Anna Karenina

Rating:
Summary: What a shame!
Review: I can barely review the movie: everyone knows a movie adaptation of a great book like Anna Karenina is bound to have shortcomings. But let me tell you about this heck of a ghastly DVD production! Who on earth is behind this sloppy transfer? The movie was made in 1948, but you'd think it was 1918, looking at the hideously blurry, fuzzy, melted frames, and chopped soundtrack. Funny color gizmos even appear sometime for a split second on the screen, definite signs of the little care that was paid to the DVD production of this otherwise decent movie. A reviewer here mentionned the error in the poster on the cover (yes, that's Garbo indeed): if only that was the only sloppiness in this DVD output! Shame shame shame......

Rating:
Summary: Vivien is remarkable
Review: She is clearly one of the best actresses of all time.The movie itself was not that great, but Vivien Leigh manages to bring some life into it. The movie falls when she's not on the screen.The quality of the movie is somewhat bad. There are times when the screen goes a little bit black and you cannot see what's going on. There's some problem with the speech,a few instances when you cannot hear properly. But overall phenomenal performance by Vivien Leigh.Buy it to see Vivien give yet another extraordinary performance.

Rating:
Summary: Tolstoy would have approved
Review: The 19th century's greatest portraitist of women would have been impressed by this very faithful adaptation of his ground breaking novel. Typical of this era in film making, the black and white photography is painterly. The final sequence at the snow-shrouded train station captures Tolstoy's writing and imagery to an astonishing degree. See this picture and harken to each word. You will be well rewarded.

Rating:
Summary: Vivien's elegant style
Review: The black and white beautiful vision of Venice is wonderful and unforgettable in this film, where Anna and Vronsky are having their holiday. The performance of Vivien is great and touching, a lively Anna, another excellent acting of this classic role, apart from Garbo's. If you are a fan of Vivien, do not miss it !

Rating:
Summary: What a shame!
Review: This version of Tolstoi's classic isn't as good as the Garbo version, no doubt, although the lovely Vivien tries her best. What gets me is that they have chosen the wrong poster for the DVD edition, cause it's clearly Garbo who is in it, as any good fan could tell you. How can it be?

Rating:
Summary: I can't believe it
Review: This version of Tolstoi's classic isn't as good as the Garbo version, no doubt, although the lovely Vivien tries her best. What gets me is that they have chosen the wrong poster for the DVD edition, cause it's clearly Garbo who is in it, as any good fan could tell you. How can it be?

Rating:
Summary: Vivien Leigh`s worst performance
Review: Vivien Leigh was the 20th Century`s greatest screen actress, but she had a most delicate health. She suffered both from manic depressions and turbercoloses. She had just recovered from her first attacks when she starred in this Korda version. It`s quite visible that her strength and stamina was gone. She only excelled in the confrontation scene with Richardson. It`s sad to see her in this movie.

Rating:
Summary: Another Great Role for Vivien Leigh
Review: What a beautiful and talented actress she was! Though most only remember her for Gone With The Wind, Miss Leigh's other roles were equally captivating. My copy of the DVD is fine, no quality issues, and it features Miss Leigh on the cover, not Garbo as another reviewer mentioned.

On to the romance. Anna Karenina is locked in a loveless marriage to a much older count. She falls in love with a handsome, dashing younger man and defies society by running off with him. In one scene, she comes back "home" to sneak in to see her beloved young son, whom she left to pursue her passion. What a heart wrencing scene that is!

Treat yourself to a night of classic cinema. Buy Anna Karenina!

Rating:
Summary: Another Great Role for Vivien Leigh
Review: What a beautiful and talented actress she was! Though most only remember her for Gone With The Wind, Miss Leigh's other roles were equally captivating. My copy of the DVD is fine, no quality issues, and it features Miss Leigh on the cover, not Garbo as another reviewer mentioned.

On to the romance. Anna Karenina is locked in a loveless marriage to a much older count. She falls in love with a handsome, dashing younger man and defies society by running off with him. In one scene, she comes back "home" to sneak in to see her beloved young son, whom she left to pursue her passion. What a heart wrencing scene that is!

Treat yourself to a night of classic cinema. Buy Anna Karenina!

Rating:
Summary: Classic Tragedy
Review: While this is not as sweeping an epic as Gone with the Wind, Vivien Leigh is still the beauty that makes this movie come alive. Even in black-and-white, she is stunningly beautiful and the costumes and authentic 19th century sets are perfect.

This is of course an adaptation of Tolstoy's novel and deals with a mother caught in a loveless marriage. She wants her stuffy bureaucrat husband's (Ralph Richardson) attention, but when he refuses to give her what she needs, she turns to army officer Vronsky.

The consequences of her search for love is unthinkable, yet does she really have any other way out of her absolute heartache? She can't have the love of her family and the love of her lover at the same time. It just isn't possible in this situation.

While we want to feel sympathy for Anna, her decision to pursue her own interests at the expense of her children's happiness seems unforgivable. She is likeable, just we can't understand why she doesn't find a way to protect her children and still pursue her passions.

This movie is covered in snow. There is snow swirling everywhere. The chilly aspects show the harshness of the situation. There is a scene by the fireplace which seems to warm up the movie, if slightly.

Tragedy and passion in an unforgiving society. A movie that, like the modern "Unfaithful," makes you think about consequence of action.