Wednesday 6 July 2022

War & Peace

If you have a spare 7 hours, the Soviet version has been released in full on YouTube. I’ve only ever seen the Hollywood version (better than I expected), the fairly recent BBC version and snippets of the BBC series from 50 years ago that Chandler worked on.*

This is supposed to be the best.

https://www.openculture.com/2022/07/watch-the-hugely-ambitious-four-part-soviet-adaptation-of-war-and-peace-free-online-1966-67.html

Good timing by Mosfilm!


* like millions of others, I never finished the book.

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12 comments:

  1. MSFoy6 July 2022 at 12:04

    I have had the box set of Bondarchuk's effort for a good few years. I watched it again last year, and it was fantastic. I have a checkered history with W&P. For years I used a strange system whereby I copied my DVDs onto "working disks" and watched those, keeping the originals as security copies [yes, yes, all very silly].

    My working copy of W&P went very wonky - something not right at all - such that the soundtrack kept switching languages, which I thought was deliberate and very distracting. Watching the original disks recently was much better - especially on a BluRay machine! As for reading W&P, I have to say that I gave up for technical reasons; I had to maintain a written list of the characters and all their alternative patronyms, just to keep track. After many weeks' effort, I lost my written cast list and gave up in a sulk. Poor show all round.

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  2. Anonymous6 July 2022 at 12:35

    Was it dubbed into different languages then? I always find that distracting in itself, when the sound doesn’t match people’s mouth movements.
    I was a callow youth when I tried to read it. I got bored with the peace bits because ‘nothing seemed to be happening’. My girlfriend, who had to read it for a lit course at uni, made the mistake of asking me to explain what a ‘column’ was. I wrote a six page explanation of Napoleonic tactics. What a nerd!

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    1. rross6 July 2022 at 13:26

      I am assuming that girlfriend did not origress to wife ?!

      Delete
    2. rross6 July 2022 at 13:27

      Thanks for the tip on YouTube, I may give it a try!

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    3. Anonymous6 July 2022 at 14:08

      Weirdly, she did.

      Delete
    4. rross6 July 2022 at 19:58

      Ah well, in that case, she has no cause for complaint about what came next....she had been warned!😀

      Delete
    5. MSFoy6 July 2022 at 21:18

      Different languages - yes, you have a choice of dubbed soundtracks in Russian, French or American.

      Delete
  3. Steve J.6 July 2022 at 14:54

    Thanks for the 'heads up' as I might give this a go, given that I've come down with a horrible Summer cold and feel bloomin' awful. So far Covid test is negative...

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous6 July 2022 at 15:21

      Hope that’s all it is Steve. Hay fever can get me like that. Used to be just sneezing and a runny nose. I can sleep all day with it now.
      Chris

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  4. Anonymous6 July 2022 at 18:37

    I read the whole book, and remember two fascinating passages, but never wrote down the page numbers and couldn't face reading it again just to find them.
    During Austerlitz, Tolstoy comments that there is a moment in a battle when two forces meet; one shouts "get stuck in, lads" while the other side thinks "this looks a bit dangerous" and it is in these moments that a battle is decided.
    ... or something very like that. Wish I could find the original

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  5. Disgruntled Fusilier6 July 2022 at 19:26

    To quote Larry Leadhead: "I've read War and Peace. There are some good battle scenes but the rest is just blah, blah,blah."

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