Word: tolstoys
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...said Leo Tolstoy in 1908, when he was 80, peering into the future of an infant art. He might have altered his opinion had he seen this Russian adaptation of his masterwork, War and Peace. It has escaped greatness, except in cost and length. The film took $100 million and five years to make. After extensive cutting it is now six hours and twelve minutes long. In the Soviet Union it was released in four different segments; in the U.S., audiences must see it at two separate showings...
...that recall the trancelike battle paintings of Uccello. With a knowing artist's eye, the director composes vignettes reminiscent of the harshness and heartbreak of Goya etchings. Again and again, the dolor and grandeur of Russia's convulsive struggle with Napoleon provide a panorama truly worthy of Tolstoy, a writer who did not believe in leaving anything...
...telling of their lives that the film fails. Pierre and Andrei are at best only shallow, literal representations of Tolstoy's rich characters. To portray Natasha's giddiness, Savelyeva never walks when she can dash, never smiles when she can give shiny-eyed grins that reduce her to a caricature coquette. Amateurish cutting and arbitrary shifts from color to black and white mutilate the film. Moreover, the dubbing is disastrous: the actors' faces show feelings far more profound than the dull words that cannot quite fit their mouths...
...established authors. T.H. White, Joyce, Pasternak did well, but The Bible didn't sell. Around the corner, the Gary is older, dingier, a bit more stodgy. It usually sticks with Films for the Entire Family. Although a muddy mural in the lobby purports to depict everyone from Socrates to Tolstoy to Thoreau, the pictures shown at the Gary are more akin to Margaret Mitchell and Hugh Lofting...
...Tolstoy, Troyat...