Keira Knightley as Anna Karenina. Still from the official site of the movie.
That woman should not make it up
When she is mother, duly married,
Nor with court chamberlain, nor with aide-du-camp."
Epigram by poet Nicolay Nekrasov, Tolstoy's contemporary
Seriously, Tom Stoppard despite his (being a good Czech) disdain for the Russian culture did not do a bad job in translating Tolstoy for a Hollywood screen. Small fault is that he did not understand that Tolstoy hated Karenin and everything he represented but, as a great artist, did not want to succumb to caricature. However, the most surprising, for somebody living in Britain, is Stoppard's complete lack of understanding of the aristocratic culture. He could read Proust better to understand the difference between "very" and "not very noble" ... Duke. Vronsky family are obviously post-Petrine upstarts. Prince Oblonsky is a Ryurikid and Lowin, as a natural fiancee for a Ryurikid Princess belongs to the lineage of the old boyars (as did Tolstoy himself, though his family's title of Counts was relatively new). Settling him, as director did, in a rich peasant's hut is bizarre. Calling his looks "bourgeois" would be considered a humiliation and result in a duel.
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