It’s hard to take an old story in a busy genre, and make it fresh. But, Anna Karenina succeeds in this. The film uses a device of a “stage” to move between scenes, and give the story a dreamy mood. So, instead of cutting from scene to scene, the characters often just walk from scene to scene – through a door, or as the set around them changes… At first it was distracting, but after the first couple instances, I really grew to love it – something actually original and fresh!.. and beautiful.