Anna Karenina (1967)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Aleksandr Zarkhi

Writers:

Vasili Katanyan (writer)
Leo Tolstoy (novel)

Release Date:

6 November 1967 (Soviet Union)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

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

Plot:

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. |

Plot Keywords:

Train | Based On Novel | Character Name In Title

Cast

Tatyana Samojlova	...	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
Aleksandr Kaidanovsky		(as A. Kajdanovsky)
Ervin Knausmyuller	...	Butler
Aleksandr Kostomolotsky		(as A. Kostomolotsky)
Valentin Kulik		(as V. Kulik)
A. Pavlova
Mikhail Pogorzhelsky
Mikhail Sidorkin		(as M. Sidorkin)
Arkadi Tsinman
G. Vats
Yuri Volyntsev

Runtime:

145 min

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian

Color:

Color (Sovcolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

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

Certification:

Finland:K-12 | Sweden:11

Company:

Mosfilm

Movie Connections:

Version of Anna Karénine (1912)

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

I think that Aleksandr Zarkhi's adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's famous novel "Anna Karenina" is one of the best screen versions of the book. It was filmed on the locations where the novel's events took place, its characters speak in the original language, and the spirit of the book was successfully transferred to the screen mostly due to the performances and the cinematography by Leonid Kalashnikov.

Tatiana Samoylova (radiant Veronica of "The Cranes Are Flying") plays Anna exactly as Leo Tolstoy had intended her to be, a victim of overwhelming passion, a woman who had lost herself to love, for whom the whole world had concentrated in her beloved Alexei Vronskiy, and once she felt he had became tired of her, she simply could not and did not want to live. The world famous Soviet ballerina, Maya Plisetskaya took a role of Anna's friend, Princess Betsy Tverskaya and just to see her walk is worth watching the movie. There is much more in it. Some scenes are unforgettable after so many years. Among them, the Vronsky's horse race with the rapid cuts from the faces to horses' heads scene that has to be seen to believe; the first dance of Anna and Vronsky - during the dance the lives of many people had changed forever, or the scene in the theater where Anna dared to show up after she had left her husband and moved in with Vronsky. For a woman of her social position, it was absolutely shocking and totally unforgiving. She was crucified with the looks of the St. Petersburg's Aristocracy but she was standing on the balcony all alone, beautiful and smiling and no one knew what she was going through.

The original music for the film was written by Rodion Shchedrin who would write later the ballet based on "Anna Karenina" and his wife, Maya Plisetskaya will be dancing Anna - but it is a different story altogether