Anna Karenina - what does that woman want??

The perpetual and perpetually tragic love affair of Anna Karenina re-emerges yet again in film...the age-old tale of seduction remains fresh despite all the changes in womanhood in the past 150 years since Tolstoy created this epic. Imagine the choices of women during his era -- a woman of Russian genteel society like Anna had almost none -- her only avenue was to pursue a respectable marriage. She had no outlet for her talents, her interests, her passions except romantic passion. Nowadays women can deploy themselves in so many directions -- business, art, politics -- every avenue is open. Yet the appeal of a bigger-than-life love affair still beckons; the dopamine generated in the brain from romance (especially a risqué, out-of-wedlock romance) is ever-appealing, much more appealing than the ordinary discipline and bit of drudgery it takes to excel in science or academics or the arts. Or the effort (and a bit of drudgery) required for an ordinary, stable relationship.  Anna launches herself out of her safe marriage and doting motherhood into an wild and irresistable relationship -- yet what seems most tragic is that even here she can doesn't find happiness. Nothing fulfills her desires - even ultimately Prince Vronsky can't give her what she wants -- in truth, because behind Anna's quest is the need to find herself, to nurture and care for her own being, her own life's voyage and she never turns in that direction; she doesn't know how to. We contemporary women could and should know how..and yet we don't always...we remain tempted by the "easier" fast-food doses of pleasure that an outré relationship supplies...and so the film re-emerges for yet another generation of females..... rz