War and Peace
At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet film industry set out to prove it could outdo Hollywood with a production that would dazzle the world: a titanic, awe-inspiring adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic tome in which the fates of three souls—the blundering, good-hearted Pierre; the heroically tragic Prince Andrei; and the radiant, tempestuous Natasha—collide amid the tumult of the Napoleonic Wars. Employing a cast of thousands and an array of innovative camera techniques, director Sergei Bondarchuk conjures a sweeping vision of grand balls that glitter with rococo beauty and breathtaking battles that overwhelm with their expressionistic power. As a statement of Soviet cinema’s might, War and Peace succeeded wildly, garnering the Academy Award for best foreign-language film and setting a new standard for epic moviemaking.
Special Features
- New 2K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New interviews with cinematographer Anatoly Petritsky and filmmaker Fedor Bondarchuk, son of director Sergei Bondarchuk
- Two documentaries, from 1966 and 1969, about the making of the film
- Television program from 1967 on actor Ludmila Savelyeva, featuring Sergei Bondarchuk
- New program with historian Denise J. Youngblood (Bondarchuk’s “War and Peace”: Literary Classic to Soviet Cinematic Epic) detailing the cultural and historical contexts for the film
- Janus Films rerelease trailer
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by critic Ella Taylor
New cover by Gary Kelley
Special Features
- New 2K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New interviews with cinematographer Anatoly Petritsky and filmmaker Fedor Bondarchuk, son of director Sergei Bondarchuk
- Two documentaries, from 1966 and 1969, about the making of the film
- Television program from 1967 on actor Ludmila Savelyeva, featuring Sergei Bondarchuk
- New program with historian Denise J. Youngblood (Bondarchuk’s “War and Peace”: Literary Classic to Soviet Cinematic Epic) detailing the cultural and historical contexts for the film
- Janus Films rerelease trailer
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by critic Ella Taylor
New cover by Gary Kelley
Cast
- Sergei Bondarchuk
- Pierre Bezukhov
- Ludmila Savelyeva
- Natasha Rostova
- Vyacheslav Tikhonov
- Andrei Bolkonsky
- Boris Zakhava
- General Kutuzov
- Anatoly Ktorov
- Nikolai Bolkonsky
- Antonina Shuranova
- Marya Bolkonskaya
- Oleg Tabakov
- Nikolai Rostov
- Viktor Stanitsyn
- Count Rostov
- Kira Golovko
- Countess Rostova
- Irina Skobsteva
- Hélène Bezukhova
- Vasily Lanovoy
- Anatole Kuragin
- Irina Gubanova
- Sonya Rostova
- Oleg Yefremov
- Dolokhov
- Anastasia Vertinskaya
- Lise Bolkonskaya
- Boris Smirnov
- Vasily Kuragin
- Alexander Borisov
- Uncle Rostov
- Giuli Chokhonelidze
- Prince Bagration
- Vladislav Strzhelchik
- Napoleon
- Angelina Stepanova
- Anna Scherer
- Nikolai Trofimov
- Tushin
- Nikolai Rybnikov
- Denisov
- Jean-Claude Ballard
- Ramballe
- Yelena Tyapkina
- Marya Dmitryevna
- Sergei Yermilov
- Petya Rostov
- Nonna Mordyukova
- Anisya
- Mikhail Khrabrov
- Platon Karatayev
Credits
- Director
- Sergei Bondarchuk
- Screenplay
- Sergei Bondarchuk
- Screenplay
- Vasily Solovyov
- Based on the novel by
- Leo Tolstoy
- Cinematography
- Anatoly Petritsky
- Additional cinematography
- Yu-lan Chen
- Additional cinematography
- Aleksandr Shelenkov
- Cameraman
- Dmitri Korzhikhin
- Music composed and conducted by
- Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov
- Editing
- Tatiana Likhacheva
- Production design
- Mikhail Bogdanov, Alexander Dikhtyar, Said Menyalshchikov, Gennady Myasnikov
- Set decoration
- Georgy Koshelev, V. Uvarov
- Costume design
- Vladimir Burmeister, Nadezhda Buzina, Mikhail Chikovani, V. Vavra
- Makeup
- Mikhail Chikirov
- Assistant director
- Vladimir Dostal
- Chief sound engineer
- Yuri Mikhailov
- Sound engineer
- Igor Urbantsev
- Pyrotechnician
- Vladimir Likhachev
