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The filmmakers immediately recognized the importance of finding the ideal
actors to play the roles that have captured generations of readers the world
over.
Emphasizes Bernard Rose, "Despite the massive scale of this movie,
it is actually a very intimate look at four people and their innermost thoughts
and desires. A story like this can only succeed if the actors completely
reveal themselves in the characters they're playing. In addition, we needed
actors who were comfortable in a period drama, who could move and speak
convincingly in a 19th-century setting of incredible lavishness. I think
we were very fortunate in attracting a wonderful group of people to meet
these challenges."
Rose continues, "One of the interesting aspects of casting is that,
in 850 pages of his novel, Tolstoy tells us virtually nothing about Anna
Karenina: we never meet her parents, she is unknown by her past. This,
for Tolstoy, made sense because he saw Anna as a version of Levin -- she
is the physical and he is the philosophical, and his history is the only
one the reader needs, since Anna defines herself by her actions, not her
ideas.
"So we needed to find an Anna who could communicate a great deal without
a history -- who had a gorgeous, eloquent face and a mystery about her,
aristocratic yet vulnerable. A woman who could drive a man to a grand,
dangerous adoration, but who seemed to live without any calculation. Mel
Gibson had recently worked with Sophie Marceau on 'Braveheart' and he suggested
that we meet with her."
Marceau, a French actress who has enjoyed a successful career on stage and
screen in her native country, had recently had a baby, and Rose felt that
this enhanced her qualification for the role even more.
"I don't think you could cast a childless woman as Anna," he explains.
"There are too many aspects of the story that deal with her children
and her separation from them; I think only a mother can really give them
resonance. In addition, the fact that Sophie is French was very helpful,
because Russian aristocrats of the day were frequently educated in Paris
and spoke French even after returning home. In fact, as we show in the
film, Russian was primarily spoken by the nobility only to their servants;
to one other, they spoke European languages, usually French."
Comments Marceau on the lasting appeal of Anna Karenina, "The book
is a masterpiece; the fact that people still read, feel and talk about this
book shows what a classic story it is. It owes its longevity to the fact
that it deals with people, people who go farther than anyone else. Yet
it's so close to reality that we can recognize ourselves in all the characters."
In considering actors to portray the handsome, socially agile Vronsky, whose
carefully planned career is cast to the winds after he encounters Anna Karenina,
director Rose quickly thought of Sean Bean.
"Sean is a wonderful, vital actor with a very masculine energy,"
says Rose. "He also -- and this is not a small thing -- looks natural
and appealing in uniform. Not all contemporary actors can carry off the
military carriage and demeanor that a uniform, especially an imperial Russian
uniform, requires. But I had seen Sean in a British television series called
'Sharpe's Rifles,' and I knew he'd be perfect for the part of Vronsky.
"The uniform is the essence of what Vronsky represents -- a man who
lives for the pleasures of society, who can be calculating and even a little
brutal in his relationships because he is a soldier at heart. But when
he meets Anna Karenina, Vronsky is transformed -- and finally, even though
he becomes wiser and more compassionate, he is ruined."
For the complex role of Levin, the filmmakers were extremely pleased to
cast noted stage and film actor Alfred Molina. Explains Rose, "Fred
has a unique ability to look physically big and strong at the same time
he projects the air of being lost and uncertain. I wanted someone who was
on a journey of self-discovery, who learned a lot about people and who faced
his personal demons -- but he had to be a strong and intelligent person
right from the beginning. Fred was exactly the man I had in mind!"
Responds Molina, "So much of the story is told from Levin's point of
view...we understand Anna and Vronsky and Kitty and all the other characters
through him. What's really interesting is that Tolstoy writes in a very
visual way; he describes people physically, and those characteristics are
the real clues in terms of how you are going to play them.
"Bernard's adaptation is very pure; there are many occasions when the
characters in the film use the novel's dialogue exactly. And this is the
first time the full content of the book has been explored on film, so I
think it's a very important version of a classic work."
Mia Kirshner, a young actress whose film career has already attracted favorable
notice, portrays Kitty as a woman who grows from childish self-absorption
to a remarkable maturity after her marriage to Levin.
Says Kirshner, "Since Tolstoy saw himself in Levin's character, he
also saw much of his wife, Sophie, in Kitty's character. Sophie edited
Tolstoy's work and it was almost a love letter to her -- he writes 'there
are two classes of women: all other women and then Kitty, who is in a class
of her own.' So I felt it was important to show what qualities both Tolstoy
and Levin admired in these women. Kitty really had to grow in the course
of the story."
Bernard Rose was pleased to cast James Fox, a veteran actor who has amassed
a varied list of screen credits, for the role of Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin,
Anna's husband and a high-ranking Russian Ministry official.
"I wanted a handsome man for this part," explains Rose. "He
had to be physically attractive, because I didn't want people to think that
Anna has been married to some kind of ogre. She wasn't; she had simply
made the kind of marriage that most wealthy people of the time made. She
had joined her future with the most successful man who proposed to her,
and romantic love had nothing to do with it. I don't think she even understood
how much was missing from her life until she met Vronsky.
"James Fox plays Karenin as a man who is obsessed with the proper and
appropriate, no matter what feelings lie behind the actions. Yet, as the
events of the story unfold, he emerges as a very sympathetic character.
That's essential to the story I wanted to tell."
