Both the 1935 Gretta Garbo film and the 1948 Vivien Leigh films are available on TCM on demand.
The idea of compressing a Tolstoy novel into a 90 minute to two hour film sounds laughable. But, I’m willing to give them a chance, anyone seen either?
I’ve seen a few film versions of classic novels from the 30s and 40s that were actually pretty decent if you’re willing to accept that the filmmakers had to cut a lot and occasionally change things.
I also kinda like the 3.5 hours of the Hepburn/Fonda 1956 War and Peace film.
I have not, but I did see the one with Keira Knightley from 2012. I actually began reading the book years ago, but quit. I legit hated it. It just seemed very shallow and soap-opera-like to me.
I barely remember the 2012 movie, so it wasn’t all that great either.
I daresay Tolstoy in general is overrated. I liked War and Peace, but didn’t even really love that all that much, either.
I saw the Garbo version many years ago. I thought the train gave an excellent performance, Fredric March less so, with Garbo and Rathbone in more or less typical form. I’d say it’s better than Camille (1936) if only because Robert Taylor is not around to ruin it. Note that Love (1927) is a silent version of Anna Karenina also with Garbo, and that IMDB lists a number of other versions.
I have never been tempted to see the 1948 version despite Duvivier being a favorite director of mine, and Leigh and Richardson. The story - a woman suffers endlessly - is not really my idea of entertainment.
I had to read the book when I was in grad school. I hated it. Not one likeable character anywhere. I didn’t give even one shit about the illicit love affair, and the whiny subplots were boring. I was glad when the train finally came along at the end to put me out of my misery.
I earned the scathing contempt of my RusLit professor, who kept insisting it was universally recognized as a “work of art.”
My daughter, who is half Russian, had to read it in college. She hated it too, and for exactly the same reasons. Neither of us could figure out what message it was supposed to convey.
I’ve seen the movie with Vivien Leigh. Not even she could hold my attention for more than thirty seconds. Waterloo Bridge is a much better picture,even if you don’t care for.Robert Taylor.
If you’re going to see War and Peace, the Soviet version kind of drags along until it gets to the Battle of Borodino. If that doesn’t jar you awake at four in the morning, nothing will!
It all depends on what you’re looking for, I suppose. If stories set in a society where people are trapped in restrictive social and legal codes aren’t your thing, so be it. (There have been TV series adaptations, the most extensive apparently the BBC’s in 1977)
I’d imagine Madame Bovary, Tess of the D’Urbervilles (most of Hardy, come to think of it) and even Brief Encounter would be off your list, too.
Anytime anyone asks me about the novel, I say exactly the same thing. I wanted to throw her under the train myself. But it is very difficult to find any literary critic who will criticize the novel. I spent 15 minutes one night looking for a negative review. Finally found one at the link, but now it’s paywalled
I have seen the 1977 BBC miniseries a couple of times, once as a schoolboy and once as a 40-something year old. Enjoyed it both times. Production values might seem a bit dated now but if you are considering the 1935 vs 1948 movies…
I did read the novel about 30 years ago. It was long and rather tedious. My wife loves it. But I also don’t “get” classical music. She does. Challenges of marrying up. I didn’t conclude that she’s a preening pseudo-intellectual though.
I went through a pretty deep and long Russian author/Tolstoy phase starting in law school up to my 40s, rereading several books, and watching every film version available. AK was always pretty low on my list - primarily b/c I disliked the main character - and the films ALL play her up as a glamorous tragic person.
Funny how your tastes in literature can change over a lifetime.
The point of “Anna Karenina” is the double standard that existed between men cheating and women cheating. It was acceptable for men to take mistresses, but women could not take lovers and expect it to not ruin them socially.
But yes, the story is sheer suds. Konstantin loves Kitty who loves Vronsky who loves Anna. Plus there’s long boring parts about how great threshing wheat by hand is.
I saw, no lie, the greatest Prima Ballerina of the mid-20th century, Maya Plisetskaya, dance Anna Karenina. It was toward the end of her career, a few years before she retired, and one of the few roles she did anymore (she knew she couldn’t pull off Giselle or Coppelia, but Anna Karenina was right for her at 52). I was 10, but I could still see I was privileged to see something amazing. I’ll never forget it.
So, when I was 11, I decided to read Anna Karenina.
My father, an amazingly fluent Russian speaker (he was questioned by the police once for being in a place in Moscow only for non-citizens, because they did not believe he wasn’t Russian), told me not to read it in English-- I had learned to speak Russian when we lived there, but was not fully literate in it, although I was still doing lessons in Russian). He said it had to be read in Russian, because none of the English translations were any good.
My father spent a lot of time in Russia-- he spent 2 years doing graduate school in Leningrad, and almost every year went for a few weeks to Russia, and some years a few months, plus the year we spent there when I was 10.
