On DVD and Blu-ray Today: Anna Karenina

 

Today is the DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo (as well as OnDemand and digital downloads) releases for Joe Wright's 4-time Academy Award nominated film, Anna Karenina starring former Pride & Prejudice stars Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen! If you haven't seen this film, like myself, due to its limited US theatrical release, you and I can finally see this movie today! Our wait is now over! So, be sure to get your DVD or Blu-ray copy (or rent it on RedBox, order it OnDemand, purchase your copy on iTunes and Amazon, Netflix it, or whatever you have to do to see this film) as it's available now!

I know I'll be purchasing my own Blu-ray/DVD combo copy sometime today and will finally see this movie as soon as I can get my hands on it! Yes, I'm so excited and I can't hide it! Can't wait to finally see Keira & Matthew together on-screen again! And look, the adorable siblings Anna & Oblonsky are excited for me to finally see them in this film too...hahaha!

As I've previously mentioned here, this was the only film that I've been waiting to see in 2012 that I didn't get to see (since it never made it to my local theater, unfortunately), but I'm very glad that it's finally released and available on DVD and Blu-ray sooner and that day is today!

This film, though it never made the top 10 (it peaked at #12) since its US theater release (last November 16, 2012...It's now In Release:  94 days / 13.4 weeks), it made over 12.7 million (with only 422 theater widest count!) and 40.9 million foreign box office gross with a worldwide total of 53.6 million as of February 17, 2013 (via Box Office Mojo).

Anna Karenina scored a Golden Globe Nomination for Dario Marianelli (for Best Original Score), 6 BAFTA Nominations (including a WIN for Jacqueline Durran for Best Costume Design), an American Society Of Cinematographers nomination for Seamus McGarvey, and is nominated for 4 Oscars including Best Costume Design for Jacqueline Durran and Best Original Score for Dario Marianelli.

Check out the special features for AK's Blu-ray/DVD Combo...

Special features for ANNA KARENINA include:

• Deleted Scenes
• Anna Karenina: An Epic Story About Love
• Adapting Tolstoy
• Keira as Anna
• On the Set with Director Joe Wright
• Dressing Anna
• Anna Karenina: Time-Lapse Photography
• Feature Commentary with Director Joe Wright
• Digital Copy
• UltraViolet

 
(source: DVD Active | Amazon)

Amazon.com

By filming Leo Tolstoy's timeless novel as a series of theater pieces that play out across stages and catwalks, Joe Wright extracts Anna Karenina from the dusty pages of history. In her third collaboration with the filmmaker, Keira Knightley portrays the St. Petersburg aristocrat as a woman who loves her son, Sergei, more than her husband, Alexei Karenin (Jude Law). On a trip to Moscow, she meets Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), whose Snidely Whiplash mustache spells trouble, even as his sky-blue eyes prove impossible to resist. Wright contrasts their passionate union with the less cataclysmic concerns of Anna's sister-in-law, Dolly (Boardwalk Empire's Kelly Macdonald), whose capacity for forgiveness puts Alexei to shame, and Levin (Harry Potter's Domhnall Gleeson), who never gives up on Dolly's sister, Kitty (Alicia Vikander), even after she rejects him in hopes of a more glamorous future. When the affair between Anna and Vronsky becomes public, Tolstoy's antiheroine risks losing everything, but as readers know: she just can't help herself. Though Shakespeare in Love screenwriter Tom Stoppard ties together a colorful galaxy of characters who orbit around the photogenic central couple, the secondary performers provide the more deeply grounded performances, particularly Law and Gleeson. And for all the stylized, Douglas Sirk-inspired melodrama, Knightley's Pride & Prejudice costar, Matthew Macfadyen, who plays Dolly's wayward husband, lightens the mood whenever he utters one of his clever quips. If it isn't completely successful, Wright's reinvention is frequently quite dazzling--much like the genuine Chanel diamonds that illuminate Knightley's porcelain complexion. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Product Description

Academy Award nominee Keira Knightley, Academy Award nominee Jude Law and Aaron Taylor-Johnson dazzle in this stunning new vision of Leo Tolstoy's epic love story. At the twilight of an empire, Anna Karenina (Knightley), the beautiful high-ranking wife of one of imperial Russia's most esteemed men (Law), has it all. But when she meets the dashing cavalry officer Vronsky (Taylor-Johnson), there is a mutual spark of instant attraction that cannot be ignored. She's immediately swept up in a passionate affair that will shock a nation and change the lives of everyone around her. From acclaimed director Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride & Prejudice) and Academy Awardr-winning writer Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love) comes this visually enchanting masterpiece hailed by critics as "ecstatic" (Time), "rapturous" (MSN Movies) and "a spectacle that has to be seen to be believed!" (The Huffington Post)