In addition to the starring roles, Rose was able to induce writer-director
Danny Huston, son of legendary writer-actor-director John Huston, to play
his first speaking role, as Anna's licentious brother Stiva. The other
supporting roles of Stiva's wife Dolly and the scheming Lydia Ivanova were
filled by the respected British actresses Saskia Wickham and Fiona Shaw.
"Anna Karenina" has been filmed several times in the past,
but this production is the first Western film to be made entirely in post-Soviet
Russia, utilizing the ornate architecture and expansive vistas of one of
the world's most picturesque and little-seen cities as a natural setting
for the action of the story.
"We spent six months in St. Petersburg and the surrounding countryside
making 'Anna Karenina' and it was a truly remarkable experience," says
Bernard Rose. "We, as Westerners, know so little of what this country
actually looks like; during the Cold War all we saw were photos of drab
grey buildings and bundled-up people in lines. It was impossible to know
that some of the world's most beautiful palaces and public spaces can be
found in Russia. But once audiences see this movie, they will certainly
know what they've been missing."
Continues Rose, "Imperial Russia was the richest empire in the history
of the world. It had the wealth of an entire continent flowing into its
pockets, because the feudal system was still alive in the 19th century there
-- the aristocracy actually owned its workers. Like all pre-revolutionary
societies, Imperial Russia was lavish and decadent for the few who could
enjoy its riches. But after World War II, the city of St. Petersburg (then
called Leningrad), which had suffered heavy damage, was rebuilt, so the
palaces and public buildings are still standing today and most of them are
in quite beautiful condition."
Bruce Davey, Bernard Rose and line producer Jim Lemley worked in cooperation
with the Len Film Studio of St. Petersburg, which provided facilities and
helped obtain access to certain sites.
Among the locations used in the film are Catherine the Great's lavish Winter
Palace; the legendary art museum The Hermitage; the Peter and Paul Fortress,
which actually pre-dates the construction of St. Petersburg by a year; and
several other historic palaces, including the Marinsky, Marly and Wedding
Palaces.
"The scale of this lavishness served a symbolic purpose for the Russian
aristocracy," says Davey. "It reduced the significance of an
ordinary individual to almost nothing, which further emphasized the power
of these inherited bloodlines. Room after room of gold-encrusted decor,
crystal chandeliers and tapestries -- only the enormous, majestic proportions
of these rooms saved them from being gaudy. Instead, they're simply amazing
to look at."
Bernard Rose acknowledges that filming in Russia during the early days of
its post-Communist economy brought certain unique aspects into the movie-making
process. "In the first place, everything had to be done with cash,"
he laughs. "Russia is a totally cash-based economy right now, and
American cash is much better than Russian. But in general, people were
very cooperative, even more than we expected them to be.
"One day we were filming in the Cathedral Square in front of the Kremlin.
We had gotten permits to film there, but in the middle of the day, Boris
Yeltsin himself came out with some of his aides and asked us to leave because
the noise was disturbing him. Well, you could say this was unfair, but
on the other hand, can you imagine if someone wanted to come from Russia
and shoot a movie in the Rose Garden of the White House? It would be impossible!
So I had very few complaints.
"The Russians have a deeply entrenched film culture and the supporting
cast were all local talent. The dancers in our ballroom scenes were actual
Russian ballerinas, who showed up in ordinary street clothes and were transformed
into princesses in our lavish ballgowns. I don't think anyone can look
bad in one of those dresses, and they certainly knew how to move in them.
"Our horse race was also filmed with Russian riders and their own horses
-- they rode at breakneck speed and actually wanted to stage those falls
as a test of their nerve!"
The legendary Russian weather lived up to its reputation -- St. Petersburg
is just at the edge of the Arctic Circle -- but since the production filmed
from February through July, the filmmakers also benefitted from the long
Arctic summer days, which often provided up to 20 hours of light.
"The growing season in that part of the world is astounding,"
says Rose. "They get two crops in a very short summer, because the
light makes everything grow so fast. It was perfect for filming, of course!"
One of the scenes that Rose felt was central to the story of Levin's evolution
is the grass-cutting scene that occurs on his farmland. Using scythes,
a team of men cuts a rhythmic swath through a gorgeous field of golden-green
grass, illuminating to Levin the cyclical nature of life and need of people
to help one another to survive.
"I think that scene is a moment of epiphany," says Rose. "It
is the beginning of the change in Levin's life -- the moment when he goes
from being lonely and unhappy to making the decision to seek happiness with
Kitty. And we actually cut all that grass by hand; it's one of my favorite
scenes."
In addition to the classic scenery, costuming and language used in "Anna
Karenina," the Imperial Russian culture was evoked still further with
a musical score composed by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, conducted
by Sir Georg Solti and performed by the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra.
Concludes Bernard Rose, "This is a timeless story about some of the
most universal desires that inspire human behavior; it seems appropriate
that timeless music, also composed during this romantic and lavish era,
should enhance our film."
Warner Bros. Presents An Icon Production of A Film by Bernard Rose: "Leo
Tolstoy's Anna Karenina," starring Sophie Marceau, Sean Bean, Alfred
Molina, Mia Kirshner and James Fox. The music director is Sir Georg Solti;
the film editor is Victor Dubois; and the production designer is John Myhre.
The director of photography is Daryn Okada and the executive producer is
Stephen McEveety. The film has a screenplay by Bernard Rose, based on the
novel by Leo Tolstoy. It is produced by Bruce Davey and directed by Bernard
Rose. Distributed by Warner Bros., A Time Warner Entertainment Company.
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