Film

Anna Karenina – Review

Bold and creative interpretation of Lev Tolstoy’s masterpiece, Anna Karenina, set on a 1870s theatre stage

Director: Joe Wright

Runtime: 130 mins

Key actors: Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor ‐ Johnson

Rating: ★★★★

The curtain rises and spectators are metaphorically carried away in a fantasy theatre stage. Last drama film by British director Joe Wright is a theatrical version of Anna Karenina, with pros and cons.

Joe Wright’s free interpretation of the novel focuses on the well-­‐renowned and doomed love between the noble woman Anna Karenina and her lover, the handsome and younger Count Vronsky. The story is partially set in a fantasy theatre and partially outside. This slip of perspective is well modulated by the screenplay written by Tom Stoppard, who has summarised complex Tolstoy’s prose in a harsh drama, composed by brief and trenchant sentences. In this slipping of perspective every character plays a significant role in creating a balanced drama.

‘But I am damned anyway’. Anna pronounces this statement while she and her lover, Vronsky, are relaxing on the grass, in the countryside. She looks at the sky, aware of the inexorability of her choice. She is actually Count Vronsky’s mistress, and she knows that she will be punished for her illegitimate love.

Anna is a posh woman, overwhelmed and choked by middle high society codes and rules. She is married to Count Karenin, an influential and powerful statesman, but cold, dull and detached. She is going to Moscow to visit her brother when she meets attractive Count Vronsky. They are immediately impressed by each other. But the spark will burn during the ball. Here the spectator is completely enchanted by the waltz scene. Like an ancient carillon, with twisting arms and graceful movements, Anna and Count Vronsky dance together for the first time, letting transpire the passion between them. The dance itself is mesmerizing and emotionally intense and transports the public into the birth of this controversial love. They dance whirling together until they remain alone on the stage, with lights focused on them. Soon their love affair will be renowned, Anna will leave her husband and go to live with her lover Vronsky and their daughter Ania. Scandal is widespread in the high society but anyway she decides to go against conventional rules, by assisting at the Opera. Here Wright stresses the miserable reputation she has: everybody in the theatre is gazing at her, because of her brave choice between passion and duty. Deprived of her son’s love, Serozha, feeling outcast from the society and stoned by laudanum, Anna eventually will kill herself by jumping on the tracks of the train.

Keira Knightley as Anna, is a mature actress with a strong awareness of the feminine depth and complexity of the protagonist. She demonstrates strong abilities in balancing the two

faces of Anna. On one hand she is the heroine, innocent victim of a damned love, but on the other hand she is an anti-­‐heroine, manipulative and duplicitous towards her husband. Despite her young age, the British actress who already performed in Joe Wright’s movies like Atonement and Pride and Prejudice, shows her versatility in acting different women’s roles. On the contrary, her lover, Count Vronsky, is probably the less successful character of the drama. In fact Aaron Taylor-­‐Johnson appears artificial and plastered in his role, he lacks the passion and involvement of the character depicted by Tolstoy in the novel. Johnson is probably too young and not well prepared to perform a complex character such as Vronsky. Unlike Taylor-­‐ Johnson, Jude Law plays Karenin very well, in the role of a severe and inflexible moralizer towards his wife’s adultery. Wise but also vengeful, he tears the paper in which she begs him forgiveness and suddenly the sheet is transformed into white and soft snow on Moscow, donating the spectators a stunning piece of photography.

Superb classical music by the Italian composer and Golden Globe winner for the best score in Atonement, Dario Marianelli, gently embellishes the plot. Soundtracks such as ‘Dance with me’ work as a dramatic counterpoint to the storyline, and harmoniously accompany tragedy and emotional impact of the scenes. The direction of photography is brilliant. Dizzying camera work is combined with original editing. Suggestive and flamboyant photographic framings stress Anna Karenina’s beauty and fascination. Anna’s glance at herself into a crystal mirror, obsessed by the hammering sound of the train moving towards her, is simply theatrical, such as the scene in which she is in the bed with mental fever, portrayed like a Caravaggesque mythological Medusa.

At the age of 40, Joe Wright leaves the audience speechless by his new movie. Last work is experimental and unique, compared to previous films like Pride and Prejudice and Atonement. Despite in some scenes theatrical glitz overwhelms the plot, the architrave of Wright’s drama is overall imaginative and brave.

Giuliana Patrone

 

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