Anna Karenina in B. Rose and S. Solovyov - The position of Women through the Forms of Film Recording

Abstract

Film art has a specific system of procedures that enable the formation of narratives in a particular way, like literary ones. By using various forms of film shooting, i.e. different types of frames, camera positions, lenses, sounds, etc., it is possible to add value to particular objects, characters, characteristics, and relationships. American director Bernard Rose and Russian director Sergei Solovyov screened the same famous Tolstoy’s novel “Anna Karenina”. Still, each did it in their own way, revealing the position of women in society from a different aspect. For example, Rose’s Anna is portrayed primarily as limited by her position, trapped and always under surveillance. At the same time, Solovyov’s Anna is characterized by defiance and anger that arise due to her position. The task of presenting the tradition that Levin fulfils in the American adaptation, Karenin potrays in the Russian version. While the former weaves the motif of the circumstances as a metaphor for a woman’s captivity and limitations in society, the latter is dominated by a contrasting motif of skates as a symbol of male potency and freedom. In other words, using various forms of film making techniques, adding, eliding or even changing parts of the plot, and giving priority to different motifs, characters, and even characteristics in them, the film-makers create different and thus new narratives, each of which deals explicitly with timeless issues of female position in society.