Le projet 'Anna Karenina'

Écrit le scénario de Tom Stoppard. La rumeur veut que dans le film, comme dans le livre, les deux branches parallèles de la narration - Karénine et Vronsky et Levin, avec Kitty, mais la première a été retirée dans les couleurs théâtrales grotesque, et le second comme proche de la vraie vie.

Mais je me demande ce que sera l'Oblonsky de Matthew Macfadyen

Oh, Matthieu Macfadyen était magnifique! Il est très grand, mais depuis Pride & Prejudice, il a «mûri» encore plus si bien que dans son pardessus bleu foncé, son chapeau haut-de-forme et avec la moustache, il était bien, il faisait vraiment gentleman!

The 29-year-old actress also stars in Joe Wright's new film adaptation of Anna Karenina with Keira Knightley.
She revealed: "It's out of this world. It's like nothing you'll ever see ever I think. He's being very brave and very ambitious and he's going to pull it off, he's amazing."

Focus' real player, however, is Joe Wright's fourth film with the mini-major, "Anna Karenina." The adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's classic tale features an all-star cast including Knightley (her third film with Wright), Jude Law, Aaron Johnson, Kelly Macdonald, Matthew Macfadyen, Emily Watson and Olivia Williams. The subject matter, the cast and Wright's pedigree ("Atonement," "Pride & Prejudice," "Hanna") will make "Karenina" one of the most anticipated films of 2012. No pressure Joe.

"Anna Karenina"
In Theaters: 2012 TBD

The third collaboration of Academy Award nominee Keira Knightley with director Joe Wright, following the award-winning box office successes “Pride & Prejudice” and “Atonement,” is the epic love story “Anna Karenina,” adapted from Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel by Academy Award winner Tom Stoppard (“Shakespeare in Love”). The story unfolds in its original late-19th-century Russia high-society setting and powerfully explores the capacity for love that surges through the human heart, from the passion between adulterers to the bond between a mother and her children. As Anna (Ms. Knightley) questions her happiness, change comes to her family, friends, and community.

Director: Joe Wright (“Atonement,” “Pride & Prejudice,” “Hanna”)
Writer: Tom Stoppard (“Shakespeare in Love”); Based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy
Cast: Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Johnson, Kelly Macdonald, Matthew Macfadyen,
Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Emily Watson, Olivia Williams, Ruth Wilson

Her film résumé may be short, but Jacqueline Durran is rapidly proving herself one of the deftest costume designers in the business. Oscar-nominated for the muddied period finery of "Pride and Prejudice" and that green dress (among other items) in "Atonement," she's equally adept in contemporary settings -- for my money, her character-defining thrift-store ensembles in Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky" were no less deserving of awards notice. In "Tinker, Tailor," she's hovering somewhere between those period and contemporary modes, and brings her gifts in both areas to the table.

After taking a major left-turn with last year's pop-art action fairy tale "Hanna," some were a little disappointed to see that Joe Wright was seemingly going back to his wheel house, returning to Working Title Films for another period literary adaptation starring Keira Knightley, in the tradition of first and second films, "Pride & Prejudice" and "Atonement." While his take on Leo Tolstoy's classic "Anna Karenina" has an incredibly prestigious team and cast -- a script from Tom Stoppard and a roster, including Jude Law, Aaron Johnson, Matthew Macfayden, Ruth Wilson, Olivia Williams and Domnhall Gleeson -- it was hard to see it as anything other than lush, pretty costume drama Oscar bait.

As it turns out, Wright's planning something very, very different. The latest print edition of Empire Magazine is on the streets, and it's a typically ace, jam-packed issue, featuring, among other things, a feature on Wright's film. Within that piece it reveals that rather than the tired period drama that some were expecting, Wright's film is an experimental, expressionistic take on the tale.

It wasn't always meant to be so. Three weeks before the film went into production, "Anna Karenina" was set to be a relatively standard shoot, full of lush scenery and stately homes. But Wright, looking for "how to achieve something that really expresses the essence of the story," worrying that he was repeating himself and bucking against budgetary restrictions that meant the film would only be able to shoot in Russia for four weeks (with the rest taking place in the U.K.), rethought his old plan. As a result of his reading of Orlando Figes' 2002 history of the Russian aristocracy "Natasha's Dance" -- that Wright says "described them as living their lives upon a stage, that it was all a performance" -- the director decided to shoot the majority of his Russian epic on and around a single location, a run-down theater built from scratch at Shepperton Studios outside London.

Inspired by his idea that the book is "about the search for the authentic life," the film will see the world of Anna, her husband Karenin and her lover Count Vronsky intrude on this theatrical setting, with full-size trains running through one moment and the "stage" converted into an ice rink the next. Other rooms will connect directly to the theater, while toy trains and dollhouses will represent exterior locations. As Wright says, "There is a fluid linearity. You can walk from one house under the 'stage' straight onto the horse training ground." Producer Paul Webster ("Eastern Promises") adds, "We are creating true cinema, this elastic universe. You can go through a door and you've even got a Russian landscape."

