Anna Karenina
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Movie Reviews of Anna Karenina
Movie Review: Anna Karenina
Summary: 5 Stars
Get a box of Kleenex and a cup of Hot Chocolate because this movie requires both. It will break your hreart and it is a love story, so put another log on the fire and get ready for a really wonderful movie.Movie Review: Review of Service
Summary: 5 Stars
The service was quick and the package was well wrapped for protection. Would order again anytime.Movie Review: Miss Leigh nudges out Garbo for best "Anna" honors.
Summary: 4 Stars
First off, let us concede that neither the 1935 Greta Garbo "Anna Karenina" nor the 1948 Vivian Leigh version comes close to capturing the complexities of Tolstoy's masterpiece. Most significantly, Konstantin Levin and Kitty's relationship, and more particularly, Levin's protracted personal and metaphysical development, are dropped entirely, both screenplays preferring to treat the story as an adulterous romantic triangle with snowflakes instead of palm trees.
That said, what we are left with in both films are masterpieces of film craftsmanship, where the triple triumphs of cinematography, art direction, and costume design are the real stars.
Which is not in any way to lessen the contributions of the cast, who in both instances, make the best of what they have to work with.
Garbo enchants in many of her individual scenes, particularly with Freddy Bartholomew and Maureen O'Sullivan, (as Kitty). Who can forget her advising Kitty to seize her fleeting youth, with its promise of a dream prince to emerge from the blue haze of the mountain top. Equally impressive, is her muted aversion to Alexei Karenin, (Basil Rathbone).
But she fails in her depiction of a fatal love for Count Vronsky (Frederic March). Garbo, with her solemn, majestic and singular self possession--her "Queen Christina" like cerebral detachment, is simply too thoughtful, too deliberate, to in any way convey Tolstoy's impulsive, febrile and thoughtless anti-heroine.
True, she had forsaken all for John Gilbert in "Christina," but that decision was the result of deep and thorough soul searching, and explained with the eloquence of Solomon to her courtiers. In "Camille" she is by profession a lover, and so her ultimate renunciation of Armand, reveals the true depth of her character. But one cannot conceive of her destroying the lives of others to satisfy a whimsical infatuation.
And this is where Miss Leigh's Anna trumps Garbo, for Miss Leigh does successfully transmit Anna's neurasthenic and utterly reckless collapse at the feet of the dashing Count. She seems blown by forces much stronger than she--a daffodil in a windstorm, and light years from Garbo's deep Scandanavian imperturbability.
Given the alleged similarities between Miss Leigh and Anna's disposition, perhaps this is life imitating art. In any case, it is why she makes a truer Anna, and why the role serves as a warm up for Blanche Dubois...
She is also abetted in her interpretation, by the genuinely eerie, recurring, nightmare sequence--with the Charon like, white bearded old man, forever dogging her as he chinks away at the ice. An ill omen indeed ! And Miss Leigh conveys the desperation of her impending doom in every gesture and nuance.
Then too Keiron Moore, (despite being an inferior actor to Frederic March) is much more dashing and handsome as Vronsky--a fact which, at least in terms of audience sympathy, helps explain the attraction.
Strangely, Mr. March who had been so visually appealing as Dr. Jeckyll, just a few years earlier, photographs very poorly in the Garbo version, and is not helped by a buzz haircut.
And as superb as Cedric Gibbons sets and Adrian's costumes are as a backdrop for Garbo, we feel Mr.Andrejew's art direction and Cecil Beaton's designs get the nod here as well, if only perhaps in their European origin, and the deep, appropriately moody nineteenth century shadows with which they are lit and photographed.
However, as visually sumptuous cinematic recreations of a vanished aristocratic world--each version has much to savor, and should be taken in tandem.
Movie Review: No Train Wreck Here
Summary: 4 Stars
The Duvivier ANNA KARENINA has always been considered generally inferior to the Garbo MGM version, and for years was only available in substandard video transfers and dim revival prints. Fox's spiffy new DVD is cause for rejoicing from film fans -- there's plenty to enjoy in this movie. (Only the most dogged of completists will complain that the version on display is the American release print, some 12 or so minutes shorter than the British version. Trust me, you won't miss the differences.) The screenplay, credited to Jean Anouilh, among others, is the usual trot through the novel, with Kitty and Levin receiving their customary short shrift, the better to concentrate on Anna. Leigh is in fine form here, tacking the last of her glamour roles in film with elegance and assurance. Given the turmoil passion wreaked in Leigh's personal life, her Anna's perhaps a bit cool, but she's intelligent, fine-grained, and ultimately very moving. As a nice plus, Leigh looks superb in her chic Beaton duds. Richardson's ideal as Karenin, and, in a large and distinguised supporting cast, Sally Ann Howes' Kitty and Martita Hunt's Princess Betsy give particular pleasure. (Michael Gough, in a bit part, manages to be as over-the-top irritating in a few lines as he was later in leads in such B-classics as KONGA and TROG, thereby putting the lie to my long-held opinion that he's an actor best suited to small parts.) The picture's major weakness is Kieron Moore's Vronsky. Handsome in a horse-faced way, he's no match for Leigh; their scenes together lack life and fire. The director generally throws the scenes her way, and with good reason. Even shrouded in semi-darkness, Moore looks lost. Altogether, not a great classic, but full of many pleasures, great and small.Movie Review: "When the end comes, what else is there to do but turn down the lights?..."
Summary: 4 Stars
Vivien Leigh's return to films after a three-year absence was as the heroine of Tolstoy's literary classic, ANNA KARENINA. Director Julien Duvivier ("The Great Waltz", "Pepe le Moko") adds a nightmarish, haunted quality to this timeless tale of doomed love.
When Anna Karenina (Vivien Leigh) is called to Moscow to help mend a rift in her brother's marriage, she meets by chance the dashing Captain Vronsky (Kieron Moore) who immediately sets her world into a tailspin. Here is the man who can save Anna from the cold indifference of husband Karenin (Ralph Richardson), yet to embark on an affair will mean turning her back on beloved son Sergei (Patrick Skipworth) and exposure to scandal and disgrace.
Vivien Leigh's performance as Anna is amongst her finest work; capping off a series of tragic heroines which included Myra in "Waterloo Bridge" and Emma Hamilton in "That Hamilton Woman". Kieron Moore cuts a handsome figure as Vronksy; and Ralph Richardson is an incredibly sympathetic Karenin (world's apart from Basil Rathbone's one-note performance in the 1935 Garbo version). Sally Ann Howes co-stars as Kitty, with Martita Hunt as Princess Betsy.
The DVD comes with two fascinating featurettes detailing the life and legacy of Tolstoy, in addition to a photo gallery and restoration comparisons. Recommended.