Anna Karenina (1967)

Anna Karenina is a young wife of an older husband. She has an affair with the handsome Count Vronsky. By following her desires Anna complicates her life.

Director:

Aleksandr Zarkhi

Writers:

Vasily Katanyan, Leo Tolstoy (novel),

Stars:

Tatyana Samoylova, Nikolai Gritsenko, Vasili Lanovoy

Cast

Credited cast:
Tatyana Samoylova	...	Anna Karenina
Nikolai Gritsenko	...	Karenin
Vasili Lanovoy	...	Vronsky
Yuriy Yakovlev	...	Stiva Oblonsky (as Yu. Yakovlev)
Boris Goldayev	...	Konstantin Levin (as B. Goldayev)
Anastasiya Vertinskaya	...	Kitty (as A. Vertinskaya)
Iya Savvina	...	Dolly (as I. Savvina)
Maya Plisetskaya	...	Knyagina Betsy (as M. Plisetskaya)
Lidiya Sukharevskaya	...	Lidiya Ivanovna (as L. Sukharevskaya)
Yelena Tyapkina	...	Knyagina Myagkaya (as Ye. Tyapkina)
Sofiya Pilyavskaya	...	Grafina Vronskaya (as S. Pilyavskaya)
Andrei Tutyshkin	...	Lawyer (as A. Tutishkin)
Vasili Sakhnovsky	...	Seryozha (as Vasya Sakhnovsky)
Anatoli Kubatsky	...	Camerdiner Kapitonich (as A. Kubatsky)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Vera Burlakova

Storyline

Anna Karenina is a young wife of an older husband. She has an affair with the handsome Count Vronsky. By following her desires Anna complicates her life.

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Plot Keywords:

affair | count | train | adultery | horse race | 

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Taglines:

Sovexport film presents a new 70 mm color film ANNA KARENINA based on Leo Tolstoy's novel [UK Theatrical]

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Details

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian

Release Date:

6 November 1967 (Soviet Union)

Also Known As:

Ana Karenjina

Filming Locations:

Moika Embankment, St. Petersburg, Russia

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mosfilm

Technical Specs

Runtime:

145 min

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Mono (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Sovcolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Version of Anna Karenina (1910)

User Reviews

A sorry misfire

This film re-creates the historical setting of the 1860s brilliantly, then spoils it all with an Eisensteinian-expressionistic style of acting and photography that gives one the giggles with its melodramatic jerkiness. Worst of all is Rodion Shchedrin's shrill, strident score. It would be too loud and insistent for an axe murder in an insane asylum; in a drawing room from the reign of Alexander II it sounds simply ludicrous and irritating.

Vasili Lanovoy is handsome and romantic-looking as Count Aleksey Vronsky—his stiff bearing probably correct stylistically, his costumes wonderful. He does love to stare and lurch in that "I-am-Ivan-the-Terrible's-kid-brother" manner of Soviet film. His hair piece is not very good, either.

Lanovoy does at least very much look his part, which is more than can be said of the woman playing Anna Karenina. She looks a lot more like Anna Magnani, complete with black moustache. Mme Karenin is supposed to be an extraordinary aristocratic beauty, a being from the highest society. Here she looks like she has strayed from a film by Pietro Germi. The actress likes bombastic reactions right out of Mexican television drama, which the camera captures with Shchedrinesque careenings.

That great acting was possible, even in this school of film, is witnessed to by the master player of the role of Aleksey Karenin, Nikolai Gritsenko (1912–1979). He is quite unforgettable and detailed; he helps one understand Tolstoy better.

Most of the film is the other way around: one would hardly understand anything if one had not previously read the novel. The abrupt and disconcerting editing doesn't help.

No film could ever hope to do justice to such a literary masterpiece, but Clarence Brown's 1935 version is incomparably more satisfactory. Too bad. This could have been wonderful.