Furthermore, don't expect it to stick to period, with the piece hinting that anachronisms will appear as Anna's sanity unravels. Seemingly, the only time that the camera will actually venture outside is with Levin, the character played by fast-rising star Domhnall Gleeson ("True Grit"), the only "authentic" character among a host of posers who is able to go out into the "real" world, thanks to some location shooting in Russia and the U.K.

Wright also promises to keep the visual fireworks of "Hanna" away -- despite the bold conceit he says, "The stylisation is not an embellishment, but a subtraction. This is possibly my least indulgent film; everything is at the service of the story." Empire (over)excitedly compares the approach to Lars von Trier's "Dogville," Christopher Nolan's "Inception" and Powell & Pressburger, but we'll have to wait and see for ourselves. Of the latter filmmakers, Wright acknowledges, "They are always going to be an inspiration," but all told, the film has suddenly become far, far more of a fascinating prospect than it was before. Pick up the new issue of Empire (which features "The Avengers" on the cover) for the rest of the skinny on the film, and much more. "Anna Karenina" will hit U.K. theaters on September 7th, with a U.S. release to follow soon after.

Wright is drawing on numerous sources. On one side, theatre's legacy of shaping drama around the confines of stage - of which Stoppard himself is a past master - and the allusions of interpretive dance and ballet. On the other, something entirely cinematic. He has also been immersed in silent cinema, an era when theatre and film were closely tied. "I don't think film has ever been so purely cinematic as it was before the invention of dialogue," he says dreamily. Other experiments spring to mind: Lars von Trier's stripped-down Dogville, the life-as-Broadway-musical dizziness of Francis Coppola's One From The Heart, even the shapeshifting backdrops of Christoper Nolan's Inception. Above all, the film is instilled with the genius of Powell & Pressburger for breaking the rules but never breaking the spell of the story: the way The Red Shoes (loosely based on AK) can slip the bounds of its reality to become a fairy tale as Moira Sheared dances herself into a frenzy. "They are always going to be an inspiration," says Wright. "You look to your own, what there is to be proud of in your culture."

No-one is immune to the risks involved. But on set, the department heads, liberated by the physical confinement, are running with the idea. The stars, too, have taken it in their stride. "All the actors are pretty smart," laughs their director. "They realised it would make the film more about their performances." When you work for Joe Wright, you should be ready for the bombshell. "I wasn't surprised," laughs Webster. "Russia would've been expensive anyway. It's interesting, because Joe's camera pyrotechnics are actually on quite a tight leash. The way he's doing it is quite simple and classical."

There is no Inception-type puzzle to solve; the story of AK remains firmly their film. Wright's daring vision is about enhancing the central drama. "The stylisation is not an embellishment but a subtraction," he says. "This is possibly my least indulgent film; everything is at the service of the story. And this is the most amazing study of love, and I am interested in love and why and how the fuck it works."

Keira Knightley, as Anna Karenina, emerges from the mist, her gaze focussed on her husband — and her lover — played by Jude Law and Aaron Johnson, respectively.

The actress is wearing an embroidered coat that sweeps the floor, a hat trimmed in fox fur — and £1 million worth of Chanel gems, dangling from her ears.

The costume designer, Jacqueline Durran, has at the request of director Joe Wright, created a hybrid look for Keira, in which 1870s style meets fitted Fifties couture, and the result is stunning.

Anna Karenina is Tolstoy’s giant meditation on the aspects of love, and Keira, now 26, is clearly up to the task of playing one of the greatest heroines in literature.

I’ve been following Keira’s career for years, but as I stood looking at her on the set of Anna Karenina, something had changed. The film’s hair and make-up designer Ivana Primorac articulated my thoughts. ‘Keira looks like a proper woman,’ she says

Director Joe Wright, who is filming the train station scene at Shepperton studios, tells me: ‘There’s fire in Keira’s belly.’

He’s directing her for the third time, having worked with her on Pride And Prejudice and Atonement.

And he agrees that Keira has grown up. ‘She’s her own woman — she’s got so much fight in her at the moment,’ he says, as he watches her being framed by Seamus McGarvey, the director of photography, and camera operator Peter Robertson.

He tells me that Keira’s taken a lot of stick in England, in the years since they last worked together.

‘A lot of young actors would have gone “Up yours!’ and gone off to Hollywood. But she braved it out, and it has made her stronger — and fiercer,’ Wright adds, with a slightly nervous laugh.

The director believes Keira is more than ready to play Anna — but not a 20th-century feminist version of Anna, ‘following her heart’.

‘As far as Tolstoy was concerned, he was writing a book about a woman who was a sinner — a fallen woman,’ Wright says. ‘He wasn’t writing about her as a heroine. He started off writing this book about a good husband and a bad wife. But then, as he wrote, he fell in love with Anna.’

