Anna Karenina (1935)

Greta Garbo: Anna Karenina

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Vronsky : Our meetings are so brief, the dance also.

  Anna Karenina : But our reunions are so frequent.

  Vronsky : When I leave you, I'm lost in a world of strangers. When I touch your hand, we're alone.

  Anna Karenina : [Smiling as she switches dance partners]  I return you to the world!

• Karenin : For some time, I have known that in uniting my life to yours, I have made a mistake. But this I must bear for the sake of my public duty... and for the sake of my child. I believe in marriage as a sacrament. I could not consider myself justified in breaking the ties by which we are bound by a higher power. The family cannot be broken up by a... whim or a caprice or even by the... by the sin of one of the partners in the marriage. Our life must go on as it has done in the past.

  Anna Karenina : But it can't go on.

  Karenin : It must. I have stated these views in public, and I will not violate them in private.

  Anna Karenina : Then you will not give me a divorce?

  Karenin : Never. Why should I? To permit you to legalize a sin? To justify your conduct and his? Never.

• Anna Karenina : You say this knowing this I cannot do. There is no life for me without my child. To leave him would be infamous and base. I couldn't. And you know I couldn't.

  Karenin : Very well. I can assume, then, that you will never again jeopardize my honor.

  Anna Karenina : Oh, your honor! Your selfishness! Your hypocrisy! Your egotism! You've never considered me as a human being. Your social position and... your reputation. These must be kept up at what cost to those who are around you? At what cost?

  Karenin : [Checking his pocket watch]  It's time for my appointment at the ministry.

• Anna Karenina : You know, Dolly, men like Stiva aren't really conscious of deception at all. They put their wives and homes in one compartment... and these other women into another.

• Anna Karenina : I feel pain. I feel tears.

  Vronsky : Why?

  Anna Karenina : Because I'm so happy. Not to think, only to live, only to feel.

• Vronsky : You're trembling. Are you cold?

  Anna Karenina : We'll be punished.

  Vronsky : Punished?

  Anna Karenina : For being so happy.

• Karenin : You will remain here as my wife... before the world. You will never see this... this "person" again.

  Anna Karenina : And the alternative?

  Karenin : You will join the ranks of those women of ambiguous position who travel about Europe from one watering place to another, neither married nor unmarried, with no future and no present, with only your great love to sustain you. You will resign all claim to Sergei, because it would be my duty to remove him from your influence.

  Anna Karenina : You say this knowing this I cannot do. There is no life for me without my child. To leave him would be infamous and base. I couldn't. And you know I couldn't.

• Anna Karenina : You know, darling, men like Stiva aren't really conscience of deception at all. They put their wives and homes in one compartment and these other women in another. It's strange; but, I know it to be true.

• Anna Karenina : You expect a great deal at this particular ball, don't you, Kitty?

  Kitty : Yes. Yes, I do. How did you know?

  Anna Karenina : You're in such a happy time in your life. That blissful time when childhood is just ending and the future's all warm and inviting. I remember.

• Vronsky : Do you get a sense we're being watched?

  Anna Karenina : Watched? We're being devoured.

• Vronsky : Shall we go out in a gondola in the Grand Canal, find the serenata?

  Anna Karenina : Yes.

  Vronsky : Shall we explore all the little canals, those murderous little water alleys where the Doges used to throw their enemies?

  Anna Karenina : Yes.

  Vronsky : Shall we go to St. Mark's and feed the pigeons?

  Anna Karenina : Yes.

  Vronsky : Shall we be really energetic?

  Anna Karenina : Yes.

  Vronsky : And go out on the balcony?

  [Anna and Vronsky laugh] 

• Anna Karenina : I didn't know you were going back to St. Petersburg so soon. Why this change of plan?

  Vronsky : Why? To be where you are. You know that. Forgive me, I... I had to say it.

  Anna Karenina : You shouldn't. You shouldn't. You must forget that you said it.

  Vronsky : Nothing of you. I shall never forget anything of you.

• Vronsky : I love your frown when you concentrate.

  Anna Karenina : [playing croquet]  How do you expect me to make this shot if you talk to me?

• Anna Karenina : You should've married Kitty. You would've been much happier with her.

  Vronsky : Anna, you brood to much. You spin fairy tales.

  Anna Karenina : I face the truth.

  Vronsky : What truth?

  Anna Karenina : That one day I shall find myself... *ALONE*.

• Vronsky : I want my comrades and my career! And love isn't everything.

  Anna Karenina : One only says that when love is over.

• Dolly : Sometimes I think... I compare my life to yours. You travel, you go to Italy, you do what you like. You are loved. While I... no ecstasy, no glamour, all the things you have. And Sergei? What of him?

  Anna Karenina : I don't see him. Karenin won't let me see him.

  Dolly : Oh. That must be hard.

  Anna Karenina : Well, whatever way one lives, there's a penalty, I suppose.

• Anna Karenina : I suggest that you change into more repentant gowns. You look much too gay.

  Stiva : Excellent idea!

• Anna Karenina : One swims in a mysterious blue haze, like the mist on the mountains in Switzerland. That mist covers everything. And out of it may rise, at any moment, the shape the beloved one. Only half imagined, half dreamed.

• Anna Karenina : I feel so guilty, so terribly guilty.

• Anna Karenina : I'm thinking of what you told me this afternoon, "Doomed to bliss and despair." It's true. I know now that there's no escape for me. I love you, Alexei, I love you.

• Anna Karenina : Alexei, I've been sitting in that house - watched. Night after night we dine together in silence. He sits across the table and watches me. Cold. Polite. Merciless.

• Vronsky : And the breath of Russia is sweet. And sweet over all the land, broods the soul of Russia. Do you remember Pushkin's poem?

  Anna Karenina : You miss Russia. You miss home.

• Anna Karenina : Today, all day, I felt so alone.

  Vronsky : We must be careful. We mustn't hurt each other. That's why we hurt each other; because, we love.

  Anna Karenina : Yes. Yes, that's why.

• Anna Karenina : Is the Princess Sorokina staying at your mother's?

  Vronsky : Oh, I don't know. I suppose she is.

  Anna Karenina : Does your mother want you to marry the Princess Sorokina?

  Vronsky : Now, what makes you think that?

  Anna Karenina : It would be natural. The Princess Sorokina is so young and innocent. So like Kitty, isn't she?

• Vronsky : Please, Anna, be brave. Don't...

  Anna Karenina : But, I am not brave!