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Anna karenina (1948): a review.

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Anna Karenina (1948) Directed by Julien Duvivier

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Anna Karenina

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Vivien Leigh (Anna Karenina) Ralph Richardson (Karenin) Kieron Moore (Count Vronsky) Hugh Dempster (Stepan Oblonsky) Mary Kerridge (Dolly Oblonsky) Marie Lohr (Princess Shcherbatsky) Frank Tickle (Prince Shcherbatsky) Sally Ann Howes (Kitty Shcherbatsky) Niall MacGinnis (Levin) Michael Gough (Nicholai) Martita Hunt (Princess Betty Tversky) Heather Thatcher (Countess Lydia Ivanovna) Helen Haye (Countess Vronsky) Mary Martlew (Princess Nathalia) Ruby Miller (Countess Meskov) Austin Trevor (Col. Vronsky) Ann South (Princess Sorokina) Gus Verney (Prince Makhotin)

Julien Duvivier

A married woman's affair with a dashing young officer has tragic results.

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Anna karenina.

1948 Directed by Julien Duvivier

Vivien Leigh in the most magnificent love story ever written!

Stefan and Dolly Oblonsky have had a spat and Stefan has asked his sister, Anna Karenina, to come down to Moscow to help mend the rift. Anna's companion on the train from St. Petersburg is Countess Vronsky who is met at the Moscow station by her son. Col. Vronsky looks very dashing in his uniform and it's love at first sight when he looks at Anna and their eyes meet.

Vivien Leigh Ralph Richardson Kieron Moore Hugh Dempster Mary Kerridge Marie Lohr Frank Tickle Sally Ann Howes Niall MacGinnis Michael Gough Martita Hunt Heather Thatcher Helen Haye Mary Martlew Ruby Miller

Director Director

Julien Duvivier

Producers Producers

Alexander Korda Herbert Mason

Writers Writers

Julien Duvivier Jean Anouilh Guy Morgan Elizabeth Montagu

Original Writer Original Writer

Leo Tolstoy

Casting Casting

Dorothy Holloway

Cinematography Cinematography

Henri Alekan

Camera Operator Camera Operator

Robert Walker

Art Direction Art Direction

Andrej Andrejew

Special Effects Special Effects

Cliff Richardson W. Percy Day Ned Mann

Composers Composers

Constant Lambert Hubert Clifford

Sound Sound

John Cox Red Law Bert Ross

Costume Design Costume Design

Cecil Beaton

Makeup Makeup

Harold Fletcher

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Helen Penfold

London Films Productions

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

English Italian

Releases by Date

22 jan 1948, 23 jan 1948, releases by country.

• Theatrical 12

139 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by ele ★★★★

vivien was born to play anna but I cannot forgive this movie’s interpretation of levin as some old guy in a field who is literally only in three scenes and has like two lines

Review by Zegan ★★★½

Rest in peace Vivien Leigh, you're one of the most wonderful actresses in cinema history.

Review by 𝑨𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒂 ★★★★

Vivien I love you :(

Review by Sarah ★★

The Anna Karenina adaptation that time forgot.

I'll admit it: I haven't read it. I'm a subliterate she-ape. I don't even own a book! (I'm sitting less than six feet from my copy of Anna Karenina , purchased not so long ago with only the best of intentions and for the agreeable price of $0.50. Someday, little book.)

I had to acquaint myself with the basics of the novel after I watched Duvivier's 1948 adaptation, because I really had a hard time understanding character motivations and wanted to know how it was "supposed" to be. Is Vronsky supposed to be a complete dullard? Are we supposed to celebrate his and Anna's romance? The story in the film seems to falter between…

Review by Isabelle ★★★★½

i tried watching the earlier (1935) version w/ garbo in it but for me it just didn't encapsulate the personality and conflicts anna faces as splendidly as vivien leigh does in this. although at times this film can be stilted and has some poor choice of lasting (particularly for vronsky and levin imo) the most outstanding feature is vivien's expressive performance in this, recalling to mind other similarly powerful and tragic roles such as myra in waterloo bridge and blanche in a streetcar named desire! the last scene was particularly heart wrenching!! in my (albeit slightly biased) opinion she is the best anna so far.

Review by lizzie ★★★★

It's been 84 years and I finally found the full 2 hour 13 minute cut of the film (no, I don't have Criterion, so if any sugar daddy and or Ms. Hamisham-esque figure who would like to fund my obsession hmu)

I love Vivien Leigh more than anything. Would this be watchable without her? Probably not. For me, her screen presence alone totally elevates the film in a way that no one else could.

Ok, earnest review over. Gonna go cry in a corner

Review by Channing Pomeroy ★★★½

Anna Karenina is the greatest novel of all time, which like the greatest American novel, The Great Gatsby, has thwarted all attempts to adapt it into a great film. This is despite Tolstoy being our most cinematic writer. Film didn’t yet exist, but Tolstoy practically invents it to project, in real time, a swirling St. Petersburg ball into the reader’s mind.

