Book contents
- Tolstoy in Context
- Tolstoy in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Citations, Translations, and Transliterations
- Chronology
- Part I The Man
- Part II Russian Social and Political Contexts
- Part III Literature, the Arts, and Intellectual Life
- Part IV Science and Technology
- Part V Beyond Russia
- Part VI Tolstoy’s Afterlife
- Chapter 34 Tolstoy’s Complete Works
- Chapter 35 Tolstoy in English Translation
- Chapter 36 Film Adaptations
- Chapter 37 Musical Adaptations
- Chapter 38 Biographies
- Chapter 39 Tolstoy as the Subject of Art: Painting, Film, Theater
- Suggested Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 36 - Film Adaptations
from Part VI - Tolstoy’s Afterlife
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2023
- Tolstoy in Context
- Tolstoy in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Citations, Translations, and Transliterations
- Chronology
- Part I The Man
- Part II Russian Social and Political Contexts
- Part III Literature, the Arts, and Intellectual Life
- Part IV Science and Technology
- Part V Beyond Russia
- Part VI Tolstoy’s Afterlife
- Chapter 34 Tolstoy’s Complete Works
- Chapter 35 Tolstoy in English Translation
- Chapter 36 Film Adaptations
- Chapter 37 Musical Adaptations
- Chapter 38 Biographies
- Chapter 39 Tolstoy as the Subject of Art: Painting, Film, Theater
- Suggested Further Reading
- Index
Summary
Tolstoy’s works have been adapted into film more often than any other Russian writer except for Dostoevsky. This chapter covers Russian and world cinematic adaptations of War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Resurrection, and various shorter works of Tolstoy. Tolstoy’s novels, with their vast length, broad canvas, and complex plots, create unique challenges for prospective filmmakers. While some directors attempt to film his texts as closely as possible, others choose to single out particular aspects of his novels as their foci. Adapters of Anna Karenina, for instance, often focus almost exclusively on Anna and Vronsky’s love affair, while minimizing the plotline involving Levin. Cultural factors often come into play, for instance in Sergei Bondarchuk’s War and Peace, which adapts Tolstoy’s text in light of the Brezhnev-era demand for monumentalism, and for conveying the patriotic aspects of the novel. Shorter works such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich and The Kreutzer Sonata have inspired particularly creative approaches, as directors often freely combine Tolstoy’s short narratives with other texts and set them in remarkably different social, historical, and cultural contexts.
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- Tolstoy in Context , pp. 297 - 304Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022