Anna Karenina (1997 film)

Anna Karenina is a 1997 period drama film written and directed by Bernard Rose and starring Sophie Marceau, Sean Bean, Alfred Molina, Mia Kirshner, and James Fox. Based on the 1877 novel Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, the film is about a young and beautiful married woman who meets a handsome count, with whom she falls in love. Eventually, the conflict between her passionate desires and painful social realities leads to depression and despair.

The film is the only international version filmed entirely in Russia, at locations in Saint Petersburg and Moscow.

Plot

Anna Karenina is a young and elegant wife of Alexei Karenin, a wealthy nobleman twenty years her senior. She is unhappy and lives only for their son, Seriozha. During a ball in Moscow, she encounters the handsome Count Alexei Vronsky. Vronsky is instantly smitten and follows her to St. Petersburg, pursuing her shamelessly. Eventually, Anna surrenders to her feelings for him and becomes his mistress. Though they are happy together, their relationship soon crumbles after she miscarries his child. Karenin is deeply touched by her pain and agrees to forgive her. However, Anna remains unhappy and, to the scandal of respectable society, she openly leaves her husband for Vronsky.