Love and Death (Woody Allen) - 1975

This is Woody Allen's Russian movie and also the last of his really silly movies.  Woody and Diane Keaton and sometimes others spend a lot of time in philosophical discussions about death, religion and the human condition. 

Woody is in love with Diane but she loves his brother Ivan.  Ivan marries someone else so Diane marries a herring merchant and Woody takes his butterfly collection and goes off to war against the French.  Woody becomes an accidental war hero and returns home to an affair with the Countess Alexandrovna.  He gets challenged to a duel by the husband of the Countess (Harold Gould).  Meanwhile, the herring merchant dies and Diane agrees to marry Woody if he wins the duel.  He wins, they marry and they live happily for several years until Diane decides to assassinate Napoleon.

Disguised as Spanish ambassadors, Woody & Diane visit Napoleon in Moscow but neither of them can pull the trigger when the time comes.  Diane escapes but Woody is captured and framed for the murder of Napoleon's double.  An angel appears in Woody's jail cell and promises to save him from the firing squad.  The angel was a liar.  The movie ends with Woody dancing with death. [JAM 10/20/2009]

["I've always said those (love and death) are two subjects I'm interested in and it would be like War and Peace.  And I wrote it in no time at all ... I shot most of it in Paris, but United Artists, in the interests of saving money, had me shoot some in Hungary ... I was freezing when we made it in Hungary.  I was so cold I can't tell you ... I hated my experience in Budapest." Conversations with Woody Allen - November 2006]