"Voyna i mir II: Natasha Rostova" is a Soviet Russian-language movie from 1966, so this one is already over half a century old, actually easily over. And it's a color film, not to be taken for granted for films from this era. The color sure helped with the visuals though. The director is Sergey Bondarchuk and he is also credited as writer here and plays one of the key characters. It runs for minimally under 100 minutes from beginning to end and is the second chapter of Bondarchuk's take on Tolstoy's "War and Peace". Oh yeah, I should say that I have not read the book, so my review here is exclusively linked to this movie and there are no references to similarities and differences between this video adaptation and the world-famous base material. Quite a long read if I am not mistaken. Kinda fitting here that it got split into four full feature films. I must say it confuses me a bit because there is a fifth listed on Bondarchuk's profile page, which is, however, more of a second first, so maybe they just put the entire story in one film, used scenes from all four films for that one and the result even was an Oscar win. This made me curious about the outcome here. And of course the fact that these films all have extremely high ratings here on imdb, each and every single time the 8 left of the comma. I wish i could share this praise, but sadly I cannot. It feels very overrated to me. But I shall get to that later. You can read the name of the protagonist, the one more in the center of the story than everybody else, in the title here. Quite an honor as she is the only female to have a chapter named after her and it is not the shortest chapter. Sadly, I had other plans last weekend when they were showing the first chapter at my local theater here in Germany, but I will try my best to make it work and see parts three and four on the upcoming weekends if I can, even if this one, this second chapter, left me unimpressed. I'm pretty sure though that I would not have liked today's screening more had I see then first chapter. Lead actress Lyudmila Saveleva was in her early 20s here when she appeared in this project and it was the beginning to her career. Quite a rookie effort. She is still alive today, but retired of course closing in on 80 now. Many other people that were a part of this project are not alive anymore today obviously. This applies to director Bondarchuk too, who would have had his 100th birthday this year. So he was already in his 40s at that point too and nonetheless it was also from rather early in his career. Certainly a bit of a late starter. As for the rest of the cast, I cannot say too much. People from Russia or with a big interest in old Soviet movies will be more of a help then. I still would not say that the cast was bad or anything here, rare occasions of overacting are undeniable, but all in all this film had other issues.

This movie is of course the epitome of a period piece. The costumes and sets could not make it any more obvious. The plot is also fairly clean honestly. Lengthy sequences at one location are to be found here. Let's take the big ballroom dance early on. Or the hunt afterwards, even if the fight between the animals felt kinda difficult to watch. Or how the wolf is bullied by the fat guy. Also news to me that they were hunting wolves and not foxes there. And then there is a spectacular concert later on with some French language too. This followed scenes between the protagonist and another female character and I mention her specifically because she was also gorgeous. Just like Saveleva. Sadly, I cannot really come up with the name on the cast list here and say which of the other actresses it was. But hey, maybe she is still alive today and who knows she may even read it. As for the aforementioned wolf scene, I liked the cinematography there. The sky, the foggy area and really everything, also the landscapes felt extremely atmmospheric to me. The visual aspects, literally all of them are pretty nice no denying. And as for the ballroom sequence early on, that one was alright too and I think Saveleva had her maybe bestg acting moment there because we see her desperation that nobody asks her for a dance and she seemed so sad that I almost wanted to jump into the screen myself and dance with her. Nicely depicted from everybody who was a part of that moment, Saveleva herself obviously, but also camera work etc. This is also one scene in which we hear voice-overs. One of many moments actually. Sadly, this was almost the only moment where I liked it. Struggled a lot with it otherwise because especially the exact words going through the characters' minds, especially Natasha's mind, feel over the top and pretentious. Disappointing. This was one criticism I had. Another would be that there are perhaps too many characters in here and they should have tried to do two or three fewer maybe and instead give those that are in here proper elaboration, but I don't know, maybe they got it in the first already, but I kinda doubt it because at least to me it felt as if many characters here were new introductions. This applied to male ad female characters alike. Also the love confession by Pierre (still Russian despite the name no? with his last name) in the end came surprising, but I see that the fourth chapter is named after him, so his character will definitely rise in terms of screen time. Not too much presence for him here, but knowing what happened in the end makes it interesting to see him early on with how he looks at the title character here and there. You could guess that he has feelings for her too. However, why would anybody be surprised? I mean look at him. Look at her. Clearly out of his league. Looks-wise, that is. In terms of positions not so much. Away from all of that, bust staying with the love struggles, the story feels like something that could also take place in real life in terms of its core. A girl falls for one guy and, in the man's absence, realizes she is also attracted to somebody else, in fact a married man. This has happened before. In the end, there is a third suitor. And there is a lot of talk about one not being the right one / good enough for her etc. If we maybe replace ballroom dances with disco or so, it is a film that is not too different from our time story-wise. And let's be honest: 99% of girls would kill to wear the dresses Natasha wears in this film. Okay, what else is there to say. I will admit that my rather low rating is also linked closely to the fact that period pieces are not exactly my preferred genre choice, but sadly this one here is not good enough to convince me otherwise. So it's a thumbs-down from me and I truly hope that next weekend (if I make it) part three will be better. At least it is shorter, the shortest from the quadrology. And there seems to be more focus on war as well as is implied at the end of this one because the only war taking place in this film is the one in the girl's mind and her inner struggles to find out who is right for her. Who she wants. Nonetheless I did not consider Natasha Rostova an epic character and I am not even sure if others do, but the book of course is seen that way. That would be all for now. See you next time!

