Grains of Gold

Inevitably when cooler temperatures start to trickle in and the sun's rays begin to pale, my heart grows hungry for a steady dose of golden light.  Anticipation for something -anything be it a vacation, an event, a party, or yes even a movie can get one excited about the future, propelling one forward through one's daily motions with a sense of passion and purpose, a yearning towards that faint glimmer. So it is with me and the most recent film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's classic 1877 novel Anna Karenina. The film which is set for a limited US release date of November 9 stars powerhouses Kiera Knightly, Jude Law, Kelly Macdonald and Aaron-Taylor Johnson with a small appearance by Emma Watson (swoon.)

Directed by the optical master, Joe Wright (think Atonement, Price & Prejudice) and written by the playwright Tom Stoppard (think Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, among others,) the film was originally set to be shot on location in Russia. Due to budgetary restraints, Anna K was created as more of an actual play, with an artifically constructed linear moving set. However, lest you think that this might detract from Wright's talent for using natural landscapes as characters in his films, Kiera Knightly noted that she thought the budgetary "restrictions made him [Wright] incredibly creative, out of necessity." Judging from the film's luciously colorful costumes and set design based on pre-released images, trailers and clips, it seems as though Wright fans will not be disappointed.

Check out the trailer below and let me know, will you see Anna Karenina? P.s. I also added some quotes from the actual novel by Tolstoy. My personal favorite is the very last one.

Anna Karenina Quotes, Leo Tolstoy:

“Sometimes she did not know what she feared, what she desired: whether she feared or desired what had been or what would be, and precisely what she desired, she did not know.”

“It's hard to love a woman and do anything.”

“All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.”

“But I'm glad you'll see me as I am. Above all, I wouldn't want people to think that I want to prove anything. I don't want to prove anything, I just want to live; to cause no evil to anyone but myself. I have that right, haven't I?”

  

“She smiled at him, and at her own fears.”

"...the thought occurred to him that the power of working for the general welfare – a power of which he felt himself entirely destitute – was not a virtue but rather a lack of something: not a lack of kindly honesty and noble desires and tastes, but a lack of the power of living, of what is called heart – the aspiration which makes a man choose one out of all the innumerable paths of life that present themselves, and desire that alone.”

“The children themselves repaid her griefs with small joys. These joys were so trifling as to be as imperceptible as grains of gold among the sand, and in moments of depression she saw nothing but the sand; yet there were brighter moments when she felt nothing but joy, saw nothing but the gold.”