Despite being the first film adaptation to benefit from authentic locations in St Petersburg and Moscow, this is a fairly negligible version of the classic novel. The problem lies in the leaden script - which misguidedly incorporates the subplot about Levin's love for Anna's sister-in-law - and the Euro-pudding casting, which undermines the notion that Tolstoy's characters come out of the same tsarist bottle. Sophie Marceau is pretty but vacuous in the lead, and only James Fox creates any lasting impression as her cuckolded husband.

In Imperial Russia, Anna, wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets charming cavalry officer Vronsky, to whom she's immediately attracted. But in St. Petersburg’s high society, a relationship like this could destroy a woman’s reputation.