In czarist Russia, a neurotic soldier and his distant cousin formulate a plot to assassinate Napoleon.
In Russia, Boris Grushenko is in love with his pseudo-intellectual cousin Sonja, who loves him since he too is a pseudo-intellectual, but she is not in love with him. Instead she is in love with his brother Ivan. But as Ivan doesn't seem to return her affections, she is determined to marry someone - anyone - except Boris. If that person isn't the perfect husband, then she has to find a suitable lover in addition. Boris' pursuit of Sonja has to take a back seat in his life when he, a pacifist and coward, is forced to join the Russian Army to battle Napoleon's forces which have just invaded Austria. Despite Sonja not being in the picture while he's away at war, Boris' thoughts do not stray totally from women. Although they take these two divergent paths in their lives, those paths cross once again as they, together, both try to find the perfect spouse and lover, and try to assassinate Napoleon.—Huggo
When Napoleon threatens to invade the Russian Empire, the coward Boris Grushenko is forced to enlist to save his country. He actually captures a group of enemy officers, but the French Army is too strong and soon Napoleon reaches Moscow. Boris thinks that this should put an end to the war, but his young wife wants to murder Napoleon...—Flavio Rizzardi <[email protected]>
Despite his protestations, the aloof and politically ambivalent Boris Grushenko (Woody Allen) is gradually drawn into the Russian army during the Napoleonic invasion of Russia, and despite his cowardly ways, he becomes a war hero. This makes him a potential partner for the lovely Sonja (Diane Keaton), who has long been the woman of his dreams, but who had never been more than a friend to him. Sonja's love had always been directed at Boris' brother Ivan. When Ivan's death in battle clears the way for romance, Sonja's doubts about whether she loves Boris ensure that her relationship with Boris develops very slowly, Bit by bit, however, they fall in love and that love continually deepens.
Improbably, and as a result of Sonja's goading, Boris' pacifist philosophies evolve into activism to the point that he and Sonja plot to assassinate Napoleon (James Tolkan), but somebody else beats them to it by minutes. Unfortunately, Boris is the one discovered at the crime scene, and he is arrested and sentenced to death.
While in prison, the atheist Boris is, strangely, transformed into a man of deep religious faith and he is visited by an angel that promises to save him from the firing squad. Unfortunately, his execution does take place, leaving Boris disillusioned, and at the moment of his death, his personal philosophy has settled into the realization that love and death are the true essence of the human experience, and that embracing deep religious and metaphysical philosophies, while intellectually stimulating, is an ultimately meaningless, fanciful pursuit.
