Anna Karenina
2012 Directed by Joe Wright
Synopsis
An epic story of love.
Trapped in a loveless marriage, aristocrat Anna Karenina enters into a life-changing affair with the affluent Count Vronsky.
Cast
Keira Knightley Jude Law Aaron Johnson Kelly Macdonald Matthew Macfadyen Michelle Dockery Emily Watson Olivia Williams Ruth Wilson Holliday Grainger Alexandra Roach Domhnall Gleeson Alicia Vikander Bill Skarsgård Raphaël Personnaz Eros Vlahos Kenneth Collard Tannishtha Chatterjee Kostas Katsikis Emerald Fennell
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Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina has been adapted so many times that it is hard to get excited by yet another screen interpretation. However, when it was announced that director, Joe Wright, would break away from the usual period drama in favour of something more experimental my interest was piqued. Unfortunately, whilst the film’s stagebound conceit is at first arresting and entirely appropriate to the rigid and public Russian high-society, it suffocates the life from the heart of this doomed and fragile romance.
Joe Wright is a bold filmmaker who is always looking to demonstrate his skill and scope, even if it can be a detriment to the story. This is particularly true of Anna Karenina where the entire film plays out…
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46/100
Las Vegas Weekly review addresses two of my three big issues: Taylor-Johnson's embarrassingly callow Vronsky and Wright's weirdly arbitrary theatrical conceit. ("Either calm the fuck down or make it a musical," I was thinking early on.) But I'm actually most put out by the third, which is Stoppard's omission of Anna and Vronsky getting bored with each other in Europe. (Yes, this is a novel I've actually read!) Granted, slow disenchantment is exceedingly tough to dramatize, but that's really an argument for not adapting the book in the first place; excising Tolstoy's entire point (viz., that infidelity borne of infatuation is not merely destructive but fleeting—judging from this film alone, you'd think these two kids could have been perfectly happy together if not for high society's snooty disapproval) is a decidedly poor solution, and one that also mostly leaves Levin and Kitty out to dry.
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Feed your soul or your appetite? The Russians apparently can't multitask like I can. But enough of freshly baked rolls:
There have been many adaptations of Tolstoy's novel; Joe Wright needed to up the ante and he really did with the ambitious & origami-like stage design which I found conceptually brilliant.
Kitty & Levin's story was tenderly rendered and Ana'a hilarious & foolish brother was played rather unexpectedly well by Matthew Macfadyen.
Ana and Vrosky's doomed love affair didn't capture me as I would have expected but I'm a bit over the allure of self destructive love affairs in films. I can see why some might find this more style over substance but I adored the decadence. I consider this a giant creative step forward for Joe Wright.
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The first half of this film is filled with much aesthetically pleasing visuals, and an energy that can easily be felt. Unfortunately, the film gets a bit too focused on the story in the second half, and drops the whole theater gimmick, for the most part. This is unfortunate, as the theatre things is what sets this film apart from all the other boring period dramas. I appreciate that Joe Wright decided to take an entirely unique approach to this story, I just wish he had of gone a little more crazy with it.
As for the performances, they are all great. I guess I am done with my hate for Aaron Johnson, as I actually though he was pretty…
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pirms daudziem gadiem kinovēstures kursa ietvaros man bija jāskatās Deivida Vorka Griffita filma "Intolerance", kas ir trīs stundas gara pirms-eizenšteina montāžas agrīnā kinematogrāfa pērle, un ko pilnā apjomā nespēj noskatīties pat kinovēstures students. toreiz dievi bija man žēlastīgi un ļāva aizmigt filmas vidū. šoreiz tik ļoti nepaveicās.
pat nezinu, kur sākt, te ir tik daudz visa kā nepareiza. faktiski vērtību skatītāja mocībām pie ekrāna piešķir Džūda Lovs, kurš – tagad es par to esmu pārliecināta – spēj briljanti nospēlēt absolūti jebko, un visai ticams, ka arī pašu Annu Kareņinu viņš nospēlētu labāk par Kiru Naitliju.
un mis Naitlija (te tagad sāksies Tolstoja oriģinālliteratūru lasījuša estētfašista rants, paejiet malā jau laicīgi). kā var Kareņinas lomai paņemt Kiru Naitliju, tas man nav…
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Film #14 of The December Project
It took me a long time to wrap my head around this one. My initial reaction was excitement that I had seen something wholly original and innovative. However, I immediately had concerns that I didn't feel an emotional connection, which is something I experienced while reading the book and watching the excellent Masterpiece Theatre production of Anna Karenina.
The acting ranges from okay to brilliant. I'm not a fan of Keira Knightly, but somehow she manages to get herself into some great films. I admire her effort- she always puts in 110%, but I just don't think she has the natural talent to pull off every tough role she's taken on. Here, she does…
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No recuerdo haber visto una película tipo obra de teatro como esta, me gustaban esas transiciones como en la tramoya.
De la historia no hay mucho que decir, mas que, ándese por ho'.
Keira es infumable, no importa el papel que haga.
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I may as well out myself here as the only living person who did not think Aaron Johnson was so bad as the lovelorn young soldier in this terrifically ambitious, lovely looking film that just barely worked for me. I stand alone, like Anna.
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This is a tragic story. To be honest I knew that walking into the film. Why I was surprised at how tragic it was I have no idea!
Tom Stoppard does a great job at working the book into a script. But he always does good work. Matthew mcFadyen, Kelly McDonald and Knightly all do a grand job. Law tries to do understated moral high ground but his beard does most of the acting. Gleeson isn't that great to be honest and Taylor-Johnson just seems genuinely out of his depth.
Wright tries to weave a comedic theatrical thread through his to ease the tension. At times the comedic elements work but at times the theatrical elements don't. They detract from…
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By one hand very boring and by other hand very original .
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If there is one thing that you cannot deny about Joe Wright is that he never puts limits on himself as a filmmaker. This comes even with the announcement of ‘yet another costume drama’ that have had most of his detractors wanting to pin him with that unfashionable label since the one-two punch of Pride & Prejudice and Atonement. Look closer and you’ll find a director who continually emerges with ambitious stylistic tendencies - what other ‘costume drama director’ can boast a techno fairy-tale spy thriller as their last feature? His fifth feature Anna Karenina ends up feeling like an expression of the accumulative styles from his previous features - the musicality of Hanna, the visual abstraction of The Soloist, the…
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That was one beautiful film, I'll give it that. Seamus McGarvey take a bow. The use of light is spellbinding, not to mention it stays perfect throughout amazingly long flowing scene transitions. It's obvious that Joe Wright had a vision he wanted to achieve and hats off to the visuals team for that. Also the music in the film was fantastic (I'm a sucker for Russian orchestral sounds, so that might be a factor).
BUT! BUT! BUT! BUT! BUT!
This film, overall, is not a winner. I know it's based on a book, and that's how it happens in the book and all that jazz. However the good thing about making an adaptation, is that you can fix all the…
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Transformers para abuelas.
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Visually impressive. Not much of an adaptation though... didn't really feel like the book in any way other than a few familiar names and places.
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An ultimately airless yet beautifully shot adaptation. Two highlights - production design and Jude Law's performance.