Tolstoy structures the story on a perfect love triangle — three rich, complex, conflicted characters in conflict — that give the book its balance and energy. But in this film the triangle only has two strong legs. Leigh and Richardson are fabulous, but Kieron Moore just doesn’t hold up his end. He’s an empty uniform and mustache, neither dashing…

Review by Jim Dooley ★★★★ 4

A few years ago, I finally read the Leo Tolstoy novel and it became one of my favorite books.  Since that time, I have seen a number of filmed versions ... none of which capture the massive breadth of the novel, which is to be expected.  This one is my favorite version, though.      Before seeing this movie, I knew nothing about the Director, Julien Duvivier.  He certainly had a great deal of talent, especially in using the expressions of his performers to capture not only their emotions, but also the occurrences happening around them.  For instance, we do not need to see Vronsky’s spill during the horse race.  The detail is all in Anna’s face.  A friend told…

Review by anna🌙 ★★★

Vivien Leigh lights up every single movie she's in

Review by gwen ★★★★ 1

This entire film felt like a love letter of some sort despite it's tragedy. Everything that Vivien Leigh touches feels and becomes so personal. It's why I always look forward to seeing her on my screen, and why I stand by my opinion that she should have been given the chance to do more movies.

On another note, I did not expect the kind of production this film had. Amazing set and design, costumes, score, and acting (Well, except maybe the guy who plays Vronsky)

Review by 𝓛𝔂𝓵𝓪🕊️ ★★★½

please let me know if there’s a movie out there where vivien leighs character has a happy ending im begging

Review by 🌹 Rose White ⚜️ ★★★½

This is an Alexander Korda picture all the way around, even if he didn't direct it. It is sweeping, yet somehow intimate. Scintillating, yet subdued in its manners. It is as fine an adaptation as one would expect of Tolstoy with this runtime and production period, and Vivien Leigh's exceptional talents are on full display in the genre she does best. It didn't quite move me the way it should, as it remains too detached as a straight adaptation for me to be totally invested. But I found it enjoyable and truly well made, with complex characters moving in and out of each other's lives like the schedule of a train.

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Anna Karenina (1948)

Leo Tolstoy is well-known for the size of his tomes and perhaps this is the major stumbling block for this otherwise worthy British film adaptation of the story of Anna Karenina (Vivien Leigh) and her extra-marital affair with Count Vronsky (Kieron Moore). Sub-plots introduced at the outset, notably that involving Anna’s friends, the young Kitty Scherbatsky (Sally Ann Howes) and philandering husband Stefan Oblonsky (Hugh Dempster), largely evaporate and even the main story of the relationship between Anna and the dashing cavalryman experiences a sudden gear shift early in the piece with Anna going from the threshold of her affair to nearly dying of childbirth in a single cut.

The sheer volume of the story also makes for a certain stop-start unevenness (originally released at 139m the film was later cut to 111m) to the emotional trajectory of the narrative as Anna nearly dies, appears to reconcile with her husband (Ralph Richardson), resumes with Vronksy, the affair unravels and so on before an oddly symbolic ending. In part, this also impinges on the performances which seem quite uninvolved. In the case of Anna and her husband this makes sense but there is nothing apparent between Leigh and Kieron Moore, an actor who was in nothing else of note despite a career that ran to the mid-70s, to suggest the grand passion that derails Anna’s comfortable life.

One of Tolstoy’s concerns was to depict the rigid class mores of Russian society and the film does that well enough, albeit Leigh and Richardson adopt plummy English accents with Richardson further affecting a Coward-like diction giving the film a rather generically Anglo-aristocratic manner. The art direction and costume design, featuring some nice work from Cecil Beaton, make this an impressive  production which was overseen by Vladamir Wiemzemski as historical advisor. Leigh who was married to Laurence Olivier at the time and suffering from psychological problems makes for an attractively fragile Anna although her performance is quite subdued. Anna Karenina is a solid costumier but not one to get the pulse racing.

DVD Extras : Featurettes: Tolstoy, The Man Behind Anna ; The Tolstoy Legacy ; Film restoration comparison; Stills gallery.

Available from: Shock Entertainment

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Anna Karenina

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Brief Synopsis

Cast & crew, julien duvivier, vivien leigh, ralph richardson, kieron moore, sally ann howes, martita hunt, photos & videos, technical specs.

Stefan and Dolly Oblonsky have had a little spat and Stefan has asked his sister, Anna Karenina, to come down to Moscow to help mend the rift. Anna's companion on the train from St. Petersburg is Countess Vronsky who is met at the Moscow station by her son. Col. Vronsky looks very dashing in his uniform and it's love at first sight when he looks at Anna and their eyes meet. Back in St. Petersburg they keep running into each other at parties. Since she has a husband and small son, they must be very discreet if they are going to see each other alone.

Ruby Miller

Michael Gough

John longden.

Heather Thatcher

Hugh dempster, niall macginnis, mary kerridge, frank tickle, mary martlew, austin trevor, henri alekan, andre andrejew, jean anouilh, alexander korda, constant lambert, russell lloyd, leo tolstoy, robert walker, photo collections.

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Anna Karenina (1947)

Anna Karenina (1948) - Vivien Leigh stars in the 1948 Film Version of Leo Tolstoy's ANNA KARENINA

Anna karenina (1948) - vivien leigh stars in the 1948 film version of leo tolstoy's anna karenina.

