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Anna KareninaRating:
Release Date: 25 August, 1998 Retail Price: $7.98 OUR Price: $7.98 You SAVE: $0.00! Cast: Complete Cast (10 total) |
Anna Karenina Reviews
Vivien`s least interesting as a star
Vivien suffered from both TB and manic depression after the making of CEASAR AND CLEOPATRA 1945. Here, her strength and stamina are all gone.... The production values are good, as are Ralph Richardson. Only their confrontation scene in the bedroom survives and it's sad to see her in this film.
"In A World Of Power And Privilege, One Woman Dared Obey Her Heart." Another Classic Role For Ms. Leigh.
Based on the classic novel by Count Leo Tolstoy, this classic black-and-white version of the tragic story stars Academy-Award winner Vivien Leigh ("Gone With The Wind"; see my review on it, and then-wife of Sir Laurence Olivier, she wanted to star alongside him in his equally classic "Hamlet" [see my review on it], as they had performed the roles on stage, but he felt that she was too old to play Ophelia, his Hamlet's love interest) as the emotionally tortured and ill-fated title character. Sir Ralph Richardson (an old friend of Sir Laurence Olivier, who would be cast as the ill-fated Duke Of Buckingham in the latter's "Richard III" [see my review on it] several years later) is very well cast as Alexi A. Karenin (the Russians have such long names that are also very hard to pronounce; no offense to the Russians), her insensitive and eventual bastard of a stuffy bureaucrat, husband. I didn't want this classic movie to end, but it was very well cast. The damn purists may complain about the movie heavily trimming the novel down to its bare elements, but that is EXACTLY WHAT HAS BEEN DONE WITH A LOT OF MOVIES WHICH TURN OUT TO BE GREAT (William Wyler's classic Biblical epic "Ben-Hur," Sir Laurence Olivier's "Henry V," "Hamlet," "Richard III," Kenneth Branagh's "Henry V," "Much Ado About Nothing," "Hamlet," "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein"; see my reviews on them, and others). The way the final scene was handled was just...masterful. Excellent way to begin and end a movie: first/last paragraphs from the novel. If you enjoy classic cinema and great acting, check out Vivien Leigh (who won Best Actress Oscars for"Gone With The Wind" and "A Streetcare Named Desire"-well deserved, too) in another classic and heartbreaking performance. This film is Not Rated.
More Customer Reviews (5 total)
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