Anna Karenia - Film Review
Aug. 18th, 2013 06:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1) Just finished watching Anna Karenina - directed by Joe Wright and featuring Keira Knightly (who also did Atonement and Pride and Prejudice with Wright). Of the three - this film is by far the most ambitious and haunting visually. Even if the story barely held my interest - but that's hardly Wright's fault so much as Tolstoy and Stoppard's. Tom Stoppard wrote the script based on Tolstoy's novel, and as an aside, I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that I am not a fan of Tom Stoppard's writing. This film has the same plodding pacing and stilted dialogue as Parade's End. If it weren't for the visuals, I'd have gone to sleep - much as I do whenever I attempt to watch Parade's End.
Anyhow...it is interesting film. It is filmed partly in an Opera House and partly outside.
At times it feels as if you are watching an Opera. There's an almost inexplicable surreal feel to the film - that is reminiscent of Luis Buneal and Fellini.
See the clip below - which is the dancing scene - when Anna and Count Vronsky first interact. He was supposed to be courting Anna's neice, Kitty. This is an example of how the director uses music, dance, and freezing the action to present an layered emotional sequence without the benefit of any dialogue.
Note how the director freezes dancers, and depicts how others change partners, but Anna and Vronksy forget everyone but each other - as if everyone else is frozen.
And much later in the film, here's an example of how the director switches between the framing of an opera house and the outdoors. Often bringing the outdoors inside the opera house. In a horse race sequence, the horses are running on a outdoor track with dirt and grass yet also on spectacle in the opera house, running across the stage. Confined and restrained, much as Anna herself feels confined and restrained. When we are Vronsky's pov, we are outside, when we are in Anna's and her husband's - we are inside the opera house.
While this use of visuals is quite remarkable and stunning, it unfortunately does not make up for the slow pacing of the film - which appears to drag. It would be one thing if I didn't know what was going to happen, but you'd have to be living under a literary rock not to know that Anna Karenina is a tragedy. Also, Anna herself is not quite likable - not sure if that's Knightly's portrayal or the character. I felt rather sorry for the two men, which admittedly could be Tolstoy. Tolstoy wasn't exactly a proponent of women's rights nor for that matter was his time period.
In short, pretty film with astonishing visuals, but boring story. Can see why it got nominated for art direction, set design, score, and costumes. But it did remind me why I've never felt an aching need to read Anna Karenina.
2. Also been marathoning Scandal - and it is a fun tv show. Sort of like watching The West Wing meets House of Cards on Crack. A satirical take on both series in some respects. And quite hilarious in places, with lots of fun OMG - I can't believe they actually did THAT moments. Difficult to explain if you've never watched it. Suffice it to say, it's a tv series that doesn't take itself or its subject matter all that seriously - which makes a lot of fun to watch. (Too many tv series do.)
Hard show to explain - because it well breaks a lot of rules, such as I'm still not exactly sure what the heroine does for a living. But, as critic Alan Sepinwall stated, that doesn't really matter. Best description I can come up with - is she's a political fix-it or cover-up specialist. She cleans up or covers up breaking political scandals, so power doesn't switch hands. For example? if someone claims to be pregnant by the President, Olivia Pope will investigate it and ensure the President is protected. She's a bit of an anti-hero, as are all the main characters in this series. But unlike Damages or some of the other anti-hero series - this one appears to have a sense of humor. It's only tv after all, lighten up.
The other wonderful thing about Shondra Rhimes series is they have diverse casting - ie. the people don't look alike, nor are they all pretty and skinny from Models Inc. Tony Goldwyn, of all people, is playing the leading man/anti-hero - love of Olivia's life. And he's actually extremely good in the role. They do have chemistry. I was admittedly not convinced at first. Plus, the heroine is Kerry Washington, a POC. Rare thing that. Less rare now than previously.
Rhimes deals with race and gender issues better than most. She doesn't get preachy about them, nor moralistic, but she does acknowledge them and often comically. She reminds me a little bit of Mel Brooks in that regard.
The writers also play with how we perceive power and how people use and abuse power. Lightly satirizes and makes fun of it, all the while having a blast exploding soap opera tropes along the way. Enjoying the heck out of this series. New favorite summertime marathon show after Orphan Black.
Anyhow...it is interesting film. It is filmed partly in an Opera House and partly outside.