Part 2 of 4 is light on the war, and heavier on the (relative) peace, focusing in on romance and melodrama. It's not as gripping as the first part, but in its own way it still works pretty well, with good visuals and mostly compelling performances to keep viewers engaged. And if it keeps the story building towards a more exciting final 2 parts, then I'm still on board.

War and Peace Leo Tolstoy' best work-and it's also my favorite tome. After poring over the weighty tome, I couldn't help trying to review it by the way of movie. However, after watching American and BBC' s mode, I suppose this movie should be the best one which lives up to even Tolstoy himself ' expectation (if he could watch it). Admitted America' s War and Peace is pretty grand, but it is less amazing comparing with its Soviet Union's counterpart which took 5 years to finish production and cost over $560 million.... No pain no gain: This movie still won Oscar during the cold War because its amazing production could devastate the political wall mounting between the two super powers. Again, Russian director and actors made use of their best understanding of their domestic classic and created a piece of art work, a masterpiece in front of our audience. There I have to say that it is the power of loyalty to art instead of to business. Only in this way, this movie could be made;only in his way, Shawshank could be classic.... All right, let's back to the point:why do I say this movie must be a masterpiece: First, I have to admit that the cast of the movie is perfect: Admitted the actors performing Andrei, Pierre and Helen are no longer young, but they do have the same or similar bearing comparing with these characters in the tometome:The actor performing Pierre is the director of the movie. He is quite similar to Pierre himself as he is overweight, idealistic, kind, and is sometimes embarrassed simultaneously. Mr. Bondarchuk also acts as a round peg in a square hole in this movie, which is especially Pierre' s trait. Moreover, Tikhonov acts a superficially remote and abstinent while innately patriotic good young man-Andrei. He must be the perfect actor in performing Andre. Anatolia Ktorov is also perfect in performing an impatient and strict old-styled aristocrat. What does a truly Russian old-fashioned aristocrat look like? He shouldn't be the rude Russian farmer in American War and Peace movie. Rather, he should be thin and has an aquiline nose;he should be strict with his kids and be stubborn ;he should be smart and prospective when he observes the current national situation.... All in all, he should be aristocratic. A lot of people tend to compare Hepburn with Lyudmila Saveleva, who performs Natasha in this movie. I have to say that Saveleva is perfect in showing another same Natasha.The reason why I think so is not only her competitive beautiful appearance, but also her enthusiastic and sometimes still a little childish behaviors-she is only a debutante who is not bond with any mundane rules and regulations;she only her intuition and acts as a free bird.... All in all, that's what Lyudmila has shown in front of us, which is rear to be seen from other actresses.... Secondly, this movie well shows the Russian Spirit. What does it mean? Russian Spirit? Something abstract and ethereal? Yes, it's really hard to explain what a nation' spirit means or looks like. However, through the movie, we can see some snippets giving us a hint: When the people from other countries are confined into the house on snowy chill days, Rostov' family instead hang out but sleighs and have a great time. In the war place, Russian soldiers are faced with death in the same way of gambling-even they lose they won't spit their fate;death and hurt is like something happens every day. In this way, we can imagine how bold and unconstrained the Russian are. Third, the episodes delineating wars are really grand. Imagine:the Soviet Union prepared 695 ancient canons and 587 contemporary canons for the wars. They also ran off 16600 grenades and 20900 pairs of clothes. They even established a contemporary fake big Moscow to show the fires Moscow. All in all, it's an epic.... Finally, Tolstoy's conception of history is shown totally in this movie, too: He doubted it is heroes who create the history. Rather, he thought the heroes ideas couldn't penetrate into the lower classes and couldn't change the war. So that's why though Kutuzov is self-knowing while Napoleon is not, they all can't act as they one who stop the history but they have to act. Instead the soldiers fighting hard and exhausted horses are truly heroes through the history.... So that's what I want to say about this movie. I really wanna know guys what you are waiting for? Just sit down and watch this series patiently. Only in this so called ''should be condensed'' way,a classic weighty tome can be showed perfectly. Only these patient and sagacious men can grasp the opportunity to appreciate this artistry, this feast of aesthetics....