1874, St. Petersburg. A woman commits adultery without realizing the cruel consequences.

Picture gallery

Under the Russian Empire, society shows no pardon to women who transgress. Married to a high-level functionary and very attached to her son, Anna Karenina (Keira Knightley, the proud heroine of Pride and Prejudice and The Duchess) goes to Moscow with her brother Oblonsky, an inveterate skirt chaser, so she can patch things up with his wife. At the train station she meets Count Vronsky (Aaron Johnson), who has just broken up with Oblonsky's sister-in-law, Kitty, and begins to court her. Pressured by Vronsky even when she returns to St. Petersburg, Anna succumbs to his charms and leaves her cold husband. Will she find happiness with Vronsky?

Movie adaptations of Tolstoy's novel are numerous. Joe Wright's (Pride and Prejudice, Atonement, Hanna) version is original in its presentation of life as a great piece of theater. Playing in the audience, onstage and behind the scenes, the characters are like puppets in the hands of social convention. They transform themselves into wax figures, and every now and then a music box plays. The dissolves are magnificent, as are the baths, dinners, balls and the music. The opposing couples Levine-Kitty / Vronsky-Anna were conceived by Tolstoy and seem a bit over-the-top by today’s standards.