Playlist: Anna Karenina

(A message to eventual purists in the audience: Try not to cringe too much. The point isn’t to be dignified, deferential or setting-appropriate, but to keep the powerful and complex emotions of the story alive in people’s hearts, 21^st-century-style. I like to think that, instead of rolling in his grave, Leo Nikolayevitch would be amused or even flattered.)

Dolly to Stiva

“I’ve been cheated by you since I don’t know when,
so I made up my mind it must come to an end.
Look at me now!
Will I ever learn? I don’t know how,
but I suddenly lose control;
there’s a fire within my soul.
Just one look and I can hear a bell ring.
One more look and I forgive everything, oh … ”
- ABBA, “Mamma Mia”

Kostya to Kitty
”A waltz for the chance I should take,
but how will I know where to start?
She's spinning between constellations and dreams,
her rhythm is my beating heart.
So she dances
in and out of the crowd like a glance.
This romance is
from afar, calling me silently … ”
- Josh Groban, “So She Dances”

Vronsky to Anna

“Beauty queen of only eighteen,
she had some trouble with herself.
He was always there to help her,
she always belonged to someone else.
I drove for miles and miles and wound up at your door.
I’ve had you so many times, but somehow I want more …
- Maroon 5, “She Will Be Loved”

Anna’s Dilemna
”I feel it in the air as I'm doing my hair,
preparing for another date.
A kiss upon my cheek as he reluctantly
asks if I'm gonna be out late.
I say I won't be long, just hanging with the girls;
a lie I didn't have to tell.
Because we both know where I'm about to go
and we know it very well …”
- Rihanna, “Unfaithful”

Jealousy (Kitty, Dolly & Lydia)
”Who's that girl? Where's she from?
No, she can't be the one
that you want; that has stolen my world.
It's not real – it's not right –
it's my day – it's my night!
By the way,
who's that girl living my life?”
- Hilary Duff, “Who’s That Girl?”

Anna to Karenin

“Lie to me, betray me,
scream out loud, only don’t be silent.
Chart a course for me,
give me something, anything to feel.
How far have you already gone?
I see you struggle with every word.
Your heart beats without a sound.
You are silencing our love to death.”
- Ina Müller, “Du Schweigst” (“You Are Silent”)

Karenin to Anna

“Oh, how come I deserve to be
the fool that he makes out of me?
At least you could have given me a clue!
You could have had a one-night fling,
and in time I'd forget evyerthing,
but I've got no chance.
I'm left no time to understand.
If you could see you've hurried love … ”
- Herbert Grönemeyer, “What’s All This?”

Kitty to Kostya
”So this is me swallowing my pride,
standing in front of you, saying, "I'm sorry for that night
and I go back to December all the time.”
It turns out freedom ain't nothing but missing you,
wishing I'd realized what I had when you were mine.
I'd go back to December, turn around and make it all right.”

- Taylor Swift, “Back to December”

Seryozha
”It ain't easy growing up in World War III,
never knowing what love could be, well I've seen.
I don't want love to destroy me like it has done my family.
Can we work it out? Can we be a family?
I promise I'll be better, Mommy, I'll do anything … ”
- P!nk, “Family Portrait”

Kostya and Kitty’s Marriage

“You are golden,
precious as a prayer flying up through the air
while the rain is falling.
Golden, timeless as a kiss; baby, I don’t want to miss
another perfect moment.”
- Lady Antebellum, “Golden”

Kostya to Nikolai

“Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend
somewhere among all the bitterness.
And I could have stayed up with you all night
had I known how to save a life.”
- The Fray, “How To Save A Life”

Anna’s Suicide  

“Through the crowd, I was crying out
and in your place there were a thousand other faces.
I was disappearing in plain sight.
Heaven help me, I need to make it right.
No light, no light in your bright blue eyes.
I never knew daylight could be so violent.
A revelation in the light of day:
you can't choose what stays and what fades away.”
- Florence + The Machine, “No Light, No Light”

Karenin and Vronsky in Mourning

“ … and when I say that I don't care,
it really means my engine's breaking down.
The chisel chips my heart again;
the granite cracks beneath my skin;
I crumble into pieces on the ground.”
- Elton John, “This Train Don’t Stop There Anymore”