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Anna Karenina – review

I n Tolstoy , the theatre is often something to be mistrusted, both as art-form and social occasion, a place of absurdity and vanity either side of the footlights. Famously, the one thing he personally disliked in Chekhov was his habit of writing for the theatre, and said to him: "Shakespeare's plays are bad enough, but yours are even worse!" So it is an interesting, even subversive idea for screenwriter Tom Stoppard and director Joe Wright to have contrived an adaptation of Anna Karenina set in one place: a theatre.

Here is where the show and theatricality of high society is underlined, where the norms and hypocrisies of public life are conspicuous. Scenes will begin in the theatre building, on stage, or in an auditorium where the seats have been removed, often among costumed extras who will freeze like waxworks while the principals exchange dialogue. Or sometimes, characters will tensely quarrel backstage amid the ropes and pulleys controlling the scenery. This approach gives the scenes which really are set at the theatre a hyperreal quality, though the film's action will at times open out into the normal sets and outdoor locations of a regular adaptation.

It's a magic lantern effect, a rhetoric of unreality. The group scenes often make the film look like a musical without the songs. It sometimes has the effect of re-focusing our attention all the more sharply on to the performances, although I sometimes felt that it should either be done completely stylised or not at all, an absolute one-location movie, or a conventional one ranging far afield.

Keira Knightley is very good as Anna, suggesting a new subtlety and maturity in her acting. She is the artless wife and mother, married to a pinched and prim government official, Alexei Karenin. In this role, too, Jude Law gives a thoroughly intelligent performance. Bearded and bespectacled, he behaves like an ascetic or a priest who increasingly disapproves both of others' weakness and his own enforced tolerance. Anna has come to Moscow from her St Petersburg home on a mission of mercy: her scapegrace brother Oblonsky (Matthew Macfadyen) has been caught by his wife Dolly (Kelly Macdonald) having an affair with the family's former governess. (Oblonsky's is the unhappy family described in the book's famous opening sentence; where all happy families are alike, his is "unhappy in its own way".) Anna, with her delicacy and tact must speak to Dolly, persuade her to forgive and forget and keep the marriage together. Yet through an ironic wrench of fate, it is on this visit that she meets the mercurial and handsome young army officer, Count Vronsky, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson . There is a spark between them, and Anna finds herself set on a terrible, fateful path.

The film version skates over that other half of the story which concerns Oblonsky's friend Levin, played by Domhnall Gleeson, a wealthy idealist who has come to town to propose to the beautiful Kitty (Alicia Vikander), also being courted by Vronsky, but deeply wounded and downcast is forced to retreat to his country estates and find some consolation in pursuing a life of simplicity, close to the land and to God. His story is hardly as sensational and dramatic as Anna's, and yet without the mystery of seeing Levin's life juxtaposed with hers — they actually have a connection in the book, not hinted at here — the story loses some of its perspective and its flavour. Gleeson does well in this demanding role, reduced though it is.

As Vronsky, Aaron Taylor-Johnson certainly brings conceit and a callow self-regard. He preens well. As in his earlier movies Kick-Ass and Nowhere Boy , he is an attractive, open presence, but he is out of his depth here, especially when he has to suggest Vronsky's later agony and wretchedness, and the fact that he, as well as Anna, has made sacrifices for their affair.

And so the tale continues, interestingly, if somewhat disconcertingly, in this semi-permeable fantasy theatre, from which the characters make their periodic excursions into the outside world. It is probably most startling when the racecourse scene is actually held indoors, in the theatre. The horses parade round and round the auditorium itself. That's certainly striking, though audiences of a more down-to-earth cast of mind could be forgiven for wondering what the smell would be like, and where the guys with shovels are standing.

More successful, and more moving, is a tableau later in the film which shows the gentle meadow where Karenin comes to terms with his memories, or perhaps it is rather the meadow where Anna had her most ecstatic intimacy with Vronsky. Surreally, miraculously, this meadow is spread over the theatre; the building is carpeted with flowers. A dream of freedom and contentment has spread itself out in a place which until then had been a venue for anxiety and unhappiness. The Wright/Stoppard Anna Karenina is not a total success, but it's a bold and creative response to the novel.

• Period and historical films
• Drama films
• Keira Knightley
• Tom Stoppard
• Leo Tolstoy

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Synopsis by Hal Erickson

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Anna Karenina (1948) Parent Guide

Like tragic literary heroines before, "anna karenina" commands attention -- the kind demanded from a crowd waiting for an inevitable train wreck..

While journeying alone to her brother's home, Anna Karenina (Vivien Leigh) meets the attractive Count Vronsky (Kieron Moore). Swept up in his offer of passion, the married woman soon abandons her husband (Ralph Richardson), family and position in society.

Release date April 27, 1948

Run Time: 139 minutes

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by kerry bennett.

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” wrote Leo Tolstoy at the beginning of his novel Anna Karenina . And unhappy families are abundant in the 1948 film adaptation of Tolstoy’s work.

The story opens with Anna (Vivien Leigh) on a journey to visit her brother’s family. His indiscretions with another woman have caused an understandable rift between Stefan (Hugh Dempster) and his wife Dolly (Mary Kerridge). Anna swoops in to set things right and restore matrimonial bliss by encouraging her sister-in-law to forgive her husband’s foibles.

