Now in cinemas in the U.K., and having already rolled its way through TIFF, Joe Wright's sumptuous "Anna Karenina" hasn't quite taken off as an awards season contender. While many admire the picture, it hasn't garnered full on fervor (though we really dig it), but one thing most people can agree on is that it looks fantastic. And not only that, Wright has staged this thing beautifully with some breathtaking sequences — aided by the decision to shoot the picture almost like a stage production — adding to the visual fireworks on display. There are still a couple of months before it lands stateside, but a host of new images are here to give you the best look at the movie yet.
Keira Knightley leads the pic as the titular character, and after recently re-reading the Tolstoy novel on which it is based, she had a different appreciation of what it's all about. "I went, ‘Oh!’ It’s not a romance at all. I don’t think that Tolstoy is saying this is what you should do for love; quite a lot of the time he is saying the reverse,” she told Vogue recently. “He hates Anna at certain moments. She is both a villain and a heroine. She can be incredibly vain and manipulative. She is somebody who breaks her own moral code, and yet the shame and disgust she lives with because of that make her fascinating.”
Indeed, Anna is one who struggles against a system and hierarchy that marks her passion for Vronsky (Aaron Johnson) as a continuous scandal, and keeps her bonded to her husband Karenin (Jude Law). Co-starring Matthew Macfadyen, Alicia Vikander, Kelly Macdonald, Olivia Williams, Emily Watson and more, "Anna Karenina" opens on November 16th. Check out the official synopsis and images below.
The third collaboration of Academy Award nominee Keira Knightley with director Joe Wright, following the award-winning box office successes “Pride & Prejudice” and “Atonement,” is the epic love story “Anna Karenina,” adapted from Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel by Academy Award winner Tom Stoppard (“Shakespeare in Love”). The story unfolds in its original late-19th-century Russia high-society setting and powerfully explores the capacity for love that surges through the human heart, from the passion between adulterers to the bond between a mother and her children. As Anna (Ms. Knightley) questions her happiness, change comes to her family, friends, and community.
[plus many more photos here via HeyUGuys]