Levin Family/Karenin to Annie

“For one so small, you seem so strong.
My arms will hold you, keep you safe and warm.
This bond between us can’t be broken.
I will be here, don’t you cry … ”
- Phil Collins, “You’ll Be In My Heart”

Kostya’s Epiphany
”Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I'm found;
was blind, but now I see.
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
and grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear
the hour I first believed.”
- traditional, “Amazing Grace”

Review: Anna Karenina (2012 film)

Also published on Positively Smitten.

(I don’t know if spoiler warnings apply to such a famous classic, but just in case: don’t read this if you don’t want to know the ending. And don’t read this if you’re expecting professionalism; like Anna herself, I can’t be calm and objective about a story like this.)

It took a long time for me to accept the value of tragedy in fiction. I used to feel that, since real life can be disappointing and frustrating enough, why look for the same thing in your books and movies? I still would rather have a happy ending than not, but I’ve learned to realize just how powerful a story can be without one. They make you think about them long after the last page or the end credits, wondering what went wrong and how it could have been avoided, which can often lead to new insights about human nature you might not otherwise have reached. They grab you by the throat and don’t let go.

And yes, in my case, they inspire fanfiction. I may be the only person in the world who ships Team Karenin; see further down as to why.

Joe Wright and Tom Stoppard’s version of this classic Tolstoy novel is my favorite adaptation, with the 1977 BBC miniseries in second place. These are the reasons why:

1. It’s the shortest. I know how that sounds, but having suffered through all ten episodes of Anna and Vronsky’s dysfunctional relationship in the 1977 version, brilliantly done as it was – not to mention the book – I did appreciate the more merciful speed of this one. I could have wished for more of Levin and Kitty, but their key scenes were mostly there, and the best part of a film is that a single shot (Domnhall Gleeson looking up from his scythe in a blaze of autumn sunlight) can be worth a thousand words.

2. It’s a banquet for the senses. The rich costumes, the hauntingly lovely soundtrack combining Russian folk songs and Dario Manelli’s compositions, all the good-looking actors involved, and most especially the setting. They filmed most of it inside an old theatre, which lends a magical, surreal quality to the story that none of the other versions have: for example, the train rides are represented by Anna’s son’s toy train; it only takes a short climb of a ladder from the Scherbatskys’ luxurious party to Nikolai’s dump of an apartment; during Anna and Vronsky’s fateful first dance, all the other dancers freeze in place; musicians with brass instruments roam freely during the changes in scene. This idea also pointedly underscores part of Tolstoy’s message, namely how staged and artificial high society really was at that time. When Levin flings open the theatre doors and walks out into a dazzling winter sunrise, it represents that desire for a simple, honest life in harmony with nature which sets him apart from nearly all the other characters.

3. Jude Law. Just … Jude Law. I had no idea the man could be so brilliant (or so handsome with a beard, spectacles and uniform). He takes the character of Karenin, whom most of the films dismiss as a cold-hearted bureaucrat whose spitefulness gets in the way of Anna and Vronsky’s epic love story, to a whole new level. This Karenin is anything but cold-hearted; instead he feels everything so deeply, from his love for Anna to the terrible pain and anger caused by her betrayal, that he has no idea what to do with it. So he suffers quietly while everyone around him bursts into tears or shouting, and when he warns Anna to stop, he hides behind abstract ideas of duty – which, unfortunately, is the worst line to take with her, because Anna simply doesn’t think that way. She thinks in terms of romance, and her husband’s gestures (kissing her hand at the train station; using condoms to protect her fragile system from further pregnancies) are just too subtle to register next to Vronsky, who follows her everywhere, flirts with her shamelessly in public and tells her things like “You are my happiness!”. No wonder all of Karenin’s tight control finally breaks toward the middle of the film (although that’s still no excuse for shoving a pregnant woman, just so you know) and he falls under the influence of Lydia who, religious hypocrite that she is, is the only character who even gives a damn about his well-being.

