Few
literary characters are as universally despised as Count Vronsky in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Generally, he is pegged
somewhere between a cad and a heel. Nevertheless, he deserves the chance to
tell his side of the classic story, especially since he has an interested
listener in Karen Shakhnazarov’s Anna
Karenina. Vronsky’s Story (trailer here), which screens as part of Russian Film Week in New York.
There
might be subtle differences in interpretation, but the events that happened in
St. Petersburg are still quite faithful to Tolstoy’s novel. The wrap-around
segments are based on the fictionalized but still very autobiographical
writings of Vikenty Veresaev. Anna Karenina’s son Sergei takes Veresaev’s place
as a doctor during the 1904 Russian-Japanese War. Clearly, the fighting in
Manchuria has gone poorly for the Czar’s army, when even a staff officer like
Col. Vronsky has been wounded. Of course, Vronsky and Karenin know exactly who they
are. They also have unresolved feelings for Anna. As he recuperates, Vronsky explains
the tragic events, most of which were kept secret from Karenin by his
controlling father.
What
happened was the story of Anna Karenina,
which you really ought to be familiar with. It is rather fascinating how
closely Shakhnazarov and co-screenwriter Yuriy Poteenko hew to the original Tolstoy,
yet they still manage to recast Vronsky as an unexpectedly sympathetic
character. On the other hand, the senior Karenin comes across like a bitter, moralizing
misanthrope, while Karenina is portrayed as a problematically unstable and
self-centered drama queen.
That
is all quite an interesting take on Tolstoy, but the biggest surprise is the success
of the Veresaev-inspired scenes in Manchuria, which are quite compelling. Max Matveev
necessarily digs deeper as the older, more remorseful Vronsky. He also forges a
rather poignant rapport with Sofia Sun’s Chunsheng, a Chinese orphan girl
Vronsky takes under his wing.
The
feature cut of Vronsky’s Story is
culled from Shakhnazarov’s eight-part miniseries, but it really does not feel
like it is missing anything. The way it marries together Tolstoy and Veresaev
is really very clever, but Tass still manages to overstate matters. It erroneously
claims Vronsky’s Story would be
nominated for an Academy Award and Shakhnazarov, the Putin supporting director
general of Mosfilm has already been nominated for Oscars three times before.
The truth is Russia previously submitted three of his films in the foreign language
category, but the Academy chose not to nominate them. This time around, Russia
declined to submit Vronsky’s Story,
in favor of Sobibor. Despite the disinformation
disseminated on Shakhnazarov’s behalf, Anna
Karenina. Vronsky’s Story is a classy and engaging film, definitely
recommended when it screens Sunday (12/9), as part of this year’s Russian Film
Week in New York.