With the Count’s affections known, Anna soon tires of what she considers a loveless marriage to a much older man. Throwing off her marital commitments and leaving her son behind, she runs away to Italy with the Count, becomes pregnant and nearly loses her life. However, Alexei still refuses to grant her a divorce and keeps Anna from doing the one thing she thinks she wants more than any other—to marry the Count.

Adapted numerous times for the big screen, Anna Karenina opens with tragedy when a moving train crushes a worker caught on the tracks. His death foreshadows what follows when the headstrong woman gives into her passions. Along with the painful results of her infidelity and the emotional instability she causes others is the devastating effect Anna’s choices have on her own life.  Even in the arms of her lover, she broods over being an outcast among her social peers, yearns for lost friendships and is given to moments of jealousy and suspicion when the Count goes away on business.

Warned from the start about the impending unhappiness of this capricious character, audiences can’t expect a cheerful outcome. Yet like tragic literary heroines before, Anna Karenina commands attention—the kind demanded from a crowd waiting for an inevitable train wreck.

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Kerry Bennett

Anna karenina (1948) rating & content info.

Why is Anna Karenina (1948) rated Not Rated? Anna Karenina (1948) is rated Not Rated by the MPAA

Violence: A moving train runs over a man. Characters attempt to commit suicide; one succeeds. A married couple argues and struggles briefly. An unmarried couple also argues. A woman nearly loses her life following childbirth. A man lies to his child about the boy’s mother. Characters gossip about others.

Sexual Content: A woman leaves her husband to begin an illicit affair. An unmarried couple kisses on several occasions. A woman becomes pregnant with her lover’s child. Infidelity is repeated discussed.

Language: None noted.

Alcohol / Drug Use: Characters frequently drink and smoke. One man is portrayed as drunk.

Page last updated July 17, 2017

Anna Karenina (1948) Parents' Guide

How does the director use snow in this movie to depict the coldness of the relationships and the dreariness of the circumstances?

Should love trump every other commitment or duty that a person has? What does Alexei mean when he says there is a proper way to carry on an affair? Do you agree with Alexei’s decision to tell his son that the boy’s mother had died? Is that less harmful to the boy than knowing his mother abandoned him?

How do Anna’s self-centeredness, jealousy and emotional insecurity weary the men (and women) in her life? How do those traits impact her ability to have a stable and enduring relationship?

Anna Karenina is based on a novel by the Russian author, Leo Tolstoy .

The most recent home video release of Anna Karenina (1948) movie is April 24, 2007. Here are some details…

Home Video Notes: Anna Karenina (1948)

Release Date: April 24, 2007

The 1948 version of Anna Karenina released to DVD with the following extras:

- Full Screen Feature (Black & White)

- Tolstoy: The Man Behind Anna

- The Tolstoy Legacy

- Restoration Comparison

- Still Gallery

Related home video titles:

Actress Vivien Leigh also stars as Scarlett in the film classic Gone With the Wind . Actress Sally Ann Howes, who plays Kitty, is the love interest of Dick Van Dyck’s character in the fantasy film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang .

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Movie Review

Infidelity, Grandly Staged

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By A.O. Scott

• Nov. 15, 2012

Bad literary adaptations are all alike, but every successful literary adaptation succeeds in its own way. The bad ones — or let’s just say the average ones, to spare the feelings of hard-working wig makers and dialect coaches — are undone by humility, by anxious obeisance to the cultural prestige of literature. The good ones succeed through hubris, through the arrogant assumption that a great novel is not a sacred artifact but rather a lump of interesting material to be shaped according to the filmmaker’s will.

The British director Joe Wright has seemed to me — up to now — to belong to the dreary party of humility. His screen versions of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and Ian McEwan’s “Atonement” are not terrible, just cautious and responsible. For all their technical polish and the admirable discipline of their casts, those films remain trapped in literariness. Instead of strong, risky interpretations, they offer crib notes and the pale flattery of imitation. The proof of their mediocrity is that admirers of Austen or Mr. McEwan will find no reason for complaint.

Mr. Wright’s “Anna Karenina” is different. It is risky and ambitious enough to count as an act of artistic hubris, and confident enough to triumph on its own slightly — wonderfully — crazy terms. Pious Tolstoyans may knit their brows about the stylistic liberties Mr. Wright and the screenwriter, Tom Stoppard, have taken, but surely Tolstoy can withstand (and may indeed benefit from) their playful, passionate rendering of his masterpiece.

The challenge of “Anna Karenina” is that Tolstoy’s loose and baggy monster of a novel is more than large, bigger than great: it is comprehensive. As it glides among its many characters, reading their thoughts and dissecting their desires, the book becomes a vivid panorama of an entire society, you might even say a whole species. “Anna Karenina” does not take place, as movie-trailer voice-overs might say, “in a world” of such and such exotic customs. The book lives in the world, in the busy, contingent present tense of mid-19th-century Imperial Russia, which contained everything Tolstoy knew. To try to reproduce that world according to the canons of 21st-century movie realism would be to diminish and falsify his narrative, which ascends through cultural and social detail into a realm of universal emotion.

