Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina 1997

Anna Karenina is a 1997 film by director Bernard Rose, starring Sophie Marceau and Sean Bean. Based on Bernard Rose's adaptation of the eponymous novel by Leo Tolstoy. It was the first international version to be filmed entirely in Russia, at locations in St. Petersburg and Moscow.


Plot:
Countess Anna Karenina is the young and elegant wife of Count Alexei Karenin, a wealthy nobleman twenty years her senior. She is unhappy and lives only for their son, Seriozha. However, during a ball in Moscow, she encounters the handsome Count Alexei Vronsky. Vronsky is instantly smitten and follows her to St. Petersburg, pursuing her shamelessly. Eventually, Anna surrenders to her feelings for him and becomes his mistress. Although, they are happy together, their relationship soon crumbles after she miscarries his child. Count Karenin is deeply touched by her pain and agrees to forgive her. However, Anna remains unhappy and, to the scandal of respectable society, she openly leaves her husband for Count Vronsky.

Using her brother as an intermediary, Anna hopelessly begs her husband for a divorce. Count Karenin indignantly refuses and denies her access to Seriozha. Distraut by the loss of her son, Anna grows severely depressed and self medicates with laudanum. Before long, she is hopelessly addicted. With Vronsky she has another child, but he is also torn between his love to Anna and the temptation of a respectable marriage. Anna becomes certain that Vronsky is about to leave her and marry a younger woman. She travels to the railway station and commits suicide by jumping in front of a train.

Vronsky is emotionally devastated by her death and volunteers for a suicide mission in the Caucasus Mountains. While travelling to join his regiment, he encounters Konstantin Levin, who has married Vronsky's former sweetheart, "Kitty" Shcherbatsky. Levin attempts to persuade Vronsky of the value of life. Vronsky, however, can only speak of how Anna's body looked at the train station. They separate and Levin returns to his family. He writes the events of the film and signs his manuscript, "Leo Tolstoy."


Cast:
Sophie Marceau as Anna Karenina
Sean Bean as Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky
Alfred Molina as Konstantin Dmitriewich Levin
Mia Kirshner as Yekaterina Alexandrovna Shcherbatsky, "Kitty"
James Fox as Count Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin
Fiona Shaw as Lydia Ivanovna
Danny Huston as Stepan Arkadyevitsch Oblonsky, "Stiva"
Saskia Wickham as Darya Alexandrovna, "Dolly"
Phyllida Law as Countess Vronskaya
David Schofield as Nikolai
Jennifer Hall as Betsy
Petr Shelokhonov as Kapitonich, Karenin's butler
Neal Buggy
Anthony Calf
Vernon Dobcheff as Pestov
Stefan Gryff
Barbara Horne
Larisa Kuznetsova as Agatha
Jeremy Sheffield as Boris
Justine Waddell as Countess Nordston
Nora Gryakalova as Myagkaya
Gelena Ivliyeva
Valeri Kukhareshin as Doctor
Konstantin Lukashov
Sergei Parshin
Kseniya Rappoport
Igor Yefimov
Tatiana Zakharova