Anna Karenina * (1997, Sophie Marceau, Sean Bean, Alfred Molina, Mia Kirschner, James Fox, Fiona Shaw, Danny Huston, Phyllida Law) – Classic Movie Review 2916

Writer-director Bernard Rose’s appallingly misjudged 1997 British film version of Leo Tolstoy’s novel is totally scuppered by the miscasting of the central duo of Sophie Marceau and Sean Bean as the married 19th-century Russian aristocrat Anna Karenina, the brilliant young officer Count Vronsky she falls tragically in love with.

There’s absolutely no sexual chemistry between the two performers, who seem to exist in different worlds, and Bean, who specialises in modern British working-class characters, is particularly at a loss as a Russian cavalry officer. Only Alfred Molina makes something of his role as 19th-century Russian noble Alexei Karenin.

Rose’s script is an unstructured, unresolved mess, packed full with unspeakable, often risible dialogue. The visually stylish production is prettily photographed by Daryn Okada on breathtakingly gorgeous Russian locations, including St Petersburg. But that is the film’s sole saving grace, along with Molina, some good support performances and the music by Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninov and Pyotr Tchaikovsky.

Otherwise, sorry to say, this Anna Karenina is more or less a complete bore.

Also in the cast are Mia Kirschner, James Fox, Fiona Shaw, Danny Huston, Phyllida Law, David Schofield, Saskia Wickham, Jennifer Hall, Hamish Falconer, Anna Calder-Marshall, Valerie Braddell, Niall Buggy, Anthony Calf and Petr Shelokhonov (billed as Pyotr Sholokhov) in his last film, as Kapitonich.

Remade in the UK in 2012 with Keira Knightley. There are also several TV mini-series (1977, 2000, 2009, 2013) and a TV movie in 1985. The 1935 Greta Garbo version remains the finest screen attempt at the novel.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2916

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