Mr. Wright’s brilliant gamble is to arrive at this level of emotional authenticity by way of self-conscious artifice. The cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg are rendered as elaborate stage sets. (Sarah Greenwood is the production designer.) Characters make their way around props, past painted backdrops and through catwalks, ropes and backstage rigging. You get the sense that in these bureaucratic offices, ministerial meetings and aristocratic households, everyday life is a form of theater. To play your part in this intricately hierarchical society you must speak your lines, hit your marks, know your place and beware of improvisation.

But the film itself is the very opposite of stagy. The camera hurtles through the scenery as if in hungry pursuit; the lush colors of the upholstery and the costumes pulsate with feeling; the music (by Dario Marianelli) howls and sighs and the performances are fresh, energetic and alive. Compressing the important events of Tolstoy’s thousand pages into an impressively swift two hours and change, Mr. Wright turns a sweeping epic into a frantic and sublime opera.

The principal diva is Keira Knightley, her hair dyed black, her cheekbones veiled and her slender frame encased in gowns that function like satin mood rings. We sometimes talk about characters having arcs, but Anna Karenina is more like a human wave tank, rising and falling according to the contradictions of her temperament. The loyal, bored wife of a dry, virtuous government official (played with heartbreaking tact by Jude Law), Anna travels from St. Petersburg to Moscow to calm a marital storm in the household of her brother, Stiva Oblonsky (Matthew Macfadyen), who has been cheating on his wife, Dolly (Kelly Macdonald).

Oblonsky’s adultery foreshadows what is perhaps the most famous infidelity in literature, though his philandering is also trivial compared to the affair that Anna will pursue with Count Vronsky, a young military officer. I assume you know that it ends badly, but Mr. Wright’s real interest, like Tolstoy’s, is in everything that happens in between Anna’s first meeting with Vronsky and her final encounter with the wheels of a train. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with curly blond hair, a crisp white uniform and the kind of mustache that would have melted hearts in an Upper West Side singles bar around 1974, turns Vronsky into a pretty, impulsive enigma. He has the eyes of a poet, but it is hard to shake the suspicion that this would-be romantic hero is, at heart, a shallow hedonist dominated by his imperious mother (Olivia Williams).

The possibility that Vronsky might not be worthy of Anna is a source of the agonizing pathos that follows their initial, headlong bliss. Their sun-dappled season of sexual ecstasy is followed by recrimination, insecurity and punishment. But the Anna-Vronsky folie à deux is hardly the only story “Anna Karenina” has to tell. “Why do they call it love, anyway?” Dolly’s younger sister, Kitty, asks in the throes of girlish romantic disappointment. Her sister replies, “Because it’s love,” and the whole movie can be taken as an unpacking of this apparent tautology — as a study in the varieties of love.

Kitty, a young woman of almost unbearable loveliness played by the Swedish actress Alicia Vikander, is adored by Levin, a gloomy ginger-haired rural landowner. (“Harry Potter” fans will be pleased to see Domhnall Gleeson, the former Bill Weasley, in this role.) Levin is widely understood to be Tolstoy’s alter ego, and his idea of love — as the pure, ennobling union of souls — is an idealistic rebuke to the cynical amorality that festers in the cities. When it visits Levin, the film exchanges the trappings of theatricality for a lyrical naturalism, inhaling the fresh air of open fields and the homely aromas of a drafty wooden manor house.

Levin’s ardent goodness — his devotion to Kitty is connected to his belief in social justice and his faith in God — stands in contrast to Oblonsky’s cheerful selfishness, Karenin’s stern morality and Vronsky’s immature swooning. And “Anna Karenina,” in spite of the complicated woman at its center, is in many ways a study in the varieties of male behavior. This is partly because the world it depicts is one in which, as one character notes, the rules are made for and by husbands and fathers. It is men who act and choose, while women suffer, wait and watch.

How you measure the distance between that world — a bygone reality if you are reading Tolstoy; a constructed one if you are watching Mr. Wright’s movie — and the one we inhabit will be a matter of perspective. Mr. Stoppard and Mr. Wright offer “Anna Karenina” and its heroine to the gods of melodrama, who receive her gladly. But their film, wild and emotional as it is, does not quite hit the deep, resonant note of tragedy that would lift it above the merely (by which I mean the merely very) good. At the end you may be dazzled, touched and a bit tired. But, really, you should feel as if you had been hit by a train.

“Anna Karenina” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Overwhelming sexual passion, but with (very fancy) clothes on.

An earlier version of this review misidentified a character in “Anna Karenina.” He is Oblonsky, not Oblomov.

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Anna Karenina

2012, Romance/History, 2h 9m

What to know

Critics Consensus

Joe Wright's energetic adaptation of Tolstoy's classic romance is a bold, visually stylized work -- for both better and worse. Read critic reviews

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Anna karenina videos, anna karenina   photos.

Anna Karenina (Keira Knightley), the wife of a Russian imperial minister (Jude Law), creates a high-society scandal by an affair with Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a dashing cavalry officer in 19th-century St. Petersburg. Anna's husband, Alexei, offers her a difficult choice: Go into exile with Vronsky but never see her young son again, or remain with her family and abide by the rules of discretion. Meanwhile, a farmer named Levin pines for Princess Kitty, who only has eyes for Vronsky.

