"Anna Karenina": Another Hollywood take on Russia
WASHINGTON. November 17. KAZINFORM The new film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's 900-plus-page epic novel "Anna Karenina" hit US theaters on Friday, becoming the latest in a long list of Hollywood representations - or misrepresentations, as some critics charge - of Russia and Russian literary classics.
Early US reviews of the film, with actress Keira Knightley cast in the title role, have been mixed, with most critics agreeing that it is visually sumptuous but sub-par in other aspects. The Russian blogosphere meanwhile has been derisive, with one blogger describing the new film as an "intellectual bordello", RIA Novosti reports.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of some other prominent Hollywood versions of Russian classics, or films with a Russian subject matter, of the past half-century:
War and Peace (1956): A film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's novel which uses the backdrop of the Napoleonic invasion in 1812 to tell the story of the complex lives and relationships of three main characters: Natasha, Pierre, and Andrei.
Box Office Gross: $12,500,000
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