Woody Allen takes on the monolith of Russian literature-with a bit of Ingmar Bergman thrown in for good measure-with Love and Death (1975), a deadpan costume epic set against the sweeping backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. Allen plays Boris, a philosophical coward who becomes an inadvertent war hero and then a potential assassin thanks to the encouragement of his mad(cap) wife, Sonja (the fab Diane Keaton). Shot by the great cinematographer Ghislain Cloquet (Tess, Au Hasard Balthazar).
