Aug. 25th, 2002

Several weeks ago while sweetheart was away, I was up late and got sucked into part of the 2000 Masterpiece Theatre version of Anna Karenina. It got so late, I finally went to bed, foregoing the inevitable demise of literature's most famous adulterous. I have been looking for a video recording ever since, so that I could see the rest of the movie.

Last week, I got my hands on the 1997 film version, with Sophie Marceau cast as Anna. She is enigmatic and wonderful, though the rest of the cast could be more engaging. (Her Vronsky was a boring hypocrite, her husband a wife beater. Constantine was too morose and Kitty a vapid blank.) The movie also skimps on the plot, focusing almost entirely on the relationship between Anna and Vronsky, though simultaneously narrated by Constantine! AAAAGH! I watched it, though I turned it off several times and swore I wouldn't it.

I finally tracked down the 2000 Masterpiece Theatre version via public library, put it on hold, and made a special trip downtown to watch it yesterday. I have watched the whole thing in pieces as Sweetheart comes in and out (he doesn't like seeing parts of movies and didn't have the time to suck in the whole thing like me.)

I have finally finished it and am almost sorry I did... I like leaving the characters frozen, unresolved in their situations and am always heartbroken by Anna's demise at the end.

Helen McCrory's Anna is like a rose in full bloom, just before it begins to fade. She is much less ethereal and enigmatic than Sophie Marceau, she is a passionate, red-blooded woman who's steps toward liberation inadvertantly lead onto the tracks. I believed every moment of her performance, and loved the lusciousness she brought to the role. She is no china doll, easily broken, but a woman whose power lies in her resoluteness. "She was magnificent," Constantine says of her to the unconsalable Vronsky at the end of the film. Her tragedy is all the greater because we can see her magnificence. Nothing smaller than a steam engine would be able to kill the magnificent Anna.
Kevin McKidd as Vronsky is compelling and the most memorable aspect of the film. He is not a weak, vain, or insensitive Vronsky. Unlike other Vronsky's who only seem like plot devices to Anna's tragedy, his Vronsky is almost more tragic than Anna herself. I believe his love for her, his desire to marry her, and his growing frustration that she will not believe or accept his love. He even looks Russian, fair and slightly goggle-eyed, breathtakingly at home in regimental uniforms. Any woman who has ever loved a man in uniform will recognize him immediately, and wish they knew someone with even half his loyalty, heart, and dignity.

I was originally drawn to the Constantine in this production, played by the gruff and merry Douglas Henshall. His Constantine is not the morose and affected, but a sensualist, awkward in polite company, and pure in heart. His adoration for Kitty (played by the Paoloma Baeza, who has appeared in other Masterpiece Theatre productions) is moving and sweet.

The moral and inflexible Karenin played by Stephen Dillane in a brilliant piece of casting. He is a decent man, not a monster, which is one of the biggest mistakes made in portraying Anna's patient and long suffering husband. He is a sympathetic character in this film and left with a great deal of the responsibility of Anna's affair. (Ends up taking care of both her children, one of whom is not his own.) He is not a passionate man, Anna did not marry for love, yet he loves her in his own loyal way, and there is a sense of his waiting in the wings for her eventual return. He is afraid to divorce her because he does not trust Vronsky and fears Vronsky will abandon her.

The weakest link in this production is its portrayal of religion, or maybe I should say faith, as that is a major theme of the book, along with forgiveness. I find it difficult to watch the end of the movie, because I know what's going to happen to the characters, none of who I dislike.

And I find myself going over characters and situations over and over again, wishing there were some way one could tell Karenin that he should grant the divorce, or Anna how much it will hurt her to leave her little boy, or Vronsky, that he should not become involved with a married woman, however beguiling. This story is an incredible reminder that we cannot always choose our situations, but have free will within those situations to choose our lives.

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of any story set in Imperial Russia, is the sense of impending doom. The novel ends with Vronsky going off to fight for the Csar. We are very much aware, in this day and age, how fragile the feudal system is and that in a few short years the Russian Revolution will make Vronsky's sacrifice worthless. Then again, perhaps it is Vronsky, more than any of the characters in the book, who would understand the end to the aristocracy, as his own lineage is markedly common.

I especially feel this poignancy in the work of Checkov, who is a contemporary to Tolstoy, but distinctly more modern in tone. (Father to the 20th century, rather than child to the 19th.) The very first Checkov I ever encounted was Vanya on 42nd street, which doesn't bother to bookend the play with setting or time. Not knowing who Checkov was, I could only deduce that the characters were Russian and they were part of a fading world. I assumed they were living during the Communist era. It was a great surprise to discover the author had died prior to the Revolution, and definitely speaks to the universality of the tale.

This Masterpiece Theatre presentation of Anna Karenina is a brilliant production of a much adapted novel. A little lengthy in pieces, (and a little bit Anglo in presentation ... this is definitely Anna Karenina a la Victoria) but luscious in its attention to detail and in its portrayal of the complexity of the situations and the characters. One of the better recent Masterpiece Theatre productions, along with Oliver Twist, The Buccanneers, and The Way We Live Now.

Masterpiece Theatre is taking a summer break on my PBS station, but I can't wait to find my Monday nights free again, and myself situated in front of the television, with a bottle of gin by my side. I can only hope I will someday participate more activley in the productions. Wouldn't it be wonderful

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zalena

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