At times it feels as if you are watching an Opera. There's an almost inexplicable surreal feel to the film - that is reminiscent of Luis Buneal and Fellini.
See the clip below - which is the dancing scene - when Anna and Count Vronsky first interact. He was supposed to be courting Anna's neice, Kitty. This is an example of how the director uses music, dance, and freezing the action to present an layered emotional sequence without the benefit of any dialogue.
Note how the director freezes dancers, and depicts how others change partners, but Anna and Vronksy forget everyone but each other - as if everyone else is frozen.
And much later in the film, here's an example of how the director switches between the framing of an opera house and the outdoors. Often bringing the outdoors inside the opera house. In a horse race sequence, the horses are running on a outdoor track with dirt and grass yet also on spectacle in the opera house, running across the stage. Confined and restrained, much as Anna herself feels confined and restrained. When we are Vronsky's pov, we are outside, when we are in Anna's and her husband's - we are inside the opera house.
While this use of visuals is quite remarkable and stunning, it unfortunately does not make up for the slow pacing of the film - which appears to drag. It would be one thing if I didn't know what was going to happen, but you'd have to be living under a literary rock not to know that Anna Karenina is a tragedy. Also, Anna herself is not quite likable - not sure if that's Knightly's portrayal or the character. I felt rather sorry for the two men, which admittedly could be Tolstoy. Tolstoy wasn't exactly a proponent of women's rights nor for that matter was his time period.
In short, pretty film with astonishing visuals, but boring story. Can see why it got nominated for art direction, set design, score, and costumes. But it did remind me why I've never felt an aching need to read Anna Karenina.
2. Also been marathoning Scandal - and it is a fun tv show. Sort of like watching The West Wing meets House of Cards on Crack. A satirical take on both series in some respects. And quite hilarious in places, with lots of fun OMG - I can't believe they actually did THAT moments. Difficult to explain if you've never watched it. Suffice it to say, it's a tv series that doesn't take itself or its subject matter all that seriously - which makes a lot of fun to watch. (Too many tv series do.)
Hard show to explain - because it well breaks a lot of rules, such as I'm still not exactly sure what the heroine does for a living. But, as critic Alan Sepinwall stated, that doesn't really matter. Best description I can come up with - is she's a political fix-it or cover-up specialist. She cleans up or covers up breaking political scandals, so power doesn't switch hands. For example? if someone claims to be pregnant by the President, Olivia Pope will investigate it and ensure the President is protected. She's a bit of an anti-hero, as are all the main characters in this series. But unlike Damages or some of the other anti-hero series - this one appears to have a sense of humor. It's only tv after all, lighten up.
The other wonderful thing about Shondra Rhimes series is they have diverse casting - ie. the people don't look alike, nor are they all pretty and skinny from Models Inc. Tony Goldwyn, of all people, is playing the leading man/anti-hero - love of Olivia's life. And he's actually extremely good in the role. They do have chemistry. I was admittedly not convinced at first. Plus, the heroine is Kerry Washington, a POC. Rare thing that. Less rare now than previously.
Rhimes deals with race and gender issues better than most. She doesn't get preachy about them, nor moralistic, but she does acknowledge them and often comically. She reminds me a little bit of Mel Brooks in that regard.
The writers also play with how we perceive power and how people use and abuse power. Lightly satirizes and makes fun of it, all the while having a blast exploding soap opera tropes along the way. Enjoying the heck out of this series. New favorite summertime marathon show after Orphan Black.
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Date: 2013-08-18 10:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2013-08-19 08:25 am (UTC)In many ways it is also a funny book, no matter the ending. The russians often manage to do this untragic tragedy? Where death is just an end to life but it is not the big point.
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Date: 2013-08-19 02:18 pm (UTC)This. It's just sort of a fun TV Show. (Though I did have the fun of discussing it one day with a co-worker who also watches and with a co-worker who doesn't, so you get great reactions from the one who didn't to things like --
Me or Co-Worker who views: "Can you believe that President did _______
Non-viewer: "What? Seriously?"
Me or Co-Worker who views: Oh that's nothing. There was the time the Chief of Staff and his husband --
Non-viewer: HIS husband?
Me or C-WwV: Oh, yeah, sure.
Me of Co-Worker: Oh, that's nothing, all of them did ___________
Non-Viewer: Wait, this is a TV show?
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