Saw the commercials for the BBC production and thought I’d give it a pass but after reading this article I think I’d like to take a look at the “Soviet epic”.
Well, the cinematography is 1960’s (no HD slickness) but it’s a Russian epic made in lavish style by honest to God Russians speaking Russian (and French - the polite language spoken in Russian salons among the nobility). Filmed over six years and released in four parts it won the Oscar in 1968 for best foreign language film, which considering that was the height of the Cold War (Vietnam and Czechoslovakia invasion) was sort of amazing. Over the years I’ve just been a little amused at how films have made us think the Romans and Tolstoy’s Russians all spoke in English with Oxbridge accents.