War and Peace [CAUTION: SPOILERS]

[QuizteamBleakley]

Anyone watching? All British actors appearing here...

Yes Kitty Its definitely the charisma and it probably does say more about us!! I love Helene and Anatoly. Pure evil, but at least there is a bit of a spark about them

Anatoly gives me the creeps. He's reptilian and repulsive.

Lass, completely agree, he sends a real shudder down my spine in a serial killer kind of way!
I dont think that either him or his sister are attractive enough for the characters they portray.

I think they're both really attractive, and are really playing the hedonist roles well. With the possible exception of Natasha and possibly even Andre, who seems a bit dull to me, I think the casting has been spot on. Especially Pierre, Marya and the older characters. I also love the actress who plays Sonya.

I think Natasha is a very hard role to play. She goes from being a child to a woman in a matter of scenes. I think they could have allowed a bit more time to allow the audience to see a clearer progression in her character. It's a hench novel, so perhaps they've condensed it a little too much?

I think Lily James is doing quite well, she has the most difficult role, I feel.
The scenes where Anatole seduces Natasha made the very best of the short-time allotted to them. She is a teenager experiencing sexual awakening and he's all about lust. I think they pitched it well. Just all felt rather too quick.

I think part of the problem is that Natasha is such an irritating character at the beginning anyway, and having her played by a 26 year old makes her even more irritating. Added to that she is a bit type cast so it feels like she's playing Lady Rose/Cinderella /Natasha. They should have got a younger actress or aged Natasha 4 years .

At least the casting is closer in age than the movie with Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda as Pierre.
Anatole creeps me out too.

Come off it ladies, Anatole is hot as fuck and you know it. He knows it, his sister knows it, Vivian knows it.

Blimey, I needed a lie down after that. I'm still not totally sure which grown ups are trying to palm their kids off onto which heirs and heiresses but I'm getting the gist.

The acting is superb throughout, Paul Dano is a standout for me. I haven't read the book and have no clue where any of it is going so am excited for what's coming next.

I'm feeling somewhat less sorry for Miss Havisham now, having seen her machinations on 't other side :)

Exactly morris ! I wouldn't trust him as far as I can throw him, or marry him, but I'd be very, very slow to kick him out of bed!!!

I read 'War and Peace' when I was a teenager and haven't had a copy since - but have read Anna Karenina, Resurrection and quite a few of the short stories (lots on the adultery, guilt and God themes!). So it is quite enjoyable re-discovering the story, some of which I have forgotten, alongside a general awareness of how it worked in Russian society of the time.

I think it is a really good production and some scenes have been breathtakingly good. I love the music and some of the very simple life of the country scenes (especially the visit to the uncle and Natasha dancing), with the contrast to the glittering Hermitage and French-influenced high society.

The scene at the opera when Anatole is almost breathing on her skin - I think it conveyed the animal nature of the attraction extremely well...

Helene is fine in the role, but the book makes clear that she is utterly, heart-stoppingly beautiful and sensually beguiling and I think somehow that has not been sufficiently brought out through close ups. I am thinking of the paragraph in the book when Pierre gets a glimpse down her dress at party and is so bedazzled by her body that the marriage is almost inevitable from that point onwards - none of that sensuality really came across.

Maybedoctor exactly - there was even the sound like an increasing heartbeat in the music during that scene. Very well done.

Morris - I concur. Hot AF.

Who is Pierre, exactly? He seems to be friends with everyone.

Oh I think Helene's ability to bedazzle comes off well. DH seems well and truly bedazzled anyway!

Anatole is far too young looking for me. He's got a modern face too, straight out of Grange Hill. Great acting though.

I don't think Anatole has charisma. I find him smirking and smarmy.

Love the change in Andre when he smiles though - he's almost unrecognisable.

Just caught up on the first episode.

It is so very English! No sense of Russia at all.

The Russian drinking party looked like an English frat boy meet up, yah yah yah. Drunk Russians are QUITE different fromEnglish frat boys. It's like Cameron playing "Putin"

I did not get that Natasha is supposed to be 12. That makes more sense then (without this fact she just seems a weirdo and a fool)

Not sure Wether to persevere....

I think Helene is excellent - she is both beautiful and sexy, and she is also very charming.

Anatole, on the other hand, comes across as an utter creep. It was very unconvincing that both Marya (initially) and Natasha fell for him. He's not good looking and his predatory manner is very off-putting - it's the opposite of charming.

I agree re the rustic scenes contrasting markedly with the opulence of Tsarist society - very Tolstoy.

Babyganoush, it does improve. I agree it's too English feeling - but it's worth watching for Paul Dano alone.

Yes, in the book Natasha says to Boris or Boris to Natasha something along the lines of 'You can marry me in 4 years, when I'm 16'. They didn't say this on TV so you couldn't place wtf Lily James was meant to be doing. You only get the gist of how young she is meant to be because the men keep mentioning how young she is. I'm not sure how old the men are meant to be in the book though. I presume Andre and Pierre are about the same age, and as Andre was married in 1805 at the start, I'm guessing about 25 at the start and 30 by the time he falls in love with Natasha, who must now be 17 or 18.

I think Lily James plays Natasha well, her father is soft and doesn't really support he's wife's ideas, so Natasha is left to follow her heart and run into problems , whereas the Jim Broadbent character is a stern, unfeeling father but he's children are rather stiff and boorish although they want to feel love . I think it's all very well acted , I am really enjoying it .

BabyGanoush persevere! I wasn't sure about episode 1 but am completely hooked now.
I think Anatole is a slimy reptile too. I'd have been all of a flutter over him if I was 16 though.

thanks, will watch the next one then :)

Anatole smirks far too much to be charming imo. He is all about lust and sexual confidence, so Natasha is hardly an 'idiot' - she is a teenager who never experienced sex and he knows what he's doing. That's in the book - but in film he's sort of bordering on being seductive, but it's just not quite right - and the featherly strokes he does with every woman? eww! (apart from smirking all the time.
Helene is also not right - at least not from the point of view of being true to the book or that era. She is NOT a little fox or charmingly chatty like in the film, but vacant/detached and cold and not a talker. She has a lazy sensuality and a voluptuous body. In the film the actress is too modern with all her mannerisms and little grimaces, and girly chat. Helen is aristocratic and doesn't pout all the time, and doesn't chase after men in obviously forward and impatient way like the actress does with Boris.

Well I thought Sunday's episode was great - I really wanted Natasha to come to her senses. There was a real sense of danger. Anatole is the kind of creep who can't impress women of his own age.

There have been plenty of clues as to the ages of Natasha and Sonya from the start. I haven't read the book and know very little about it, but the overall impression I have is, apart from the mother's attempt to get the son to marry for a dowry, their family is the happiest and most honest.

I must admit I have an incredibly low opinion of the Rostovs from the book, which I may be projecting onto the TV

LovePGtips said it right about the difference between Helene in the book and film, but I think the director decided that his vision would work better (cinematically?) so they cast the actress who is not much like the character in the book. Helene and Anatole are supposed to be devastatingly handsome.
Helene is supposed to be quite vacuous though! And she is not at all in the film obviously. Posting this before the phone runs out of power, but want to comment loads more!

Yeah, really like and enjoy it overall. :)