Wright’s basing his version of Tolstoy’s great novel on a powerful screenplay by Tom Stoppard, in which the playwright gives equal weight to the parallel stories of Anna’s cuckolding of her husband Karenin (Law), and her passionate affair with Count Vronsky (Johnson), and also the romance between Levin (Domhnall Gleeson) and Kitty (Alicia Vikander).

Stoppard’s view is that most previous versions made the mistake of favouring Anna’s story over Levin’s. ‘Tom turned in one draft and it was all there,’ marvels producer Paul Webster.

Tim Bevan of Working Title, who is making the film for Focus Films and Universal, told me it’s the first time Wright has worked with a great screenplay. ‘Joe’s had good scripts, but this is a great one,’ says Bevan, a man not known for idle overstatement.

Wright and his long-time design collaborator Sarah Greenwood checked out locations in St Petersburg, and stately homes in the UK (particularly in Yorkshire) which could double as Russian homes.

But the more Wright studied Russian cultural history, the more he realised he didn’t want to shoot a conventional costume drama.

The eureka moment came as he pored over Orlando Figes’s study of Russian cultural history, Natasha’s Dance, which suggested the aristocrats of St Petersburg in the 1870s were more western European in their behaviour than Russian.

‘The aristocrats spoke Italian, English and French — and Russian only to the serfs. There was a sense that they were always playing parts,’ producer Webster explained.

So Wright hit on the idea of doing an expressionistic version of Anna Karenina, emphasising that theatricality. Greenwood designed a theatre on a soundstage at Shepperton, from which the action would flow. You go through a door and there’s a train station; go through another and there’s a snowy street, or a forest of silver birch.

While most of the filming was done on lavish sets, there were real life locations, too; and some shooting is being done in Russia, for the more naturalistic scenes involving Levin and Kitty.

The scenes I watched looked amazing. Ornate tableaux peopled with extras of Russian heritage, all choreographed to move in a certain way.

And the cast is as rich as Greenwood’s sets. Ruth Wilson plays Princess Betsy; Olivia Williams is Countess Vronsky; Emily Watson plays Countess Lydia; Kelly Macdonald is Dolly; and Matthew Macfadyen, Oblonsky.

Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery has been cast as Princess Myagkaya, while her former co-star Thomas Howes (William, the ill-fated footman) plays Yashvin.

Keira has taken on another difficult role in the upcoming movie Anna Karenina. It’s based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy and the actress has been reading up on psychoanalysis to help her with the part.
She has worked with director Joe Wright before, on movies Pride & Prejudice and Atonement, and worries about giving the film her all.
“We’re all very aware that it’s an incredibly difficult part and an incredibly difficult piece, and very often it hasn’t worked,” she said. “But we have a brilliant team and a great group of actors, and we’re going to do our best.”

Luce a écrit:Interview by Ian Nathan.

Above all, the film is instilled with the genius of Powell & Pressburger for breaking the rules but never breaking the spell of the story: the way The Red Shoes (loosely based on AK) can slip the bounds of its reality to become a fairy tale as Moira Sheared dances herself into a frenzy. "They are always going to be an inspiration," says Wright. "You look to your own, what there is to be proud of in your culture." (source)

Fresh from a trip to the depths of the Arctic Circle with Jude Law and Keira Knightley, where they are filming Anna Karenina, Sarah talks to us about her passions, projects and inspirations.

What are you working on at the moment?
I have just finished the last weeks on Joe Wright’s latest film; a Tom Stoppard adaptation of Anna Karenina. We have been in Northern Russia 100km south of the Arctic circle in minus 35. Amazing! I’ve just arrived back and am planning to take a few months off to get a life.

What’s next for you?
A break! After finishing this Chanel No 5 commercial that I am doing with Joe and the same team that did Anna Karenina.

What’s your reaction to the Government’s proposal that British film industry funding should be aimed at films most likely to be commercially successful?
How do they know which ones are going to be commercially successful. If anyone knew that we’d all be amazingly rich Producers!! It is a ridiculous restriction to put on any art, there has to be room for all aspects of film making as there is huge interconnection between genres of filming… an example; last week when we were holed up in a cabin on a frozen lake in Russia shooting the final scenes of Anna Karenina, sitting around the table were Paul Webster ( Producer ) Seamus Mcgarvey (DOP), me (Production Designer) and Niall Moroney (Supervising Art Director), we were drinking vodka and chatting about Derek Jarman. Paul was cast in Jubilee as a punk, Seamus shot ‘Blue’, Niall spent an evening at an exhibition with him, and I was taught by him for my final year project at Wimbledon. All our lives were so influenced and touched by him, and here we all were on a lake making our big commercial Hollywood film. If we follow through on the government restrictions there will be no more Derek Jarmens to touch and feed our lives.