Original subtitles

I must put you on your guard, Anna.

On my guard?

For what?

You've committed an indiscretion.

I should like to think it was, er, thoughtlessness.

Your animated tete-a-tete with Count Vronsky this evening

did not pass unnoticed.

Really? You're always the same.

If I'm bored, you're offended with me.

And if I'm entertaining myself...

For heaven's sake, leave your hands alone.

I first heard about playing Anna Karenina through my agent.

Of course, I immediately said yes.

Who wouldn't?

It is the greatest, bitterest love story ever written,

by, I consider, the greatest writer, Tolstoy.

Many of the great love stories

which all end bitterly -

both in opera, even in ballet,

but certainly in novels -

have a female protagonist,

but none greater than Anna Karenina,

after whom I named my daughter.

And I was so lucky

that Rudolph Cartier had this idea to do it.

He was the most interesting director at that time at the BBC

and I worked very happily with him.

Too late.

Too late.

I think I was 30 when we filmed Anna Karenina,

and I had started acting at 15

and...had a little time in repertory, not much.

And from then on, I kind of went on.

I auditioned for the young lead in The Lady's Not For Burning,

opposite a young Welsh actor called Richard Burton,

who wasn't known either.

And then I was, most miraculously,

asked by Charlie Chaplin

to come and test with him for the leading...

..lady, whatever -

I wasn't a lady, I was 19, I guess I was a lady -

in his film of Limelight,

and after some painful time of waiting, etc, I got it.

So that was the beginning of my international career.

But everyone thinks you're happy with Karenin.

Good, that's how I want it to be. Let them envy my happiness.

You know how it used to be the fashion to wear masks, Dolly?

Well, that's mine, happiness.

That surprises you.

Oh, I've wept, too, Dolly. I've rebelled against this marriage,

against my parents, who forced it on me as though it were

an unbelievable good fortune.

But then I had Sergei.

I'm resigned.

You? That shocks you?

Oh, I know, I used to be so full of hope at one time.

Well, now I'm in a hurry to grow old.

When I watch my own performance, I'm hypercritical.

Always disappointed.

Always think there are things I could have done better.

I thought I looked very, very nice, very pretty.

But in some strange way,

I also thought, though I was 30, which is probably Anna's age,

I was young, too young.

I was very young for my age,

and I had a young-ish, high-ish voice.

I wish I could have done it a few years later

when I had been through more in my life and understood

a little more of the agony that she went through.

Oh, there you are, my dear.

Allow me to present my son. Count Vronsky, Madame Karenina.

I was incredibly lucky to get Sean Connery, who was not known,

whom I had met in the dressing room

of a lovely actress called Diane Cilento

when we were doing a play together.

And I went in and I saw this incredible-looking man,

and I went back to my dresser and I said,

"Have you seen Diane's boyfriend?"

And from then on, I guess Sean worked his way up.

He must have done something before Vronsky, but not much.

And I thought he was absolutely wonderful as Vronsky.

Looking superb, of course - he was a very handsome man -

but with a wonderful voice,

with very great masculinity, with all the things

that were necessary for the part

and great passion.

I love you.

Oh, yes, you love me.

One forgets a dream.

It wasn't a dream, I love you.

No.

Are you afraid?

I want to keep my peace of mind, Vronsky.

And mine. What about me?

All I've told you you've done for me? Please go.

Yes, he had it all, he had everything.

He...certainly had wonderful looks, but he was also very...

He was marvellous as Vronsky, because you saw all the sides

of him, his great love - which never changed - for Anna,

his desire for freedom and liberty,

which he couldn't have because he loved her.

And you felt his great love and devotion and that, in fact,

he would never leave her.

And I think that would have been true.

There's one wonderful moment when she has a scene with Dolly

and tells her that her life is not that perfect.

And Dolly said, "Has he been unfaithful to you?"

And she says, "Not yet."

Anna, what's going on?

You're not telling me the truth.

He's not... Unfaithful?

No, not yet.

There are many ways of being unfaithful with all this -

his books, his hunting, his land.

A man can deceive you when he's sitting beside you in his armchair,

reading a newspaper.

He deceives me every time he's not thinking of me.

Looking at it again, which I have the last couple of days,

there are big gaps.

I mean, it was an hour and a half or whatever.

You know, it needed a good four-hour,

two-part, two-hour episodes, I think.

I mean, in the book, it takes a very long time and many meetings

before he says, "I love you, Anna."

Here, he says it kind of almost out of the blue and it comes

as a surprise.

I think that was a mistake, if I may say so.

Is it you, Mummy?

Oh, my darling, yes, it's me.

I knew you weren't dead.

I knew you weren't. You'll catch cold, my treasure.

You used to come and see Sergei in the night.

I knew you did.

You smell just the same.

She can't see her son, her only child,

because these children are in the care of the father,

not of the mother at all.

If the mother goes, that's too bad.

So she has to steal her way into the house of Karenin

to see her little boy, Sergei.

That's the only scene where you see her as a mother

as opposed to a lover.

And it's terribly painful in the book.

It's not so painful in the film.

And there are certain wonderful...not stage directions,

but descriptions that Tolstoy gives.

And one is that the maid says to her,

"Madam, madam, you must go, he's coming, Karenin."

And it said, they both started to cry in high, thin voices

like children.

And I can hardly say it without wanting to cry myself.

It's just so, so moving.

But this doesn't happen in the film at all.

Oh, Rusty's falling back. Yes, he's losing.

A bet? Done. A pair of gloves. Gladiator!

Oh, I beg your pardon.

He's down! Vronsky's down!

After Anna sees the races and Vronsky falls,

Anna actually faints dead away, which she doesn't do in this film,

and is picked up and taken to her carriage by her husband,

who, as usual, can only say,

"Well, Anna, your behaviour was appalling" and blah, blah, blah.

And that's when she says, "I hate you, I've always hated you."

And that's the end of their marriage.

That scene was hardly there and was simply done

as a kind of walk away from the camera.

I have no idea why, because it's so fundamental.

You are his mistress, aren't you? Yes.

You dare to tell me this?

Oh, not here, my dear,

you will have to send a petition to my ministry.

I hate you, Alexis.

You're a machine. I don't even hear what you're saying.

Only that he's alive.

My lover's alive, that's everything.

I shall go away, I shall leave your house.

You may do as you please,

but you will observe the proprieties to the end.

Do you understand?

To the end.

There are a couple of other things that are missing,

but you can't put everything in.

The director followed it as well as he could, but...

..you can't put everything in -

I mean, as we did much, much, another 20 years later,

with Brideshead Revisited, in which I played.

It had 11 episodes.

We put in everything that was important from the book,

but you can't do that in an hour and 40 minutes.

Apart from that and having talked it down,

I still think that it has some extremely moving moments

and some wonderful acting -

Albert Lieven as Karenin, who was very fun indeed.

The two men are absolutely superb.

What is it you want?

I'll do anything for the sake of your peace of mind.

Don't go away, then!

If you only knew what my nights are like when you're not here!

I take drugs. It's such a relief to forget, to feel nothing.

Now, be sensible. Tomorrow...

Today, Alexis.

I must go, Anna. I promised.

But you promised to make me happy.

I have to go.

This is for you as well.

I hope, actually, people will just go and read the book,

but I hope that they'll also be moved by it and enjoy it

and also understand the terrible strains,

social strains,

that these two people, particularly Anna, as the woman, were put under,

which really led to the disaster at the end.

I'm very glad I did it

and I'm very honoured that it's going to be shown again,

and I'm very glad people are going to be able to see it,

make their own minds up.

SHE SCREAMS