Unheralded

DAVE VORLAND: It Occurs To Me — ‘Vronsky’

Dorette and I love to attend the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival every spring. On Thursday, we saw the new Russian-made movie “Vronsky,” complete with English subtitles.

The flick is set in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. It imagines the aftermath of Leo Tolstoy’s novel “Anna Karenina” from the point of view of Anna’s lover, Count Vronsky, several years after her death by suicide, including flashbacks to her failed marriage with her husband Alexi. A spunky woman, that Anna, way ahead of her time.

I liked it a lot.

Years ago, I read a lot of Tolstoy’s writing — novels such as “Anna Karenina” and “War and Peace” as well as nonfiction works such as “The Kingdom of God is within you.”

I also read his diary written right up to the day of his death in 1910. In his last year at age 82, the entries always began with the words “Still Alive.”

Anyway, I think I’ll read “Anna Karenina” one last time.





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