Bruce Davey, Jim Lemley, Stephen McEveety, Vladimir Zhelezniakov
Screenplay:
-
Cameraman:
-
Composer:
-
Cast:
Sophie Marceau, Sean Bean, Alfred Molina, Mia Kirshner, James Fox, Fiona Shaw, Danny Huston, Phyllida Law, David Schofield, Saskia Wickham, Jennifer...
Runtime:
-
MPAA Rating:
-
In Theaters:
Apr 4, 1997
Distribution:
Icon Entertainment International, Warner Bros. Pictures Co.
Anna Karenina is a young and elegant wife of 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. 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. Karenin indignantly refuses and denies her access to Seriozha. Distraught 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, Princess "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."