Love and Death

"The Comedy Sensation of the Year!"

1975 1h 25m EN

👍

7.4

SOLID

🔥

100%

CERTIFIED FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

7.6

IMDB

★7.4TMDB · 993🍅100%Rotten Tomatoes●89Metacritic★7.6IMDB · 42,536

ComedyRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

In czarist Russia, a neurotic soldier and his distant cousin formulate a plot to assassinate Napoleon.

“The Comedy Sensation of the Year!”

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Cast

Woody Allen
Boris Grushenko
Diane Keaton
Sonja
Harold Gould
Anton Inbedkov
Olga Georges-Picot
Countess Alexandrovna
Zvee Scooler
Father
Despo Diamantidou
Mother
Sol Frieder
Voskovec
Jessica Harper
Natasha

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Woody Allen
Writers: Woody Allen
Languages: English, Italian
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

85 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $3.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 6.7× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

51 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Italian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Woody Allen, shot by Ghislain Cloquet. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Ron Kalish shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Woody Allen and Diane Keaton and Harold Gould carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Woody Allen directs. Ghislain Cloquet behind the camera. Ron Kalish cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Italian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

185 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Shot for just $3.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
3Made its money back 6.7× over at the box office.
451 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
5Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Italian.
6Directed by Woody Allen, shot by Ghislain Cloquet. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Editor Ron Kalish shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Woody Allen and Diane Keaton and Harold Gould carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "The Comedy Sensation of the Year!".
10IMDB entry: tt0073312 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Ghislain Cloquet
Editing: Ron Kalish
Makeup / hair: Renée Guidet
Sound: Al Gramaglia
Runtime: 85 min · 1h 25m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $3,000,000
Box office: $20,173,742
Return: 672% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Love and Death (1975)
Rotten Tomatoes: 100% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 89/100
IMDB rating: 7.6/10 · 42,536 votes
MPAA: PG

Awards

1 win & 1 nomination total

Also by

Woody Allen

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Selected frames

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2025-05-30
★ 7/10
All this really needed was someone like Emil Jannings to add a bit of imperialist, silent-film, gravitas to proceedings as a pair of slightly self-obsessed intellectual ne’er-do-wells get caught up in the Franco-Russian war. Unfortunately for the Czar, with Napoleon clamouring at his borders, he must rely on the likes of the neurotic and yellow-bellied “Boris” (has to be Woody Allen, doesn’t it?) to enlist in his army. He is about as much use as that wrong calibre stuff they had in the Crimea, but he determines that his best plan for a swift exit back to his equally up-herself cousin “Sonja” (Diane Keaton) is to assassinate the Frenchman and end the war in one stroke. Meantime, his manipulative cousin is safely at home playing a cat and mouse game with his brother “Ivan” (Henri Czarniak) who isn’t remotely interested in returning her amorous intentions. Regardless, she isn’t going to let his disinterest save her from an unwanted marriage with “Boris”. His hapless army skills just happen to coincide with historical fact and so when the French arrive in a largely abandoned Moscow, the pair have a chance to reunite and whilst dodging the bullets they are metaphorically shooting at each other, unite to achieve their murderous goal. Fans of Tolstoy and/or Dostoevsky will see plenty of similarities, parodies even, of their more earnest tales of revolution, grand philosophising and unrequited love and for much of the time these references are only very thinly veiled, if at all! It is also an out-and-out comedy with more than an few shades of the bawdiness of a “Carry On” movie peppered with a few double-entendres and the humour comes thick and fast amongst all the fake blood and fabulous examples of the costumiers art. Of course, like most daft comedies there is a twist and this one comes from left field and entirely tops off this enjoyable romp through history - or literature’s interpretation thereof, and is one of my favourite Woody Allen scripts as it levels just about everything from religiosity to pomposity before it. Good fun.

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