Pages

Tuesday 16 October 2012

Some videos from the 2012 "Anna Karenina" film

Now I don't know whether or not I should watch the upcoming "Anna Karenina" film.
To be frank I've never expected much from the film- Keira Knightley is 1 of those actresses I consider overrated, yet I did look forward to the film, which came out in the UK in September, but won't come out in the US till November, officially, and to the best of my knowledge, the beginning of 2013 in Oslo, Norway. However some of the videos have been uploaded on youtube, perhaps for the purpose of advertising and promoting the film.
If they intend to intrigue and attract audience, I think they've failed.

In this video, the scene is from 1:02.

The cinematography and other techniques seem to be pretty good. 
Jude Law doesn't look perfectly like Karenin, but one must watch the whole film to see whether he can depict the role. I have more faith in him and his acting abilities than the other 2 leading people in the film. 
Keira Knightley is quite good-looking in her clothes and accessories, but I don't think the costumes are suitable for this period in Russia, especially Keira Knight's clothes for a married woman in Russian aristocracy and the character Anna Karenina. Besides, 1 of her drawbacks, I think, is her quite rigid and emotionless face, unlike Meryl Streep's or Cate Blanchett's. So she can't really convey any emotion. 
I suppose Joe Wright chose her only because they had worked together in "Pride and prejudice" and "Atonement". 
The guy Aaron Taylor-Johnson is relatively handsome for the role of Vronsky. But as I watched this video, I couldn't help asking myself: What on earth is he doing? Trying to be funny? "Anna Karenina" has never been supposed to be a comedy, or even contain comic scenes or elements. 

The dancing scene.

I really doubt that these dance moves are what people did in this period. 
And no, a married woman in Russian aristocracy wouldn't let another man lift her in a ball where other people are present there, at least, other people wouldn't let them do so. 

The love scene:

Sex scenes are not necessary in "Anna Karenina". To say the older versions don't have sex scenes is as lame as to compare the cinematography, techniques and visual effects, so let's say that in today's American films there are more sex scenes and film directors have the tendency to add sex scenes whenever possible, I can accept the existence of sex scenes in this film. Yet this video, objectively speaking, is not OK. I wonder if I'm the only one who finds it ridiculous. 

Because the B&W versions can only be downloaded as a whole and no extract can be found on youtube, I can only publish here the one in the 1997 version with Sophie Marceau and Sean Bean: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Gc_P5Bt2zk
I'm not very pleased with Sean Benn's Vronsky, but that can be put aside. 
See the dance and the costumes and Sophie Marceau? Sophie Marceau is beautiful here, as I've said, the 2nd most beautiful Anna, and even now in 2012 when her beauty has faded and she's no longer like the way she looked in "L'étudiante" or "Fanfan", she's still very feminine, very graceful. I think that's something some people don't understand- they seem to think sexiness is equated with the possession of large breasts and large buttocks, pouting lips and inviting eyes, but that's not true. Look at Sophie Marceau, her beauty is 1 thing, her sexiness and grace come from within. And that's something Keira Knightley lacks. 

The question now is: To watch, or not to watch? 

1 comment:

  1. Why not? If the film turns out to be bad, then it's only 2-3 hours of your time get wasted :))

    ReplyDelete

Be not afraid, gentle readers! Share your thoughts!
(Make sure to save your text before hitting publish, in case your comment gets buried in the attic, never to be seen again).