– More than anything, “Love and Death” was a happy accident. Originally, Allen was trying to write a romantic comedy about two clever New Yorkers who solve a murder but wasn’t able to work out the details to his satisfaction. With time running out on his script deadline, he happened to notice a book on Russian history in his library and the ideas began to flow. (He would later return to flesh out the characters of his two New Yorkers in Annie Hall (1977) and work out the crime-solving plot in Manhattan Murder Mystery, 1993). [3]

– Two weeks after telling Eric Pleskow, one of United Artists top execs, that he was wrapping up the “Manhattan murder mystery script, the UA exec was surprised to receive the first draft of a screenplay about the Napoleonic wars, set in Czarist Russia. [9]

– Woody says he tore the script up and decided to do a 19th century movie about the meaninglessness of existence and planned to shoot it in Russia. [9]

– United Artist execs didn’t expect much from the picture (because of the subjust matter), but green lit it because of Woody extraordinary track record so far with them.

– Filmed in Hungary with Oscar-winning cinematographer Ghislain Cloquet. In the moments when Allen is off-screen, Love and Death looks more like “Lawrence of Arabia” than “Take the Money and Run.” [2]

– Went over budget by over a $1 million and was considered his most polished and mature film yet (despite some of the nature of the jokes) [9]

– This is Diane Keaton’s third appearance in a Woody Allen movie, and second in a row. She is a natural romantic comedy actress — almost effortlessly, she comes across as likable, sweet, interesting and relatable. Amidst the goofiness of the last two films, though, she’s relying on a somewhat different talent — her sincerity and wide-eyed obliviousness is an excellent contrast to Woody Allen’s typical obsessive worrying about everything. [2]

– While it might not have seemed a likely commercial prospect for a film in 1975, it’s even harder now to imagine a major studio bankrolling a project like “Love and Death” despite the financial clout of the director or star. Yet, “Love and Death” touched on all the familiar Allen themes his fans had grown to love - relationships, sex, marriage, and self-deprecation - in the context of a nineteenth-century story. [3]