ANNA KARENINA
A film review by Han Kuo
Copyright 1997 Han Kuo
If you haven't read the 800-plus-page novel, this is the movie that will compel you to do so. And you will be grateful for it afterwards. It is the best movie adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's timeless tragic love story "Anna Karenina" thus far. Beware of that reading a novel and watching a movie are never meant to be the same experience. They are functionally different and a head-to-head comparison is seldom fair or meaningful. Bear that in mind and watch this movie for its own sake, you will find yourself immersed in this beautiful film.
The cast is brilliant. Sophie Marceau (as Anna) had a splendid performance. Besides her ineffable beauty and exquisite elegance reflected on the screen as Anna is meant to be, it is remarkable to watch how her facial expressions convey those most subtle emotions Anna possess, joy, happiness, shame, sorrow and despair. More amazingly, the sentiments are communicated not only through her tender eyes but also from those sensational lips. In addition her French accent adds the intoxicating foreign flavor to the character, which makes you wonder what it would be like if they all speak French instead (in that period, the Russian aristocrats often spoke French).
Sean Bean (as Vronsky) did a wonderful job in protraying Vronksy who had the crushing love and desire for Anna except the lack of dashing look is less persuasive. All the other supporting cast had a first-rate performance which makes the movie so enjoyable.
The breathtaking cinematography (which was all shot in Russia), the sumptuous 19th century aristocratic costumes and the absorbing Tchaikovsky music provides an magnificent and realistic ensemble for the story. The grand ball, the subsequent train station encounter, the horse racing and the tragic finale are the several memorable scenes.
Understanding the difference between the expressive means of the literature and those of the cinema, the director/writer Bernard Rose made a great effort in extracting the essence of this great novel with some modification, and he did a respectable job. The exact dialogues excerpt from Telstoy's masterpiece exhibit some of the most powerful and unforgettable words rarely seen on screens. The only unfullfillment is that the showing version was cut into less than 2 hours. It is too short to include some integral scenes to make the film more complete. Hopefully, this will be mended on vedio version.
The experience of watching this movie is definetely a rewarding one not only because it is a great film but also it stirs up some deep thoughts about love and life. It sure will linger in my mind for quite some time.
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