I bought this DVD expecting to see Marius Goring (who heads the cast in the IMDb listing) as Karenin. However as soon as I saw Karenin I knew that the actor wasn't Goring but the no less admirable Albert Lieven! Oddly his filmography doesn't credit him with this film and Goring's does: but the arbiter must be the film's final credits which duly give the role to Lieven! Otherwise this version, though it eliminates the Levin plot and Anna's delirium after childbirth, is worth seeing - mainly for the exquisite Claire Bloom's reckless commitment to the illicit love aroused in her by Sean Connery's likely Vronsky. The treatment, in a series of longish scenes, is somewhat theatrical, but the costumes are splendid and director Rudolph Cartier sweeps the film to its shocking conclusion.
3 Reviews
Anna Karenina
Prismark1014 April 2024
Anna Karenina was a prestige drama directed by Rudolph Cartier. It was made to commemorate a quarter of a century of BBC television.
The drama was thought to be lost but it always existed in the BBC archives. The BBC just did not know it. It was shown again in 2024.
Good news as it stars Sean Connery, one year before he played James Bond for the first time. Connery did several plays for the BBC, several of them have been wiped.
As Anna Karenina is a complex weighty tome. This is a cut down version, all filmed it seems at the BBC studios.
It starts with Anna Karenina (Claire Bloom) being spooked by an incident at a train station. A person falls in the path of an oncoming train and gave out a piercing scream.
Anna is a beautiful young woman married to a minor politician and they have a young son. Only on a visit to Moscow, she develops an attraction to Prince Alexei Vronsky (Sean Connery.) A minor royalty.
They have an immediate attraction. Her husband suspects of an affair and warns her about it. Anna cannot resist, she has fallen in love with Vronsky.
With her husband unwilling to grant a divorce. Both Anna and Vronsky live together but she is forbidden of ever seeing her son. In fact the husband tells the child her mother has died.
It is the fact that Anna Karenina has been torn away from her son that dooms their relationship.
It does come across as a filmed play rather than a movie. Only purists of the novel would be upset by the story being cut down.
It is marvellously acted by the main leads. Both actors convey a lot of emotional depths. You can sense with Connery, there was a star that was just waiting to burst out.
The drama was thought to be lost but it always existed in the BBC archives. The BBC just did not know it. It was shown again in 2024.
Good news as it stars Sean Connery, one year before he played James Bond for the first time. Connery did several plays for the BBC, several of them have been wiped.
As Anna Karenina is a complex weighty tome. This is a cut down version, all filmed it seems at the BBC studios.
It starts with Anna Karenina (Claire Bloom) being spooked by an incident at a train station. A person falls in the path of an oncoming train and gave out a piercing scream.
Anna is a beautiful young woman married to a minor politician and they have a young son. Only on a visit to Moscow, she develops an attraction to Prince Alexei Vronsky (Sean Connery.) A minor royalty.
They have an immediate attraction. Her husband suspects of an affair and warns her about it. Anna cannot resist, she has fallen in love with Vronsky.
With her husband unwilling to grant a divorce. Both Anna and Vronsky live together but she is forbidden of ever seeing her son. In fact the husband tells the child her mother has died.
It is the fact that Anna Karenina has been torn away from her son that dooms their relationship.
It does come across as a filmed play rather than a movie. Only purists of the novel would be upset by the story being cut down.
It is marvellously acted by the main leads. Both actors convey a lot of emotional depths. You can sense with Connery, there was a star that was just waiting to burst out.
A monochrome spectacular to commemorate BBC first 25 years
jefadlm-129 February 2024
Why only one reviewer, this being the 2nd review from me ?! This harks back to 1961 and that in and of itself is pretty amazing !
Why you may ask is that amazing. ? Because they then were then largest and most revered home television production organisation world wide , They clearly wanted to make this production a show case as proof of their production capabilities,! And this Tolstoy choice was considered an extremely difficult production, thereby proving BBC values ! And thank good ness they succeeded in every one of production departments with an eye for detail in every department,,! Wardrobe,, set design, continuity, , lighting and camera as well as clear audio mix , no boom shadows , camera Close ups, long and short etc etc . So in short they proved that with correctly chosen actors and especially the 2 lead characters.this unknown crew and director could succeed with a high quality rendition of one of the most demanding theatrical brilliantly told tragedies from an equally faultless author , In the eyes of western cultural themes , Russian culture, , atmospheres among many other alien sensibilities, enigmatic daily lives lived in a claustrophobia totally unknown , in 1961 to western hemisphere ( or European cultures) brought all those mysteries starkly to our TV screens ! Ms. Bloom and Mr. Connery were both faultless. That said Ms. Bloom was a known safe bet, whereas Mr Connery was a risk which paid off in spades! He as we know succeeded above and beyond and that unique beauty as always in her long illustrious career, visibly relished in that truly delicious , brilliant narrative....
Why you may ask is that amazing. ? Because they then were then largest and most revered home television production organisation world wide , They clearly wanted to make this production a show case as proof of their production capabilities,! And this Tolstoy choice was considered an extremely difficult production, thereby proving BBC values ! And thank good ness they succeeded in every one of production departments with an eye for detail in every department,,! Wardrobe,, set design, continuity, , lighting and camera as well as clear audio mix , no boom shadows , camera Close ups, long and short etc etc . So in short they proved that with correctly chosen actors and especially the 2 lead characters.this unknown crew and director could succeed with a high quality rendition of one of the most demanding theatrical brilliantly told tragedies from an equally faultless author , In the eyes of western cultural themes , Russian culture, , atmospheres among many other alien sensibilities, enigmatic daily lives lived in a claustrophobia totally unknown , in 1961 to western hemisphere ( or European cultures) brought all those mysteries starkly to our TV screens ! Ms. Bloom and Mr. Connery were both faultless. That said Ms. Bloom was a known safe bet, whereas Mr Connery was a risk which paid off in spades! He as we know succeeded above and beyond and that unique beauty as always in her long illustrious career, visibly relished in that truly delicious , brilliant narrative....
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