Anna Karenina

[MacGuffin]

Release date: November 9, 2012

Starring: Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Johnson, Matthew Macfadyen

Directed by: Joe Wright

Premise: Set in late-19th-century Russia high-society, the aristocrat Anna Karenina enters into a life-changing affair with the affluent Count Vronsky.

[pete]

joe wright is the zack snyder of period dramas.

[©brad]

joe wright is the zack snyder of period dramas.

[Brando]

That poster is horrible.

Loved Hanna and his Pride and Prejudice but couldn't finish Atonement though I liked the book. Hopefully the film is better than the trailer looks cause I really love the book.

[Alexandro]

I saw the trailer with the sound off and it looks fantastic. I think I could stare at Keira's face without interruption for hours, yes she is beautiful but she also has this really weird face that looks great on cinema. I haven't seen that Hannah movie or The Soloist but Wright's tracking when pairing with Knightley is something to be excited for, as far as I'm concerned. To compare the guy with Zack Snyder is...i don't know, I guess I don't understand it. Snyder uses visual tricks to hide the superficiality of everything that happens in his movies...I remember when Pride & Prejudice came out someone around here said that it was as if Altman and Kubrick had made a period film and that was more like it. Wright has found a way to use the style to serve the story and characters, at least on those two films of his that I saw. I like it when period films have a distinct look and are not afraid of being stylish, without turning into Moulin Rouge.

[polkablues]

Joe Wright has made two period films with Keira Knightley and they were two of the best films of the last decade.  So I'm feeling pretty optimistic about this one, the truly awful poster notwithstanding.

[Pubrick]

What's wrong with the poster? It seems to maintain the hyperreal stage centric style of the trailer, it's melodramatic like the trailer, and it appeals strongly to women and men with vaginas, exactly like the trailer.

I've only liked P&P by the guy and first two thirds of Hanna (because the movie didn't have an ending), so I dunno,  this looks kinda great, poster included.

And it's good to see Aaron Johnson being a madcunt again.

[polkablues]

The thing is, there's no particular element of the poster that I don't like, but when they're all slung together as haphazardly as they are, it makes my eyes want to rebel from their sockets.

[Pwaybloe]

I'll agree that the poster is a little ridiculous to me only that it is reminiscent of terrible Baz Luhrmann creations. 

The movie itself looks interesting and incredibly stylized (although not Baz Luhrmann-esque) from other Joe Wright movies.  One of my wife's favorite movies is Pride & Prejudice, so I know she will be up for it.

Oh, and "men with vaginas"?  WTF?

[Pubrick]

Oh, and "men with vaginas"?  WTF?

Let's not deny who we are. We wish we were Vronsky but we're Count Alexi.

Jk.

If there's movies assholes dig there should be a category for pussies too. Where the former denotes bromance the latter accepts romance.

[Sleepless]

I'll agree that the poster is a little ridiculous to me only that it is reminiscent of terrible Baz Luhrmann creations. 

Funny, that's what I thought about the trailer; lots of doors in rooms opening up to reveal snowy forests, etc. It looks like we should expect jarring styles throughout the film perhaps. I'm not familiar with the source material, but does it include significant fantasy/dream sequences?

I really like Joe Wright. That said, I though Hannah was terrible. Let's hope this is a return to form for him.

[Brando]

I'm not familiar with the source material, but does it include significant fantasy/dream sequences?

No.  It's in the same vein as Pride and Prejudice or Age of Innocence. A historical story of love that conflicts with social norms/rules.  Tolstoy was known as writing characters and stories that were very realistic and was the leader of a more realistic movement in fiction. The fantasy elements is what threw me off cause it contradicts the source material. The doors opening to the ice skating ring, the snow falling on Jude Law inside the theater, everyone frozen staring at Anna, etc. were elements I wasn't expecting.

[pete]

I saw the trailer with the sound off and it looks fantastic. I think I could stare at Keira's face without interruption for hours, yes she is beautiful but she also has this really weird face that looks great on cinema. I haven't seen that Hannah movie or The Soloist but Wright's tracking when pairing with Knightley is something to be excited for, as far as I'm concerned. To compare the guy with Zack Snyder is...i don't know, I guess I don't understand it. Snyder uses visual tricks to hide the superficiality of everything that happens in his movies...I remember when Pride & Prejudice came out someone around here said that it was as if Altman and Kubrick had made a period film and that was more like it. Wright has found a way to use the style to serve the story and characters, at least on those two films of his that I saw. I like it when period films have a distinct look and are not afraid of being stylish, without turning into Moulin Rouge.

I can't speak for Pride and Prejudice, but Atonement was one hack piece of film, substituting lavishness for real emotions, and too afraid to look not like a Vogue magazine spread to hit anything dramatically. then that emptiness got extended to Hanna as well.

[polkablues]

Atonement is an incredibly nihilistic film in the guise of a romantic film, to an extent that is practically unheard of in modern mainstream cinema. It's far from empty, it's just filled with acid rather than ice cream. Hanna is another story; its split focus between trying to be a genre exercise and a dark fairy tale left it with some muddled themes. I'm not even going to count The Soloist, as it's frankly beneath him.

Joe Wright is a tough director to pin down. I don't think he's quite an auteur director at this point (Atonement comes closest), but he does put an imprint on his films that separates him from a truly workman director like Marc Forster. More than anything, he knows what to do with a camera.

[pete]

my problem with atonement wasn't the lack of romance; it was the lack of any conviction into subjects of guilt or horror by insisting to film everything beautifully and portraying everything in that boring texture-free manner. I think the story contains a lot of emotions and interesting themes that the film is unable to flesh out, and instead it chooses to do that long take with that cute typewriter music. It's got Titanic in its vein.
And in that way it's reminiscent of Zack Snyder's Watchmen. You have dialogues and plots that aim to go the tough route - perhaps even to challenge the audience, but then you've also got these incredibly trailer-friendly touches in every detail that undermines any semblance of momentum or human drama.

I disagree with you in that sense about Wright's versatility with a camera; he seems to only be capable of one style, which might've been perfect for Pride, but falls short when anything darker or more complex is in the script.