What is it with those Russkies? Being a Brit and therefore fixated on weather because usually no three days are ever alike and when you really need rain you get a heatwave and when you are desperate to top up the tan after the eye-wateringly expensive hols in Majorca you can guarantee non-stop stair-rods to wash it all away, and thus, the weather is the only topic of conversation in the British Isles. The Russkies, on the other hand, have weather you can depend on; it will freeze your arse off for six months and then fry it for the next six months. This leaves them with very little to talk about - except love, or, having just watched the insufferable Anna Karenina, 'lurve' is perhaps more apt!
First, let me say that I really admired the way the film was staged - and I use that word deliberately. It is set, for the most part, inside an old theatre which changes effortlessly (apparently!) from ballroom to race course to swank restaurants and so on. All of that was totally brilliant but the problem lay with our bloody, and bloody-minded, eponymous heroine played by Keira Knightley. Within 20 minutes I had decided that all she needed was a good slap and I was prepared to volunteer. Part-way through the film I kept being reminded of some long-lost female character whom she resembled - and then it came to me - Scarlett O'Hara! But the difference was that whilst she was an equally tiresome pain in the bum, she also had guts and fighting spirit which is why I loved her. Mrs. Karenina, on the other hand, was either spitting blood and nails at the men in her life or bursting into tears. Needless to say, one soon lost patience with the men in her life, too!
There was a sort of sub-plot featuring some Russian, aristo hippie-type, a bit like that old Lord of Bath, or whoever he was, with the beard and the harem of hippie birds. This Russian one was, I assume, a sort of surrogate Tolstoy figure with his insistence on freeing his serfs and scything by hand what looked like 3,000 acres of corn alongside his men! Quite where he fitted into the scheme of things I never did find out. To be fair, my friends and I had helped a bottle or three of fairly decent Valpolicella on their way and as lunchtime drinking does not suit me I might have dozed off and missed a bit.
This was the first time that I had seen Kiera Knightley, or, 'IKEA' Knightley as one rude critic calls her. I was not struck! It's not her fault but the poor (multi-millionairess) girl has a mouthful of strong, large teeth which have a tendency to burst out from behind her somewhat thin lips which gives her a distinctly carniverous look - rather nerve-wracking, actually, especially on a wide screen. However, one must be grateful for small mercies. I have never felt an overwhelming urge to read Tolstoy, not least because from the little I know of his life he sounds a total prat! Now that I have seen this film, written no doubt lovingly by Tom Stoppard, I know now that I never will read any of his books. The other consideration, of course, is that I probably wouldn't live long enough to finish any of them!
I'm not a great fan of Tolstoy or Keira Knightley. I prefer Turgenev to both.
The book isn't bad, but Anna Karenina herself comes across as pretty weird to me. It was quite a relief when she jumped under the train.
Posted by: A K Haart | Monday, 17 September 2012 at 19:14
But have you seen the film yet?
Posted by: David Duff | Monday, 17 September 2012 at 20:02
Do reconsider the novels, DD. I read them many years ago and although I confess I have not re-read any of them, I flatter Tolstoy by believing that they still reverberate in some sense...
I'm sure the joy of reading them will put years on your life. And if you are feeling a bit poorly, you might want to try a shorter work like The Kreutzer Sonata.
Posted by: Whyaxye | Monday, 17 September 2012 at 20:13
I hear what you say, 'W', but I have several 'door-stoppers' awaiting my duty/pleasure (I never know which until I read them!) including a novel, which is a rarity for me. It was recommended by one of DM's favourite columnists, Matthew Norman, who reckons this set of books (I only have Book One) are amongst the very greatest ever written. I reached about halfway and really enjoyed it, despite it having a cast of thousands, but then something interrupted me - can't remember what - and having lost the thread I realised I would have to start again. I have waited a couple of years so that, hopefully, it will be like starting all over again.
"They Were Counted" by Miklos Banffy
Posted by: David Duff | Monday, 17 September 2012 at 22:13
David
AK was a reading assignment in school. A few chapters sent me to Cliffs Notes.
Posted by: Hank | Tuesday, 18 September 2012 at 02:42
Well, Hank, that must have saved you some time!
Posted by: David Duff | Tuesday, 18 September 2012 at 08:29