The Italian-German screening of Leo Tolstoy's most arguable, problematic and unpleasant novel is above all very handsomely made, sticking faithfully to the novel, omitting nothing of what's important and thoroughly exposing the deep moral and social problems of the novel. He wrote it when he was seventy, and it's his last great novel. The leading character, Prince Nekhludov, was a character he used in many short stories, all very personal, and here he finally gives his Prince (modelled on a close and admired friend of his) a full novel. The Prince serves in a jury, and on one trial dealing with murder, he recognises one of the accused, a poor prostitute, as a serving woman he once seduced and made pregnant. He is filled with remorse, and the whole novel deals with this problem of guilt, remorse and atonement.
This is one of Horst Buchholz' earliest films, he is very young here, and he is at least convincing enough as the young dashing Nekhludov. The victim of a typical Russian miscarriage of justice is played by Myriam Bru, and she is perfect for her part. There was an excellent BBC screening of the novel for TV in 4 parts with Alan Dobie as Nekhludov in 1971, and he was perfect for the part, but that series dared not follow him into Siberia but ends where he gets on the train to follow Caterina to the far cold east. This film goes further and is better and truer to the novel, the BBC series was a dramatisation, while this film also includes deeper worrisome social aspects and characters. The settings, the music, the costumes, everything would have satisfied Leo Tolstoy enough, which would place this film version as number one among half a dozen versions that have been made all the way since 1917.
