Leo Tolstoy's novel "Anna Karenina" is one of the most screened works in the whole world - in the entire history of cinema, this drama has been filmed more than 30 times. The film was shot by Russians, Americans, British, French, Italians and even Germans. The role of the main character Anna was played by the most famous actresses of different eras - from Greta Garbo to Keira Knightley. Which of the film adaptations is considered the most famous and fully conveys the atmosphere of the novel?
A masterpiece of classics
In his great creation, Leo Tolstoy described the tragic love of a married woman, Anna Karenina, for the brilliant, handsome officer Vronsky. The background for their story was the happy family life of the nobles Kitty Shtcherbatskaya and Konstantin Levin. Young and full of strength Anna Karenina, her husband, the bureaucrat Karenin, the spiritless aristocrat Vronsky, the clumsy eccentric Levin, the open Kitty and other characters in the novel create an outwardly ideal world on the pages of the book. However, is it so ideal on closer examination?
The most famous novel about forbidden feelings has been translated into many languages of the countries of the world, where it has been repeatedly recognized as one of the most popular works.
Many consider the Russian, American and British versions, filmed in 1967, 1997 and 2012, to be the most popular screen versions of Anna Karenina. The main roles in these films were played by recognized sex symbols of all time - Tatiana Samoilova, Sophie Marceau and Keira Knightley. These actresses managed to embody the theme of the image of Anna Karenina on the screen and revive it with their acting skills.
Best Film Adaptation of a Novel
Despite the large number of "competitors", the most famous adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's book was the Russian two-part drama by Alexander Zarkhi, released in 1967. In his film, the great Soviet director embodied with maximum accuracy the dramatic story of a woman from a patriarchal high society who decided to open up to meet her love.
In the Russian film adaptation, almost the entire Soviet cinematic elite of that time starred, including the ballerina Maya Plisetskaya.
For the first time, Alexander Zarkhi showed his film in the USSR and was going to go with him to the Cannes Film Festival, but the event was disrupted by student strikes, and foreign viewers never saw the director's picture. To date, the Russian "Anna Karenina" is in 89th place according to the results of screenings of films of the domestic film distribution and is the 16th adaptation of the great masterpiece of Leo Tolstoy.
After its worldwide release, the film received tremendous success and worldwide fame, gaining the greatest popularity in Japan. Fans from the land of the rising sun wore hats like Anna's and braces a la Vronsky. To this day, most viewers consider Tatyana Samoilova the most canonical and real Anna Karenina, whom the great Russian classic Leo Tolstoy created, revived and killed in his novel.