Rating: R (Violence|Some Sexuality)

Genre: Romance, History, Drama

Original Language: English

Director: Joe Wright

Producer: Tim Bevan , Eric Fellner , Paul Webster

Writer: Tom Stoppard

Release Date (Theaters): Nov 30, 2012  wide

Release Date (Streaming): Aug 14, 2015

Box Office (Gross USA): $12.8M

Runtime: 2h 9m

Distributor: Focus Features

Production Co: Working Title Films

Sound Mix: Datasat, Dolby Digital

Cast & Crew

Keira Knightley

Aaron Taylor-Johnson

Domhnall Gleeson

Alicia Vikander

Matthew Macfadyen

Kelly Macdonald

Oskar McNamara

Olivia Williams

Countess Vronsky

Ruth Wilson

Princess Betsy Tverskoy

Emily Watson

Countess Lydia Ivanova

Tom Stoppard

Screenwriter

Eric Fellner

Paul Webster

Liza Chasin

Executive Producer

Seamus McGarvey

Cinematographer

Sarah Greenwood

Production Design

Melanie Ann Oliver

Film Editing

Jacqueline Durran

Costume Design

Dario Marianelli

Original Music

Niall Moroney

Supervising Art Direction

Katie Spencer

Set Decoration

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Critic Reviews for Anna Karenina

Audience reviews for anna karenina.

Anna Karenina is a great story, and this is an adaptation that gets better each time you see it. At first, it can be a bit confusing, because it is like a musical piece that one has to hear more than once to get the feel of; but a good amount of feeling does go into the film. Kiera Knightly plays a very sympathetic Anna: natural, and not exactly naive, but at the same time does not really know what she is doing as she is pulled about by her "demon". The film looks great and the stage-play motif is brought off magnificently with vital creative spirit. The main downside of the film is that Count Vronsky does not come off as someone worth ruining oneself over (though perhaps others will think different). On the other hand, the scenes between Anna and her husband (played by Jude Law) have very good dramatic tension and draw the film through each act. All-in-all, Anna Karenina is a good film with rewatch value. This is a commercial production, but a very creative and interesting one. My rating is a touch on the high side (relative to what one should expect), but it suits some of my tastes, and I personally enjoyed this film quite a bit.

The film was so so. It was beautifully shot. Great costumes and music score. The pacing was off. I felt like I have seen Keira play this kind of role before in the movie Duchess. Aaron Taylor-Johnson was miscast. The supporting actors were very good. I found them more fascinating than the main two characters. Jude Law is great here. I liked seeing the Pride and Prejudice reunion between Keira and Matthew MacFadyen, Matthew is great here.

I couldn't get into this for some reason. Turned it off after 40 minutes.

The film looks gorgeous and I loved the idea of setting most of it within a theatre, although I wish Wright had kept his nerve and had no outside shots in the film. The cast are very strong (MacFadyen is especially funny as Anna's brother and Law is very sympathetic as her husband) but the whole thing is let down by a story that edges towards being boring. I applaud the effort but just wish the whole thing had been done with better source material.

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It's not the story but the style and the ideas that make Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina'' a great novel and not a soap opera. There's no shortage of stories about bored rich women who leave their older husbands and take up with playboys. This new screen version of the novel makes that clear by focusing on the story, which without Tolstoy's wisdom, is a grim and melodramatic affair. Here is a woman of intoxicating beauty and deep passion, and she becomes so morose and tiresome that by the end, we'd just as soon she throw herself under a train, and are not much cheered when she obliges.

The film has been shot on location in Russia; we see St. Petersburg exteriors, country estates and opulent Czarist palaces whose corridors recede to infinity. It all looks wonderful, but the characters, with one exception, are clunks who seem awed to be in the screen adaptation of a Russian classic. The exception is Alexei Karenin, Anna's husband, who is played by James Fox with such a weary bitterness that I found myself caring for him even when he was being cruel to poor Anna.

The story: Anna ( Sophie Marceau ) and her husband live on a country estate, where their marriage is a dry affair. She goes to the city to counsel her rakish brother Stiva ( Danny Huston ), who is treating his wife badly. She meets a slickster named Count Vronsky ( Sean Bean ), who has a mistress named Kitty ( Mia Kirshner ), but he drops her the moment he sees Anna. He dances with her, she is intoxicated by his boldness, she leaves by train, and he stops the train in the middle of the night to say he must have her, etc. It is not a good sign that while he declares his love, we are more concerned about how his horses could have possibly overtaken the train.

Back in the country, Vronsky pursues his ideal, and Anna succumbs, after a tiny little struggle. Karenin observes what is happening, especially during a steeplechase when Vronsky's horse falls and Anna shrieks with concern that appears unseemly in another man's wife. Soon Anna is pregnant by Vronsky. Karenin, after trying to force himself on her, offers her a deal: If she stays with him and behaves herself, she can keep the child. Otherwise, she gets Vronsky, but not the child.

As in all late 19th century novels, this crisis leads to a sickbed scene, declarations of redemption and forgiveness, etc., while meanwhile in the city, a parallel romance develops between the jilted Kitty and the kind but uncharismatic Levin ( Alfred Molina ). In the novel, Levin stands for Tolstoy, and also for the decency that the other characters lack.

