#nyusa

Anna Karenina the book is incredible; I know this sounds like a strange thing to say about an 800-page Victorian novel, but it's actually quite the page-turner. It's very gripping. The sentence-level writing isn't great—Tolstoy repeats words a lot, which bothers me—but the plot is exciting and the characters are so amazing. Tolstoy's sense of story and characterization is really remarkable. Anna Arkadyevna herself is a wonderful character, but the supporting cast is just as good if not better. Stiva is endlessly entertaining, Kitty is charming in her childish way, Lyovin is of course so endearing. It's definitely worth reading.

The thing about Anna Karenina the book is that it almost feels like a screenplay in epic novel form. The characters and settings are very clearly defined and the dialogue is sharp and dramatic. So you'd think—or at least I thought—that there would be at least one really, really good adaptation out there! But there isn't...

The early adaptations are okay—Greta Garbo is one of my least favorite Annas, but Vivien Leigh is wonderful.

From what I've seen of it, the 1967 Soviet version is probably the closest to the book. But other than Yury Yakovlev (my beloved), the casting in that version feels off to me.

The 1977 BBC version shouldn't even count. Stuart Wilson as Vronsky is a crime.

The 1997 version is generally thought to be awful, but I love Sophie Marceau as Anna, and the costumes are to die for. I want ALL of those dresses! The soundtrack is also amazing; putting the Pathetic Symphony over Anna's suicide is so genius <3

The 2012 version is... ugh. I don't hate it, but I don't like it either. For me, Keira Knightley is the biggest weak link. I watched an interview where one of the producers said "Keira was the obvious choice" and honestly I find that really hard to believe. I say this as someone who looks VERY much like Keira: I don't think she's pretty enough to play Anna. She looks too Hollywood. I also hate the costumes in the 2012 version, and fail to understand why Jacqueline Duran keeps getting nominated for Oscars. What happened to the wonderful costumes of Death in Venice and The Age of Innocence and A Room with a View?? However, the 2012 version has its moments: the soundtrack is great, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Vronsky... oohohohoh <33

The 2013 version (the Italian one that no one's ever heard of) is so awful, I don't think it's really worth discussing. The editing is bad, the acting is bad, the soundtrack is bad, the costumes are atrocious, etc, etc. Vittoria Puccini and Santiago Cabrera are VERY pretty but that's really the only good thing about it.

Now, the 2017 version... people tend to love or hate this one. I'm personally super sensitive, so I don't really like watching the gory war scenes, but I think that's more me than the film itself. Maksim Matveyev is the best Vronsky in my opinion, and the costumes and uniforms are STUNNING. I don't care for the soundtrack, and, as usual, I think Anna is miscast: like Keira Knightley, Elizaveta Boyarskaya just looks too Hollywood for my taste. I also don't know why they didn't show Anna's suicide on screen. I think shooting her suicide always show's off the director's taste, creativity, and values—or lack thereof—and I find it really interesting to compare the different versions.