There have been a score of big and small screen adaptations of Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel Anna Karenina, which I read about 40 years ago. My favorite is the 1977 ten-hour PBS mini-series. For the 2012 version, director Joe Wright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard opted for a stylized approach, which was sensible. Why do a straight up and down version of a story so well known, done so many times? Although it is filmed as a sort of play within a play, it is cinematic. Many of the movements are choreographed. Characters twirl about frequently. There are also outdoor shots. A scene will melt/morph into another almost seamlessly. The approach never seemed uneven to me. I went with it, although it made the style as important as the substance. Keira Knightley brings her usual brilliance to the lead role. The film was an hour old by the time I realized it was Jude Law, behind a full beard, playing her husband. He is the best aspect of the film. Another actor‘s name and history eluded me. I felt foolish when I found at IMDb that it was Matthew Macfadyen, who was in 19 episodes of one of my all-time favorite series, MI5, playing Anna‘s philandering brother. The role of the dashing Count Vronsky was more problematic. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, only 23, did not seem quite right. When he first appeared my thought was "metro-sexual." In a running time of 2:15, the film could not possibly have the depth of characterization of the 1977 version. I remember two scenes from that production. One subtly manifested the lack of love, passion in Anna’s marriage, as her husband states something like: “I find it irksome when you’re not here.” The other was powerful. When the Countess lambastes her son for losing his head to love, for not regarding Anna as simply another conquest, Vronsky angrily fires back something like: “Do you think I don’t know what you were?” This refers to the behind the scenes extra-marital affairs that everyone in polite Russian society knew about but mentioned only in privacy. Discretion, hypocrisy was expected and that’s what this enduring classic is about in large part. It first appeared in installments in 1873. I think Mr. Tolstoy would be thrilled that it still resonates 140 years later. The latest version is rated 6.6 at IMDb, the version I prefer 6.8. Joe Wright also adapted Pride and Prejudice (2005) and Atonement (2007), each starring Knightley, to the screen. They are first rate. Anna Karenina flopped at the box office. If it is a failure artistically, it is a noble one. On a scale of five, three. One thing about all the film versions is that they do not use the burning issues of the day that bloat the novel, which is also the case with the epic War and Peace. They are literary masterpieces otherwise.
I had two dream customers today: Maria, who purchased Close to the Edge, and a middle aged woman who bought six hardcover thrillers, four Baldaccis, a King and a Sheldon. My thanks, and to the others who who made it a great session.
Vic's 4th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/bszwlxh
Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
Vic’s Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
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