User reviews

To develop a major literary work into a long ballet performance is not an easy task--especially if you are a perfectionist like Maya Plisetskaya or any Bolshoi dancer. But the real challenge is capturing the evocative dance from head to toe on camera and using tools like editing to make the end product delectable. I saw the film some 20 years ago in India and I still remember the images married to the music.

Director Pilikhina, a cinematographer herself, and her main cinematographer Papayan seem to weave magic. It is a great ballet, intelligent cinema, and offers wonderful music (Aram Kachaturian's Sabre Dance conducted by Rodion Schedrin is the highlight of the film with the dance captured in vibrant sepia)!

This film is only recommended for those who can appreciate good ballet, superb classical music, intelligent camerawork and creative editing. If you like these, this film is one of the best examples of how to capture dance on film and make the experience even better than a live one, thanks to the editor and camerapersons.

As has been rightly said, adapting a classic piece of literature like Tolstoy's Anna Karenina is not an easy task to take on. This ballet does so nobly and it more than pays off. The story is still very moving and grabs your attention throughout, told through dance very expressively. The music for Anna Karenina gives a personal reaction very similar to that of the same composer's The Little Humpbacked Horse, really beautiful and deserves to be heard more, as long as you don't expect a masterpiece like Swan Lake or Giselle. The scoring of the racetrack and ballroom scenes are really well worth hearing at least once. This is a very fine film version, opulently designed and traditional with lovely sets and flattering costumes, though sometimes the lighting can be a little too dark. The production is also intelligently edited, while unobtrusive it still allows us to fully enjoy the dancing too and doesn't distract from the drama. The orchestra perform the music with lyricism and dramatic urgency and the conducting is incisive and sympathetic to the needs of the dancers. The choreography is elegant and fits with the drama of the story perfectly, especially in the love and ballroom scenes, while the racetrack scene is positively heart-breaking. The dancing shows great poise and athleticism, as well as discipline. Everybody dances to the very best of their abilities, but this production is most worth seeing for Maya Plisetskaya, one of the best ballerinas of the time and ever, her dancing in the title role is very expressively danced and interpretation-wise deeply felt. The rapport she has with Alexander Godunov is convincing too, he makes for a passionate and ardent Vronsky. All in all, a must for Plisetskaya admirers and also for fans of the ballet genre in general. 9/10 Bethany Cox