Love and Death

Rating: 9/10 (7 July 2017)

Woody Allen is proving himself to me as a versatile director expelling the notion that he can only write films featuring a neurotic Jewish man. That character exists in almost every Woody Allen film, yes, but I disagree with the idea that all of Allen's films are the same. To begrudge a director for putting too much of himself into his art has always been a difficult criticism for me to hear. Love and Death, the 1975 film is a period piece set in czarist Russia starring Allen as a man hopelessly in love with a woman who is determined to marry anyone but him.
Boris (Woody Allen) is in love with Sonja (Diane Keaton), the both are pseudo-intellectuals so the match seems to be perfect. Sonja, however, is not "in love" with Boris. Love is all that occupies Boris' mind, but all that must change when he is forced to join the Russian army. Boris is a committed pacifist, therefore is now tasked with trying to avoid hurting anyone while also being tasked with battling Napoleon's forces which have just invaded Austria. The two take diverging paths but are reunited once again when they must plot to assassinate Napolean.
There is a scene in Love and Death in which several coffins are upright in a field and each one opens and the bodies come out and begin to dance in the field; that scene is my favorite scene in Love and Death. I have a habit of deciding which scene in each Woody Allen film I see is my favorite scene because there is always at least one stand out scene in each of his films. The writing in Love and Death was exquisite, as always, and especially biting which was a joy. One of my favorite things, as I've noted before, is when a film can successfully break the 4th wall, and there is a perfect scene in which Woody Allen himself breaks that wall down and speaks directly to me. It's as close as I'll ever get to my favorites, so I'm happy to take a 4th wall break. Death is in the title, but I am still loving how Woody Allen deals with his nihilism/uncertainty about God/the meaning of life in each of his films. Which is good, because it looks like Allen's focus on death is never hidden in his films.