By Andrea Guachalla
“Dance with me.”
Those were the words that traveled through the electrified air to reach Anna’s ears at the exact moment she was thinking about leaving the party. She was tired after her trip, and she was sure Kitty would be just fine without her. Nobody would even notice her absence, after all, it was Kitty’s time to shine as she was a debutant to officially enter the high society of Russia at the tender age of 18.
It came as a whisper, but completely clear. It was the infatuated Vronsky, who was demanding a dance with Anna. Wasn’t he supposed to be dancing with Kitty, who was even expecting a marriage proposal from him any time soon?
No…
It was Keira and Taylor, Sophia and Leo, Anna and Vronsky, Kitty and Konstantin.
“Dance with me. Take my diary, read it all. Be mine and I’ll be yours.”
It was a novel… No! A movie… No!
It was a dance.
It was in 2012. The golden year when yet another adaptation of Anna Karenina would be released. But not just “another” adaptation. As opposed to all the 15 film adaptations and 3 mini-series that preceded it attempting to make cinematographic justice to one of the greatest literary works of Leo Tolstoy, Joe Wright and his team took a very different turn that was both praised and criticized: most of the scenes were produced and filmed in four studios.
The cold interactions between Anna and her husband – Alexei, Konstantin’s first proposal to Kitty, and even Vronsky’s horse race, all of them displayed in the confinements of a studio geniusly decorated like an old theater.
Whether you love or hate the main character, or the length of the book – bordering the 1000 pages -, it’s undoubtedly a genius piece unfolding two paralleled stories: An aristocratic, socialite married woman who surrenders to a life of sin and repentance, Anna Karenina; and the story of a wealthy man who seeks to reform the life of his serfdom and marry a young woman who is, maybe, too young for him, Konstantin Levin. Both portraying through their weaknesses, struggles, and despair the complexity of the Russian high society of the 19th and 20th centuries. Its shallowness, and nonsensical hypocrisy, its own moral standards, and unspoken rules.
What a tragedy and scandal for the aristocratic Russian society! The same Vronsky who was supposed to propose to the young Kitty ends up eloping with Anna, thereby entering the most destructive and oppressive relationship of his life. Meanwhile, Kitty is redeemed by marrying the most altruistic and humble man, Konstantin, who after years of wrestling with his beliefs, had ended up professing a Christian faith.
A pair walking their way to destruction and despair, destroying families and bonds in their way. And a pair walking towards humility and endurance, building a lovely household that would give the ultimate meaning to their merged existence.
What a calamity! And yet, what a joy.
Like Tolstoy’s life, whose essence was often captured in the characters he created.
Anna Karenina partly represents his mischievous and shallow self, for the readers, she brings to mind the young Leo Tolstoy who was an aristocratic man, not able to see love as what it truly was, his promiscuous sexual drivance before marrying Sophia and his suicidal thoughts. Then we have Konstantin Levin, whose life echoes the very experiences and thoughts of Tolstoy. He represents a man who finally understands the great commandment of loving God above all and therefore loving your neighbor as yourself, and yet still struggles with suicidal thoughts, and finds himself at times unable to appreciate the family he was given.
Anna and Konstantin, a representation of Leo Tolstoy’s long search for the ultimate meaning of life and death.
Furthermore, both the novel and the movie are a complex representation, a metaphor, a piece of life there and then. A piece about politics, religion, and morality, about hypocrisy, jealousy, and a misbehavioral society. Anna Karenina is more than Anna’s caprice and Kitty’s redemption, it’s the high view of the family regardless it’s a happy or unhappy one. And yet, although profound as far as it could possibly be imagined, the whole thing is a play…
It’s the Russian high society acting and judging, but never being truly real. It’s the synergist and antagonist characters being openly hypocritical and ridiculous as if life was just an old theater, a single stage where you ought to put your best mask and pretend to be someone else. Because for them, life is not reality, life is a choreographed dance.
However, outside that single-stage and the complex dance, factual people are living true lives, with true feelings and true struggles. People are living harmonious-messy lives worthy of living and re-living. Outside that cage where Anna lives there is meaning. What a contrast that makes! Whereas Anna is a prisoner, the characters who dare to be vulnerable and hurt are free.
There couldn’t have been a better way to portray this sharp contrast than the abrupt transitions between scenes in the film, where Seamus McGarvey – managing the camera -, Sidi Cherkaoui – choreographing even the slightest movement -, and Dario Marianelli – composing the score in a masterly metafictional cue – successfully and geniusly achieved to transition from Stiva’s office to a fancy restaurant in a matter of seconds, and from a fancy restaurant to the ball saloon where Kitty – sitting on a stage full of clouds – awaits for Konstantin because…
“She is from the heavens, and he is of the earth.”
It is those transitions that can take you from Anna’s despair to Levin’s broken heart, and from their misfortunes to a promise of better days (or deadlier days).
Stiva’s letter, Dolly’s pain, Betsy’s approval of Anna’s misbehavior, Vronsky’s infatuation, Kitty’s disappointment, Konstantin’s search for happiness, and peace, the train approaching an ever-dead soul… A dance. A complex dance.
A dance thought through by Sidi from the very beginning to the very end. From Stiva’s false repentance to Anna’s deadly pace. A ballroom filled with flirtatious steps accompanying the most mysterious dance. The one that would give Kitty the painful freedom of awaiting long years to hear a whisper from Konstantin’s lips that would finally request:
“I know, you are from the heavens, and I am of the earth.
Nevertheless… dance with me.”
Other sources:
- Elisabeth Stenbock-Fermor (1984). The Architecture of Anna Karenina: A History of Its Writing, Structure and Message. The Peter de Ridder Press.
- Killian Fox (2012). How Joe Wright’s vision of Anna Karenina was brought to life. The Guardian.
- DP/30 (2012). Anna Karenina, producer designer Sarah Greenwood, set decorator Katie Spencer.
Just read this article in the night, I like your deep understanding and sharp analysis of Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina”!
From a modern perspective, an independent, well-educated, intellectual, and sentimental lady like Anna Karenina is encouraged to pursue her own life and deserves a happy ending. The modern readers would generally ascribe Anna Karenina’s misfortune to the specific social structures and morals at that time. It’s great that you mentioned the paralleled life of Konstantin and Kitty, it is an alternative to Anna’s life. I think in Tolstoy’s mind, Anna’s misfortune is more a result of her choices rather than the hindrance of her social environment.
The 18th and 19th centuries have contributed a large number of masters in classic literature, it is also a time that humanism has dominant influences. Among these writers, there’re a few that have a deep understanding of Christianity, such as Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Victor Hugo. Though they might not be convinced Christians, in their works we still see the Christian worldviews and values. I think many of them must have sensed that the only solution to this fallen world is Christianity.
Thanks for sharing some insight and thoughts my friend. I’m not sure about Victor Hugo, but I did know Dostoevsky and Tolstoy where somewhere near christianity. Sadly their lives don’t reflect that they had saving faith. Glad you read the article!
Like!! Really appreciate you sharing this blog post.Really thank you! Keep writing.
I’m glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the encouragement. 🙂
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