Anna Karenina

I finally read Anna Karenina. And I'm very glad that I ignored a good friend's warning in doing so (he told me its nothing more than a soap opera and I'll be sure to ignore his comments on literature in the future). Anyhow, I don't want to write a book review. (I don't think I would be able to even if I wanted to.) Its an amazing book and I liked it and thats that. What I wanted to write about is that films that were made based on this. The 1st was in 1938 starring Greta Garbo, then there was one in 1948 and finally, the one released in 1997 starring Sophie Marceau. And they are all terribly bad!

I understand its difficult to make a 1000 page classic into a movie. The directors would obviously have to have some liberty with the screen play and the charecters but that hardly means they have the right to murder a work of art they way they did - all of them! They have been rather callous with the whole thing - the casting, screen play writing and of course, the acting. None of the leading ladies did justice to Anna. Almost all of the films ignored the strength, simplicity and spirituality of Levin. They also ignored the sincerity and innocense of the lovely Kitty and the rightousness of Karenin. This is especially true for the 38 version that made all the charecters look like complete idiots! If someone tried to watch this movies to get an idea of what the book is all about - oo boy!

Anyhow, like I said, its probably not the easiest book to make into a movie. However, I'd hope someday, someone would do a better job of it.