By Franz Amussen
NO matter how many years pass we British remain suckers for a good costume drama, with each successive generation learning the joys of watching star-crossed lovers in corsets and riding boots as they yearn and burn with unrequited love.
From the Forsyte Saga in the 1960s through the original Poldark a decade later and to the Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice two decades ago to the latest chapter in the genre, War and Peace, there is simply nobody who does these civilized bodice-rippers better.
(James Norton)
If, like most of us, you have not read Leo Tolstoy’s epic saga of love, war and court intrigue in Tsarist Russia during Napoleonic times, then the new BBC miniseries which debuted Sunday night on A&E may yet provide your best crib sheet.
Adapted by Andrew Davies (the main behind the aforementioned Pride and Prejudice) and directed by Tom Harper, this new War and Peace is visually ravishing and peopled by a quite superb cast of established heavyweights and talented newcomers alike. It may only contain a fraction of the epic book’s narrative of battles, love and intellectual awakening, but it remains a fine, fast-moving yarn, and what more could we wish for during an El Nino winter?
In essence, War and Peace is an epic saga which opens with Napoleon moving his Grande Armee eastwards into Mother Russia. As the story unfolds it details the impact of the war and its events on Tsarist society, focusing on five specific Russian aristocratic families. The young men and women – and some of the older ones too – must ponder a future that may bring death or glory, triumph or destruction. And quite possibly a few love affairs in between.
Gillian Anderson gives us a few tantalizing glimpses of her red-headed magnetism as Anna Pavlovna, and Jim Broadbent is as effective as ever playing Prince Bolkonsky. Then there is Brian Cox as the garrulous General Kutuzov and Stephen Rea, as the treacherous and conniving Prince Kuragin, a character for whom the word sniveling might have been coined.
As you would expect from the BBC, the art direction, costumes and sets are absolutely glorious, providing a level of decadence and finery that even the most ostentatious of new money Russian oligarchs would have trouble reaching. It works at its best as a soap opera writ large, a crowded canvas of young actors generating the required sighs for their love stories, hatred for their misdeeds and frustration as they fail to see the challenge a new age is thrusting upon them.
American actor Paul Dano as Pierre is a hard fellow to like given his feeble approach to life, especially when paired with Tuppence Middleton’s horrid Helene. Much more to our liking is the pairing of James Norton as Andrei and Downton Abbey’s Lily James, whose Natasha makes the journey from nervous teen to radiant young adult. Then there’s Tom Burke’s Dolokhov, positively telegraphing his malevolence as he twirls his moustache.
In a recent interview Norton gushed about his experience making the show, and the benefits of shooting on location.
“The BBC executives and producers, they all were really adamant to shoot in Russia because they felt like you can’t really re-create Russia,” said Norton.
“There were endless [memorable] moments. … I remember standing on this frozen lake with Jim Broadbent. Actually, we were standing on this sort of walkway of a stately home and we kind of veered off and we were shooting a scene. We didn’t realize until we saw these little images in the very far distance that they were ice fishermen….We didn’t realize until that point that we were on a frozen lake and even Jim Broadbent, his breath was taken away and said: ‘Wow! This is amazing. This couldn’t be anywhere else.’ And, similarly, when we were filming in Catherine Palace, Lily and I waltzing with 300 extras and a live orchestra in this beautiful, gold, amber room… It’s very difficult not to lose yourself in those moments. It’s so romantic and magical and it transports you perfectly. It does your job for you as an actor, really. Suddenly you are there. And that’s a privilege.”
Norton admitted he hadn’t read Tolstoy’s famously challenging novel before he was cast in the TV version, but he emphasized he is now a great admirer of the tome.
“I was a non-reader, but, now, I am one of the smug club who can say that I’ve read the whole book,” he laughed. “I’m a slight cheat that I had the massive advantage of playing Andrei. Most people kind of look at you — when you take out War & Peace — with a slight, apologetic, coy grin and go: ‘Yeah. I tried and failed in the first 50 pages.’ But now I am a huge fan. Once you get over the first 50 pages, it’s an incredible book and totally worthy of its status amongst the literary world’s revered texts.”
The actor also noted how the story has a contemporary feel in some ways, even though it is set two centuries in the past.
“All these characters, with their trials and their journeys, they are totally recognizable. We felt like we were almost in a big, Russian soap opera because it is a big story about young people falling in and out of love and revenge and sex,” he said.
Bosoms heaving, sabers flashing, moustache twirling, deathbed wrangles, all the old tropes are here in compelling fashion. Full marks once more to Andrew Davies, who proves yet again that when it comes to sexing up the classsics, he simply has no peer.
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