Anna Karenina TIFF Review

Posted 11 years ago by myetvmedia

 “Anna Karenina is commonly thought to explore the themes of hypocrisy, jealousy, faith, fidelity, family, marriage, society, progress, carnal desire and passion, and the agrarian connection to land in contrast to the lifestyles of the city.”

The novel was praised by the great Dostoevsky as “ flawless” and Faulkner said it was “the best ever written”. The story is a tragedy about a passionate, forbidden love affair betweenPrincess Anna Karenina (Keira Knightley) and Count Vonsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) a cavalry officer. Anna Karenina who is a fun loving, beautiful socialite with a large ring of friends will become a mere shadow of her former self as she tries to follow her heart and be with the man she loves. The movie has been adapted for the screen by Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in LoveThe Russia HouseEmpire of the Sun). Anna’s husband is Count Alexei Karenin, (Jude Law) a senior statesman. Prince Oblonsky (Matthew MacFadyen), Anna’s brother is a constant womanizer who inflicts endless emotional damage on his wife Dolly however his reputation and social status does not suffer at all. Anna Karenina who effectively tries to have just one great extra marital love affair, suffers a very different fate.

Anna Karenina promised to be a fabulous period piece tale, sumptuously costumed and filmed in the lavish, dazzling settings of the court of Czarist Russia – and it is. Director Joe Wright chose to present the film as a ‘play within a play’. This becomes secondary to the tragic tale of the love, longing and destruction of the woman Anna Karenina. Whether Anna Karenina’sdestruction is ultimately partially self- imposed, the hypocritical, insensitive roles played by those around her and their ostracism of her cannot be forgiven. The movie has been criticized for leaving the viewer some how dissatisfied, for not plunging us to the depths of despair reached by the characters. It has also been criticized for trying to accomplish too much especially in the second half of the tale causing the audience to loose track of our emotional connection with the characters. This is probably the greatest criticism of the movie and what may leaves some viewers ultimately unfulfilled.

The cinematography is beautiful, the costumes and settings sumptuous and rich, while the choreography seamlessly carries us from city to country and back. There is an outstanding, large cast of characters including those listed below. Anna Karenina was a TIFF 2012 gala movie.


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Anna Karenina TIFF Review

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