The screenplay is 199 pages, but the film is only 2 hours, which means there were substantial cuts to the screenplay. Tom Stoppard wrote the screenplay so it is a bit hard to follow. Stoppard is one of the best, if not the best, dramatic writer working today. Last year I went to two of his plays which were being staged on Broadway at the roundabout theater. Indian Ink was comprehensible for me. The Real Thing I didn't get. Perhaps it was travel hangover or my penchant for distraction when I don't have my medicine. Anyway they were both great shows. This Fall I went to see Kiera Knightley in Therese Raquin. After I read the book and saw the play I thought I might pick up another Stoppard title. The screenplay did not disappoint. It was filled with detail yet long passage. It is filled with short scenes that cut rapidly from one to the next. It's level of detail was a little hard for me to grasp. I usually have trouble with details. I like to say I'm a big picture guy, let someone else handle the details.
The film is excellent. Too bad it didn't get any awards consideration. Knightley turns in another great performance. Count Vronski is memorable. The love affair reminds of Lady Chatterly in it's treatment of forbidden love. Of unbridled passion let loose. How scandalous it all was. Yet couldn't it have been solved? Didn't Anna have an alternative to suicide? I remember John Stuart Mill's courtship of a married woman in 19th Century England. He waited decades for his love to divorce and be with him only. I suppose the context was similar in Russia. Divorce was not accepted as widely as it is in contemporary times.
The costumes and setting are incredible. It won an Oscar for best costumes. But it was snubbed in other categories like adapted screenplay. The cinematography and set design were unique. The setting are all in a theater, yet in a neighborhood, or outside with snow on the ground. I thought it was a very unique setup. I didn't know when it was in the theater or outside in the forest. Of course I always knew when we were at Karenin's house. His character was pitiful. When I read the screenplay and it talked about how he uses a reusable condom I thought it was gross. Yet that was part of his character very responsible. Perhaps too responsible and that is what drove Anna into the arms of Vronski. Vronkski on the other hand is all for passion in life. Conquest of women, drinking with his army buddies, and strutting around in his calvary uniform, portray him as the opposite of Karenin.
It's a nice juxtaposition of character. And it is tragic that Anna chooses Vronkski because they can never marry under Russian law. Her end is also tragic. Perhaps one of the most tragic endings in history. Why can't she sleep? Why does she take morphine? Why doesn't she wait to go to the country? And why does she commit suicide? Too many questions. So tragic.
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