on the Odessa Step sequence. Hiding in a canon, Boris is shot onto a tent of French generals making him a war hero. Coming home, he gets into some trouble with a countess and her marksman lover challenges him to a duel. Hearing this news, Sonia decides to marry Boris knowing he will be dead soon. Boris wins the duel, (if only Woody wasn't writing the script!!!), and Sonia and him live in a cottage. Sonia makes him meals out of snow and lets him have kisses based on a meter system. The first time they make love, he wears hot gloves and at climax three lions are shown. One rising, one just standing there, and the last one passed out in the second homage to Battleship Potemkin. Just as the two decide to have kids, war is declared once again. In order to have a baby and keep the family together, Sonia and Boris decide to assassinate Napoleon (James Tolkan). Impersonating Spanish Royalty, the two sneak into Napoleon's mansion. Worst comes to worst, and Boris ends up being executed for killing Napoleon even though Napoleon is not dead. Napoleon's double kills the Napoleon trying to seduce Sonia. All's fair in love and war, and Boris dances with Death over the end credit sequences. The script for this film is very smart and mature. Dialogue about popular culture and current events are replaced by philosophical debates and humor about war, murder and food. Woody and Diane have several scenes where they debate god, death, religion, epistemology and all of the above for extended periods. Once again the two feeding off of each other make a great comic duo. Sleeper was a combination of both sight gags and humorous monologues. Love and Death goes another step forward by Woody growing up a bit and making his film more intellectual with verbal humor. In his next film as a director, Annie Hall, Woody dissects many
of the same topics in deep conversations. Alvy Singer is a man obsessed
with death and doom. At the beginning of Love and Death, the voice
over has Boris saying he is about to be executed as shots of clouds are
shown. Boris knows his death is upon him and is for certain, and that is
why he questions God and life throughout the movie. Boris confronts Death
(dressed in a white sheet) several times during the film, asking him for
answers to the afterlife. "What happens when we die? Are there girls?"
Woody knows how to have fun with a serious topic. It's hard sometimes though
to go for laughs combined with a discussion of social issues in a period
piece staring a man notable for his lack of seriousness. Instead of a using an fast tempo or jazz score for the film, Woody settled for the classical music of Prokofiev. The music used sets a tone that makes the film seem more of a period piece. Woody had originally wanted to use Stravinsky, but found it too happy and made scenes seem unfunny. Other pieces of music in the film are pieces from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty, The Love of Three Oranges, and Alexander Nevsky. For a promotion piece for the film in Esquire magazine Woody wrote: "It's a comedy about death and one's existence in a godless universe. The commercial possibilities were immediately apparent to me. Sight gags and slapstick sequences about despair and emptiness. Dialogue jokes about anguish and dread. Finality, mortality, human suffering, anxiety. In short the standard ploys of the professional funnyman." So much for hyping the film. |
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