Love and Death (1975)

  I've never watched a lot of Woody Allen films.  My mother never liked his work, so I didn't grow up with it and I've never really cared to delve that deeply into his oeuvre.  After Midnight in Paris, however, I was more willing to give him a chance.

Boris (Woody Allen) is in love with his cousin Sonja (Diane Keaton), who is in love with his brother Ivan (Henri Czarniak).  When war breaks out, Boris is sent to the front.  By pure accident, he manages to kill a dozen French generals and is labeled a war hero.  Sonja, meanwhile, has married a herring merchant and had dozens of affairs.  Boris loves her anyway and manages to woo her after her husband suffers a self-inflicted gunshot wound preparing for a duel.  They have several happy years, after a dozen miserable ones, and are finally ready to have children when war breaks out again.  Sonja has a brilliant plan, however, and convinces Boris that they should assassinate Napoleon (James Tolkan).

I've read enough Russian literature to know that this is possibly one of the best spoofs I have ever seen in my entire life.  Everything in it is perfectly on point.  Because it is so specialized, however, I'm not sure the jokes are the most accessible and you shouldn't have to have a reading list to watch a movie.  But, if you've read Dostoevsky or Tolstoy and enjoyed yourself, give this movie a try.