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Russia, the 1910's: When she visits Moscow coming from St Petersburg,
Anna Karenina (Greta Garbo) meets Court Vronsky (Frederic March), an
officer in the Russian army, and he immediately falls in love with her -
but at first she fights off his advances, basically because her younger
sister Kitty (Maureen O'Sullivan) is madly in love with him. When she
leaves for St Petersburg again though, she finds he is following her, and
since the two move in the same high society circles, it's inevitable that
they meet again and again. Thing is though, Anna has a husband, Alexey
(Basil Rathbone), and a son, Sergey (Freddie Bartholomew). This doesn't
frighten Vronsky away, and after a time she has to realize she is in love
with him just as much as he is with her - and yet she doesn't want to be
in the center of a scandal. True, she doesn't love her husband and he
doesn't love her, but she it totally devoted to her son, and Alexey has
made it quite clear that when she leaves him she will never see Sergey
again, ever. For a while now, Anna tries to stay away from Vronsky, but
she can't for long, and eventually they run away to Venice together, no
matter what the consequences - because not only does she lose her husband
and son, he will be forced to leave his beloved regiment, too. Venice is
beautiful, of course, but eventually the two loverbirds become homesick,
and decide to move back to St Petersburg, but have to remain pretty much
in hiding, because they have become outcasts of the society. An attempt to
see her son ends in disaster for Anna, and soon she and Vronsky quarrel
more than it is worth - which all culminates when he decides to join an
army of volunteers (made up mostly from his regiment) at the eve of World
War I to go fighting in Serbia. Having lost everything that was dear to
her, and having parted with Vronsky on bad terms, Anna throws himself in
front of a train - leaving Vronsky blaming himself for her death ... With
Anna Karenina, you pretty much get exactly what you expect from a
Greta Garbo movie: A costume drama set in lavish studio sets that
heavy on emotions in which especially Garbo has an amazingly heavy cross
to bear, a script that lacks irony, and acting by all of the involved
seems to be a bit theatrical (though not necessarily in a bad way). The
question whether you will like this movie is more or less a question
whether you like this kind of movies as such. As for me, I have nothing
against Anna Karenina - but it's not a must-see movie either.
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