It would be perfect if...
I do not agree with the earlier reviews that Vivian Leigh played Anna better than Sophy Marceau. It is just that the 1948 version was by itself a better film. The weakness of the 1997 version is that it the scenes are too short and scattered together, and this makes it difficult to express the emotions of the characters and the overall idea behind Tolstoy's novel. But this is the weakness of the movie makers, not the actors. In the 1948 version, the scenes are very detailed and the conversations are long enough to express the idea of each scene. 1948 version is good, but not the best. I don't know if anyone has seen the British miniseries of 2000-2001, but if you want to understand the idea of the book, you should watch it. The cast is not the best, Anna looks old and not suited for this role although she acts perfectly, Vronsky cannot even be compared with Sean Bean, but it's very detailed and just gets deep down to the main core of the novel. It also covers Levin perfectly. The 1997 version pays significant attention to Levin's character as well, but again, because the scenes are too confusing, it will be difficult for those who haven't read the book to understand the true meaning of it. So if the makers of the 1997 version spent a little more time on each scene and included the small details (they make a huge difference), this movie would be absolutely perfect. Other than that, this version is just beautiful with its costumes, music, settings, and cast. It pictures 19th century Russia perfectly unlike any other version before or after it (including the 2000 version).score 10/10
sp_rose2005 10 September 2009
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2125056/35232
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