November 19, 2012

Anna Karenina: The Puppet Version


Anna Karenina: The Puppet Version

The movie is almost too silly to discuss, as if Saturday Night Live decided to do a parody, but nobody but the costume-director and scene-making crew were ready. A puppet resembling Keira Knightley plays Anna; although thin, even scrawny, the animators make her look almost human. (Sorry—my mistake! I checked the credits and discovered that the wooden doll is actually Keira Knightley.) Vronsky is played by a cute teenaged boy in what looks like a curly blond wig and a pasted-on dark moustache (again I’m mistaken: the actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson is 32).

If I were Russia’s ambassador to Great Britain, I would demand that the Queen rescind Sir Tom Stoppard’s knighthood for having contributed to the desecration of the greatest novel ever written; if Stoppard is ashamed of his collaboration with director Joe Wright, it’s not clear, perhaps only hinted at, in the published screenplay, wherein he explains:

“If this book were the shooting script, it would begin like this:

‘Much of the action takes place in a large, derelict nineteenth-century Russian theatre—not in the sense of ‘onstage’ only, but often in different parts of the theatre, e.g. the auditorium, the wings, backstage, the under-stage, the fly-tower, etc.” (Anna Karenina: The Screenplay, Vintage Books, 2012, p. vi).

Jude Law as Karenin plays the part interestingly if not accurately, and is the spitting image of some old illustrations. Because Anna and Vronsky are played so dull-wittedly, however, Law’s intensity overwhelms the scenes he shares with them. There is no way the real Anna would have left such a smoldering vigorous husband. Knightley and her director can’t even get the easiest tear-jerking scene in literature right: Anna’s surprise birthday-visit to Serozha. After a few moments, with scarcely a tear or even a blink, she leaves her supposedly beloved son in his bed when Karenin, out of the shadows, appears and glowers at her.

Levin and Kitty’s romance gets short shrift, which is too bad because the actors (Domhnal Gleeson and Alicia Vikander) are at least lively and attractive. Early on, however, Kitty flits about as if the director had mixed her up with Natasha of War and Peace. The great mowing scenes, filmed in the actual outdoors of the Salisbury Plain in southern England, are gorgeous and look as if they could have been filmed in Russia. (For some reason Wright represents Levin’s home as a kulak’s charming rustic cottage, and not how Tolstoy described it, which was based on the simple but modern house at his Yasnaya Polyana estate.) The most charming love scene in the novel, Levin’s proposal to Kitty by means of chalked initials, is idiotized into the two of them playing with blocks and actually spelling out the messages.

When Anna decides to die we are as moved as by the sight of a potted plant knocked over by a dog’s wagging tail. Afterward, her face--tasteful spots of blood dotting it—is as immobile and wooden as it was in life.

My wife, who is smarter and kinder than I am and who’s read Anna Karenina twice, liked this movie. I, however, felt like a religious person watching a non-believer satirizing a holy work. Such an action is so absurd and based on such fundamental perceptions, there’s no need to take it seriously. If you don’t know the novel on which this movie trounces, so much the better. If you’ve read it years ago and only vaguely remember it, you might just enjoy this new cinematic interpretation. If, however, you love and worship the novel, as I do, let’s skip the movie altogether and go read the book again.

 

You Might Also Like

Anna Karenina Every Day
  • November 08, 2012

Anna Karenina Every Day

Lev Tolstoy's Anna Karenina has been called the greatest novel of all time. But can one really appreciate it as much in English translation versus the Russian original?
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.  
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
At the Circus (bilingual)

At the Circus (bilingual)

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955