Anna is mercilessly ostracized by society, a society in “the laws are made by husbands and fathers,” which is to say, by men. Anna’s society tolerates infidelity in men, but it shuns women who transgress - at least it does if they flaunt their affairs or treat them as more than a trifle. Uttering in the throws of the unbridled passion she has never experienced with her good, but unpassionate husband, the words, “This is love! This!” Presentiments of Anna’s doom recur at intervals throughout the film, with the sight and sound of an approaching train. Keira Knighley in "Anna Karenina" (photo by Laurie Sparham, courtesy of Alliance Films) But, at the heart of the story is the ill-fated passion of a married woman - the film’s flawed eponymous heroine - for a dashing officer who is not her husband. It may be that the character Levin, a man sincerely interested in “living rightly,” is a semi-autobiographical representation of Tolstoy himself. There is a great deal going on in Tolstoy’s story - with an ensemble of characters demonstrating the import of the book’s opening words, that, “Happy families are all alike every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” It’s a story about the elusive thing we call happiness but it is also very much about great passion, social and personal hypocrisy, selfishness versus selflessness, emotional insecurity, jealousy, faith, fidelity, marriages both good and bad, social change, and the respective merits of rural and urban life. This stylized and overtly theatrical approach is visually intriguing - rich with opulent costumes and sets - but it also keeps those scenes at one remove from the viewer on an emotional level, insofar as the artifice of the storytelling becomes a deliberate part of how the story unfolds. Many scenes literally take place inside an old ornate theater, with groups of office workers moving in choreographed unison, one scene gradually bleeding into another, and a character leaving a formal party by climbing a ladder leading to the catwalks overhead. In a boldly unconventional retelling of the novel that Time magazine listed among the ten best ever written, director Joe Wright (who also directed 2005’s big screen adaptation of “Pride & Prejudice”) offers a highly theatrical staging. Or, perhaps it is as one of the novel’s translators observed, that one cannot build one’s happiness on another’s pain. For, in Leo Tolstoy’s sprawling, 864-page novel (originally published in installments in 1873-77), fierce, all-consuming passion truly does prove fatal to happiness. Keira Knightley in "Anna Karenina" (photo by Laurie Sparham, courtesy of Alliance Films)īecome her lover, are uttered partially in jest but they prove to be both true and prescient. Join our friendly, interesting, and welcoming group of film-lovers. They're the sort of films you'd ordinarily have to travel into downtown Toronto to see, including some North American premieres! Each week's film is introduced by Artsforum Magazine's film critic John Arkelian, who also leads an informal discussion after each film. We have films to stir your imagination, engage your emotions, and make you think. Cinechats Film Series Cinechats Film SeriesĪ weekly series of the best films from around the world - every Thursday at 6:30 pm.
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