This state of affairs \u2013 people in love with those who don\u2019t return their feelings \u2013 is part and parcel of Love and Death<\/em>\u2019s riotous send-up of Russian literature (and Swedish cinema, as evidenced by the Bergman homages). The mind\/body split is perfectly captured by Sonja\u2019s character and Keaton\u2019s performance, which runs the gamut from verbal gymnastics to physical comedy. As Love and Death<\/em> pivots between the profound and nonsensical, Keaton doesn\u2019t miss a beat, her comic instincts homing in on precisely what each situation needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a nimble tightrope walk Keaton previously pulled off in 1973\u2019s Sleeper<\/em>, in which her character Luna goes from being a pampered ditz to a spirited revolutionary. Luna even does a dead-on impression of Marlon Brando\u2019s Stanley Kowalski from A Streetcar Named Desire<\/em>, adding mimicry to Keaton\u2019s skill set. While Sleeper<\/em> found her playing second fiddle to Allen, though, Love and Death<\/em> puts them on equal footing, devoting ample screen time to Sonja\u2019s plight at home while Boris is shipped off to the front to fight Napoleon\u2019s invading army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After impulsively announcing her engagement to herring merchant Leonid Voskovec, Sonja is trapped in a loveless marriage and ends up taking a bevy of lovers. \u201cHow many lovers do you have?\u201d Boris asks while he\u2019s on furlough (and considering an affair of his own with a flirty countess). \u201cIn the midtown area?\u201d is Sonja\u2019s reply. When her husband shoots himself while cleaning his pistol, she rushes to his side to comfort him in his dying moments, saying she \u201ccould have been a better wife.\u201d The minute he passes, though, and before the corpse is even cold, she\u2019s already thinking about her next meal. Contrast that with how bereaved she is by Ivan\u2019s death. Her scene with his widow, in which they divide his possessions (Sonja gets his mustache) is wonderfully underplayed by both actresses, their deadpan delivery selling the absurdity of the gesture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Boris returns from war an unlikely hero and has to fight a duel (over the aforementioned countess), he asks if Sonja will marry him if he lives \u201cby some miracle.\u201d Her measured response: \u201cWhat do you think the odds are?\u201d Her inner monologue (which runs in tandem with Boris obsessing about wheat) ends with her agreeing once she\u2019s assured of his opponent\u2019s prowess. When Boris isn\u2019t killed, however, she\u2019s practically catatonic at the altar, repeating \u201cHe missed\u201d while Boris exults in his good fortune. Commence loveless marriage number two, but this time she warms up to her husband and shares some moments of happiness with Boris, only for Napoleon to once again intervene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Love and Death<\/em> enters the home stretch, it also invades Marx Brothers territory (which Allen and Keaton previously staked out in Sleeper<\/em> by abducting the Leader\u2019s nose) when Sonja hatches a plan to assassinate the diminutive emperor. A chance encounter with the Spanish ambassador and his sister allows them to get close to Napoleon and facilitates two classic comedy routines. One is silent in nature (the bottle that fails to knock out the ambassador) and the other entirely verbal. (\u201cAnd you must be Don Francisco\u2019s sister.\u201d \u201cNo, you<\/em> must be Don Francisco\u2019s sister.\u201d) Both are perfectly executed, which is also Boris\u2019s fate when he\u2019s framed for the shooting of Napoleon\u2019s double, which neither he nor Sonja had the stomach to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Diane Keaton\u2019s final scene in Love and Death<\/em> follows Boris\u2019s death by firing squad, as Sonja entertains her cousin Natasha (Jessica Harper in a bit part, but destined for a larger role in 1980\u2019s Stardust Memories<\/em>), who regales Sonja with her complicated love life. Sonja\u2019s advice for her, nonsensical as it comes out, emerges from hard-won wisdom, and their scene culminates in a parody of Persona<\/em>\u2019s most famous shot as Sonja and Natasha repeat the word \u201cwheat.\u201d Even if Sonja doesn\u2019t get the last word (naturally, Allen reserves that for himself), Keaton takes the one she\u2019s given and spins it into comedy gold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLove and Death\u201d is streaming on an <\/em>abundance of services<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/love-death2.webp\")
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