The challenge of any adapter of "Anna Karenina'' is to make Anna sympathetic despite her misbehavior. Sometimes that is done with casting (how could we deny Garbo anything?), sometimes with writing. In this film, it is not done. I never felt sympathy for her, perhaps because Sophie Marceau (from "Braveheart") makes her such a narcissistic sponge, while Fox makes her husband tortured but understandable. Toward the end, as Anna and Vronsky are shunned by society and live in isolation, she even gets on his nerves, especially after she becomes addicted to laudanum.

There is much more to Tolstoy's story--but not in this bloodless and shallow adaptation. Bernard Rose is a director of talent (his " Paperhouse " was a visionary film, and his " Immortal Beloved " was a biopic that brought great passion to the story of Beethoven). Here, shooting on fabulous locations, he seems to have lost track of his characters. The movie is like a storyboard for "Anna Karenina'' with the life and subtlety still to be added.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Anna Karenina (1997)

Rated PG-13 For Mature Thematic Elements and Some Sensuality/Nudity

108 minutes

Sophie Marceau as Anna Karenina

Sean Bean as Count Vronsky

Alfred Molina as Constantin Levin

James Fox as Alexei Karenin

Written and Directed by

• Bernard Rose

Based On The Novel by

• Leo Tolstoy

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Screen Rant

Vivien leigh's 10 best movies, ranked.

Vivien Leigh wasn’t the most prolific actor, but the Old Hollywood icon appeared in several classic movies which cemented her legacy as a true great.

• From A Streetcar Named Desire to Gone With the Wind, Vivien Leigh captivated audiences with her iconic performances in classic movies.
• Known for her talent and beauty, Leigh's personal struggles and reputation often overshadowed her professional achievements.
• Despite complications behind the scenes, Leigh's filmography remains a testament to her remarkable talent and star quality.

Vivien Leigh is an icon of old Hollywood, and her best movies earned her a series of awards and millions of admirers. Leigh was born in India while it was under British colonial rule, and she began her career as an actor on stage. Soon after making her break into film, she began an affair with Laurence Olivier, and the two later divorced their spouses to be with one another. Although she was famous for her relationship with Olivier, she was just as professionally well-respected as he was. She won two Oscars and plenty of other awards in a career spanning three decades.

Vivien Leigh has a number of classic movies on her résumé, including A Streetcar Named Desire and Gone With the Wind, which is frequently cited as one of the best movies of all time . Despite her undeniable talent, Leigh's reputation is marked to this day by the idea that she was difficult to work with, and her publicized mental health issues. Although she had her challenges off-screen, her filmography boasts a number of remarkable movies which see Leigh showcasing her talents alongside some of the biggest actors of her generation.

15 Great Classic Actors Whose Movies We Never Get Tired Of Watching

10 caesar & cleopatra (1945).

Historical epics were once the most extravagant productions in Hollywood. Caesar and Cleopatra is part of this trend, although it is much less famous than other similar movies. Vivien Leigh stars as Cleopatra, a casting choice which mirrors the controversy around Gal Gadot's upcoming Cleopatra biopic , although at the time it was hardly contentious. Elizabeth Taylor remains the most famous film depiction of Cleopatra, but Leigh's performance is magnetic . Despite its sluggish pace, Caesar and Cleopatra is well worth watching for its lavish production design.

9 A Yank At Oxford (1938)

Elsa craddock.

A Yank at Oxford is a comedy of manners about a working-class American student who earns a scholarship to Oxford University. He is bewildered by the absurd rules and conventions of the ancient institution, but his earnest nature helps him make friends in a place where he doesn't really belong. Vivien Leigh plays Elsa, a married woman who tries to stave off her upper-class malaise by engaging in affairs with the new students at Oxford. Elsa's true depth gradually reveals itself, and she becomes a much more complex individual than anyone first assumed.

8 The Roman Spring Of Mrs. Stone (1961)

Karen stone.

*Availability in US

Not available

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone sees Vivien Leigh star alongside Warren Beatty in one of his finest roles . Leigh plays an actress facing a career crisis as she comes to terms with the fact that she is too old to play the roles she used to. As she and her wealthy husband take a trip to Rome, he dies of cardiac arrest. The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone could be one of Leigh's most personal performances. At the time she worked on the film, she found herself in a similar professional conundrum to Karen Stone, and her marriage to Laurence Olivier had just ended.

7 Sidewalks Of London (1938)

Also known as St. Martin's Lane, Sidewalks of London offers Vivien Leigh a rare chance at a more comedic role. She plays Liberty, or Libby, a young pickpocket who is taken in by a gang of misfits on the streets of London. Soon, she abandons her new friends for a shot at fame in Hollywood. Although it is ultimately a tragic story, Sidewalks of London has some charming moments of comedy, especially between Leigh and Charles Laughton. A year before Gone With the Wind catapulted her to stardom, Leigh shows her undeniable star quality in Sidewalks of London.

6 That Hamilton Woman (1941)

Lady emma hamilton.

Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier's marriage epitomized the glamour of Old Hollywood, and That Hamilton Woman is the best of their three movies together.

Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier's marriage epitomized the glamour of Old Hollywood, and That Hamilton Woman is the best of their three movies together. In this lavish period piece, Leigh plays Emma Hamilton, a wealthy woman who begins an affair with Admiral Horatio Nelson. Her on-screen chemistry with Olivier carries the story. Leigh brings a simmering emotional vulnerability to the role of Emma Hamilton, and it contrasts beautifully with the masculine posturing of the surrounding men. Based on a true story, That Hamilton Woman provides one of Laurence Olivier's best performances too.

5 Anna Karenina (1948)

Anna karenina.

Leo Tolstoy's tragic novel Anna Karenina has had several film adaptations over the years, and the 1948 version starring Vivien Leigh in the title role is among the best. Anna Karenina is an epic tale of romance, betrayal and societal expectations. Film adaptations all have to contend with how best to condense the novel into a relatively short runtime, and Vivien Leigh's performance is a big help in this case. She is able to corral the film through several abrupt changes of pace and tone. It shouldn't be considered a definitive adaptation, but it is a fantastic attempt.

4 Ship Of Fools (1965)

Mary treadwell.

Ship of Fools was Vivien Leigh's final movie , and it offers a glimpse at the kind of complex roles which she could have enjoyed in later life had she not passed away so soon. Set during the interwar years on an ocean liner bound for Germany, Ship of Fools is a bleak drama, although the name suggests otherwise. Leigh plays a recently divorced woman yearning for a fresh start. Her compelling performance as a paranoid and anxious woman takes on an extra layer of tragedy considering Leigh was living with severe mental health problems at the time.

3 Waterloo Bridge (1940)

Myra lester.

Although it was filmed as World War II was breaking across Europe, Waterloo Bridge is set during World War I. Vivien Leigh plays Myra, an energetic and hopeful ballerina who falls in love with a soldier just as he is about to head out to fight. After his death is falsely reported, Myra spirals into a depression which leads to alcohol and sex work. Leigh delivers one of her finest performances in Waterloo Bridge. It's a tragic tale about the rigid confines of polite society and the harsh prospects for young unmarried women at the time, and Leigh makes for a truly sympathetic protagonist.

2 A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

Blanche dubois.

Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the great American plays, and director Elia Kazan gave it a worthy film adaptation which has lasted for generations.

Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the great American plays, and director Elia Kazan gave it a worthy film adaptation which has lasted for generations. Vivien Leigh plays the naive and vulnerable Blanche DuBois, who moves in with her sister and brother-in-law in New Orleans. A Streetcar Named Desire is also one of Marlon Brando's best movies . He plays the vile brute Stanley Kowalski, who tries to exert his power over every woman in his life. Kazan's direction is restrained, letting two outstanding performances shine.

Vivien Leigh won her second Academy Award for A Streetcar Named Desire.

1 Gone With The Wind (1939)

Scarlett o'hara.

Vivien Leigh won her first Academy Award for her outstanding performance as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, and it remains her most iconic role. Gone With the Wind is gorgeously written and beautifully acted. Based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind follows Scarlett O'Hara's romantic woes amid the political turmoil of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh are superb in the lead roles. The film has been mired in controversy ever since its release , but there is no doubting its technical excellence and complex characterization.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews
• Anna Karenina

A married woman's affair with a dashing young officer has tragic results. A married woman's affair with a dashing young officer has tragic results. A married woman's affair with a dashing young officer has tragic results.

• Julien Duvivier
• Jean Anouilh
• Vivien Leigh
• Ralph Richardson
• Kieron Moore
• 46 User reviews
• 15 Critic reviews

• Count Vronsky
• Stepan Oblonsky

• Dolly Oblonsky

• Princess Shcherbatsky

• Prince Shcherbatsky

• Kitty Shcherbatsky

• (as Niall Macginnis)

• Princess Betty Tversky

• Countess Lydia Ivanovna

• Countess Vronsky
• Princess Nathalia

• Countess Meskov

• Col. Vronsky
• Princess Sorokina
• Prince Makhotin
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Vivien Leigh 's costumes were made in Paris by Barbara Karinska to Cecil Beaton 's designs. She was in such pain wearing them that she even went to her doctor fearing she had broken her ribs. It was subsequently discovered that the dresser had been putting the corsets on upside down.

Anna Karenina : My dear Korsunsky, you know very well I never dance unless I can help it.

• Crazy credits Closing credits: "And the light by which she had been reading the book of life, blazed up suddenly, illuminating those pages that had been dark, then flickered, grew dim, and went out forever".
• Alternate versions U.S. release version runs approximately 112 minutes. This is the version issued by Fox DVD in 2007.
• Connections Featured in Vivien Leigh: Scarlett and Beyond (1990)
• Soundtracks Ruslan and Lyudmila Overture (uncredited) Music by Mikhail Glinka Arranged by Constant Lambert

User reviews 46

• jarrodmcdonald-1
• Mar 1, 2014
• How long is Anna Karenina? Powered by Alexa
• What is 'Anna Karenina' about?
• Is 'Anna Karenina' based on a book?
• What do Anna and Giuseppe say when they are talking in Italian?
• February 27, 1948 (Sweden)
• United Kingdom
• Alexander Korda's Production of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina
• Monterey, California, USA (racetrack and steeplechase scenes)
• London Film Productions
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $2,000,000 (estimated)

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 19 minutes
• Black and White

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