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Love And Death Details

1975 Certificate PG
  • Rated:
  • 70
  • from 3637 members

Woody Allen reinvents himself again with the epic historical satire, Love and Death. A wonderfully funny and eclectic distillation of the Russian literary soul, the film represents a bridge between Allen's early slapstick farces and his darker autobiographical comedies. One of his most visual, philosophical and elaborately .. Read more

Starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Harold Gould, Alfred Lutter
Director Woody Allen
Genres Comedy

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Love And Death

Woody Allen reinvents himself again with the epic historical satire, Love and Death. A wonderfully funny and eclectic distillation of the Russian literary soul, the film represents a bridge between Allen's early slapstick farces and his darker autobiographical comedies. One of his most visual, philosophical and elaborately conceived films, Love and Death demonstrates again that Allen is an authentic comic genius.

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 enlist 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 the Angel of Death just can't be trusted!

Starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Harold Gould, Alfred Lutter, Feodor Atkine, Tony Jay, George Birt
Director Woody Allen
Studio MGM ENTERTAINMENT
Run time DVD: 1 hr 21 mins
Certificate Certificate PG
Genres Comedy
Language DVD: English
Dubbed French, German, Italian, Spanish
Hearing-impaired English, German
Subtitles DVD: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish
Released DVD: 19 Feb 2001
Production year: 1975
Format DVD
  • Critics' reviews (3) of Love And Death

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  • 4 stars out of 5

    Clearly taking up where Jean-Luc Godard had left off in his assault on traditional cinema, Rainer Werner Fassbinder made his remarkable debut with this micro-budget deconstruction of the crime thriller. Much of the action is staged as tableaux before a doggedly static camera — indeed, one of the very few tracking shots was lifted from Jean-Marie Straub's The Bridegroom, the Comedienne and the Pimp, in which Fassbinder had acted. The minimalist plot is presented in fragmentary form, while lowlifes Ulli Lommel and Fassbinder (and Hannah Schygulla as the girl caught between them) scarcely exchange a word. It's almost wilfully obscure, but compelling nonetheless.

    • Radio Times
  • 1 stars out of 4

    Personalized comedy fantasia inspired by War and Peace, Ingmar Bergman and S. J. Perelman. Basically only for star fans.

    • Halliwell's Film Guide
  • Most helpful member's review of Love And Death

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  • 8 out of 8 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    Classic Allen (or Allen re-writes the Classics........... )

    Early Allen humour, based on The Great Russian Novel, with wonderful one-liners. If you like your humour laced with philosophical digressions, this is for you!

      • A customer from Scotland
  • Most recent members' review of Love And Death

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  • 8 out of 8 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    Classic Allen (or Allen re-writes the Classics........... )

    Early Allen humour, based on The Great Russian Novel, with wonderful one-liners. If you like your humour laced with philosophical digressions, this is for you!

      • A customer from Scotland
  • News and features

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    Saraband

    Ingmar Bergman, 1918-2007

    • 31 Jul 2007

    See the entire LOVEFiLM Bergman Collection here Checkmate. Death has finally taken the great Swedish master, Ingmar Bergman, as he always knew it must. No filmmaker wrestled longer and more painfully with the knowledge of his own mortality. His father was a severe Lutheran minister, and a figure who cast a long shadow over Bergman's films, including his premature swansong, Fanny and Alexander (1982), and perhaps his purest masterpiece, Winter Light (1962), a portrait of a pastor who has lost... Read more

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3,637 Member ratings
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769
  • 70
651
  • 60
585
  • 50
312
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199
  • 30
124
  • 20
115
  • 10
55

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    • Woody Allen reinvents himself again with the epic historical satire, Love and Death. A wonderfully funny and eclectic distillation of the Russian literary soul, the film represents a bridge between ...