Guerre et paix

Of Tolstoy, filmmakers loved "Anna Karenina", "Kreutzer Sonata"... and "War and Peace." In this lavish, widescreen, colorful and overlong version, we follow the famous story from Slavkov to 1820. Set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, the attractive events follow several young marriages, loves, and other entanglements, and everyone is satisfied. The actors have their parts to play, today's viewer is happy to make a series out of the film, and even Audrey Hepburn doesn't get in the way here, as the empire is really tolerant of her silhouette. Even Anita Ekberg is not yet vulgar, and Mel Ferrer is as beautiful as a doll. (04/03/2020)

I like the big productions of old Hollywood, like David Lean and others, but this was just weak tea, not even close to Bondarchuk's version. The Soviet version surpasses the American version in everything: it’s incomparably more narrative (the difference between a few hundred Hollywood extras versus 120,000 Russian extras, mostly conscripted Red Army soldiers, is damn clear, not to mention the fact that it is still the most expensive film production of all time), it’s much more inventive in direction, more interesting, richer in terms of locations (the 168 locations where the Soviet version was filmed is in the Guinness Book). Compared to that, Vidor's version is stripped down, lifeless, passionless and emotionless. And while I love Audrey Hepburn, even she couldn't hold a candle to Lyudmila Savelya and her charm, passion and irresistible immediacy. (16/02/2012)