I honestly believe that, in the beginning, it wasn’t even about Vronsky. Anna just wanted passion from somebody, and the young soldier happened to be the first one who showed it to her. If only Karenin had been just a little more brave, a little more honest – quite frankly, a little more jealous – they could have had a real marriage that lasted, and his steady reliability would have been much better for her in the long run than Vronsky’s impulsiveness. Or else, if only Anna hadn’t completely lost her mind after her daughter’s birth (to be fair, maybe it was post-partum depression) and decided to hate the man who forgave her, instead of the man who almost helped her kill herself when they started that pregnancy in the first place …

Oh, I could go on for hours. That’s how frustrating these over-120-year-old fictional characters can be for me. I wanted to throw something at all three sides of this love triangle – and, at different points in the story, hug them. They don’t call Leo Tolstoy a genius for nothing. And Jude Law and Keira Knightley deserve every award they’ve ever received.

There. That’s the end of my fangirl tirade. Returning to my review …

4. The not-quite-tragic ending. I know this rather contradicts my opening paragraph, but it’s true. One of my criticisms of most of the other films (and even the book) is that they show so much less of the aftermath of Anna’s death than I wanted to know. Instead, in the book, we get one of Tolstoy’s very long lectures about the Crimean War and Levin’s very slow path to spiritual awakening. We get small hints of Vronsky’s reaction (enlisting in the said war), and Karenin’s (adopting Anna and Vronsky’s neglected baby) but Stiva’s unchanged cheerfulness does not ring true, and we never find out Kitty’s, Dolly’s or Karenin’s true feelings about the grisly suicide of someone they care about at all. In the 2012 version, we get at least a few glimpses: Karenin reading in a meadow with sober serenity as Seryozha and Annie play together; Stiva smoking alone in the dark as his family gathers for dinner; and, most importantly, Tolstoy’s elaborate statement of faith crystallized into a single heartwarming moment as Levin’s baby son reaches for his finger.

So much for the “pros”, but I must admit I have some “cons”as well. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is decidedly the weak point of the film. His Vronsky comes across as a shallow, selfish boy who is even more incapable of controlling his hormones than Anna, who at least has the grace to feel guilty about what she’s doing. Also, their physical love scenes come across as not so much sensual as gross; my mother, watching along with me, said they reminded her of octopi wiggling their tentacles. This may be deliberate, to show how inadequate a relationship is based on nothing but lust, but it doesn’t do much to win sympathy for them as a doomed couple. It’s not until later, when they are forced to rely on no one but each other for emotional support, that their love becomes a little more credible. And by the time Anna’s jealousy and Vronsky’s inability to deal with her had driven them to the breaking point, I honestly did feel like crying. No one, no matter how shallow or selfish, deserves to have his love crush herself under a train.

Also, the dialogue was weak in some places, but that probaby couldn’t be helped; trying to compress the work of a long-winded nineteenth-century author into a form that twenty-first century attention spans can handle couldn’t have been easy. Still, when a disenchanted Kitty after Vronsky’s rejection asks her older sister: “Why do they call it love?” and Dolly, holding her baby, replies “Because it’s … love”, or when Vronsky, on being asked by Anna why she loves him, says “You can’t ask why about love”, it does not sound profound or wise so much as vague.

And by the way, just to quibble a bit more, the latter quote does not strike me as the best choice for a poster tagline. On the contrary, the  whole story is one brilliant, beautiful network of proof that every lover should ask why. If the answers are “because she’s forbidden”, “because he’s hot”, or “because I’m bored in my marriage”, those answers are wrong, and the solution is to run the other way before you end up spattered across the railway tracks. But if the answers are “because he/she’s the other parent of my children”, “because my faith tells me to forgive”, “because his feelings are still the same after I broke his heart a year ago”, “because we think so much alike we can communicate via alphabet blocks” or “because she doesn’t bat an eye at taking care of my consumptive, alcoholic brother and his prostitute companion”, by all means go ahead.

“There are as many loves as there are hearts”, a genuine quote by Tolstoy used in the opening frames of the film, would have made a much better tagline. There’s simply nothing like the original.