War and Peace BBC1

[Conchis]

I was not convinced by Paul Dano at first but he grew into the character around whom the whole story rotated and I finished feeling that it was a tour de force performance, in a quiet modest way. I was then amazed to find out a week or two back that he played the young Brian Wilson in one of my favourite films of last year, 'Love and Mercy'. It hadn't occurred to me that he was American...great acting.

I'd also like to add Ade Edminson who I thought surprised throughout with the high quality of his performance. Didn't realise he had it in him.

Ade Edmondson has always been a very good serious actor (and a very good serious musician). His comedy work has tended to overshadow his 'straight' acting work and it's good to see the balance (beginning to be) redressed.

[vinteuil]

"When our lives are knocked off course, we imagine everything in them is lost.... but it is only the start of something new, and good....
[I]As long as there is life, there is happiness.... there is a great deal, a great deal still to come...."

... Easy, of course, for Pierre to burble this. He ends up, still unfeasibly wealthy, in physical good health, having Got The Girl Of His Dreams, and a luvverly baby as well...

As so often the Tolstoyan wallowing optimism proves a killer for me. All the cliches of the Holy Innocent Fool, that All You Need Is Love

Give me the subtlety of a Chekhov, a Turgenev, a Herzen any day - who saw that, dear Count Tolstoy, Life Is A Bit More Complicated Than That.

As for this telly series, I thought it was terribly let down by a monotonous Pierre - "what an unendurable drip!" was Mme v's take - whose unchanging fatuous inanity I found hard to take.

Some lovely frocks, fabrics, uniforms, though.

And the dog was very cute.

[Pulcinella]

Sad to say that I was mildly disappointed in the final episode, which for me became too sentimental (the flashbacks as Andrei was dying, and the angelic chorus nearer the end!).
I have not read the book, but assume that it explains why Pierre (and others) escaped being shot with the other prisoners; it was not at all clear to me why the French, even being magnanimous, would contemplate undertaking a marching retreat with a bunch of prisoners in such conditions.
The actor playing Anatole might be in the running to replace Alan Rickman in any being able to sneer well on screen competition, though: quite a nasty piece of work throughout.

[Nick Armstrong]

The last episode was great, and very moving, television. And I envy those who have read the novel itself, absorbed it, loved it, loved life more because they have read it, and loved it. ...

Last night's final episode was television of the very highest quality, quite possibly the highest quality I've ever seen, By turns moving and thrilling, the almost Wagnerian epic had acting that was equal to the task and we were really put through the emotional wringer. Lily James's Natasha was an acting tour de force throughout that must surely win awards aplenty. Ditto Paul Dano as Pierre.

This was life-enhancing television such as we rarely get nowadays but had here in spades.

Bravo BBC!

I've now been able to finish watching W&P with viewing the last 2 episodes back-to-back. Wrapped up in the sweep of it, my reaction was much as above.

I thought the production seemed to take wing, visually and as a result in other ways, with the cinematography during the scene where Marya emerges into the fresh air after the death of Bolkonsky Snr. - a bleached, grainy, wide-angle series of hand-held camera shots. No danger of thinking of Woody Allen from then on to the end.

Yes, in retrospect, I see vinteuil's point about Tolstoy's slightly sentimental optimism - but as a slightly sentimental optimist myself, I'm quite happy to encounter it.

I still think Dano was exceptional, not dull at all, in common with most of the rest of the cast (save Edmondson who I thought just didn't cut it in that company). The emergence of Marya (Jessie Buckley) from downtrodden plain jane to ... well, Clive James puts it perfectly in his wonderful piece today

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/feb/13/clive-james-bbc-war-and-peace-measure-up?CMP=twt_gu

I love that article. I don't agree with all of it, but much of it. (And thank heavens Clive James is still around to provide writing like that.)

[Conchis]

I read W&P in my mid-thirties. The astonishing thing about it is that I found it so unmemorable. I can recall enjoying it and not being bored by it yet when I try to recall particular moments of the story, or even the characters, I largely draw a blank. Very strange, indeed.


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[Petrushka]

I've now been able to finish watching W&P with viewing the last 2 episodes back-to-back. Wrapped up in the sweep of it, my reaction was much as above.

I thought the production seemed to take wing, visually and as a result in other ways, with the cinematography during the scene where Marya emerges into the fresh air after the death of Bolkonsky Snr. - a bleached, grainy, wide-angle series of hand-held camera shots. No danger of thinking of Woody Allen from then on to the end.

Yes, in retrospect, I see vinteuil's point about Tolstoy's slightly sentimental optimism - but as a slightly sentimental optimist myself, I'm quite happy to encounter it.

I still think Dano was exceptional, not dull at all, in common with most of the rest of the cast (save Edmondson who I thought just didn't cut it in that company). The emergence of Marya (Jessie Buckley) from downtrodden plain jane to ... well, Clive James puts it perfectly in his wonderful piece today

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/feb/13/clive-james-bbc-war-and-peace-measure-up?CMP=twt_gu

I love that article. I don't agree with all of it, but much of it. (And thank heavens Clive James is still around to provide writing like that.)

Thank goodness someone else agrees with me about Ade Edmondson! I seemed to be alone in my opinion that he was the weakest link in a strong cast.

A fine, witty article by Clive James. Thanks for linking to it.

[Richard Tarleton]

Yes, in retrospect, I see vinteuil's point about Tolstoy's slightly sentimental optimism - but as a slightly sentimental optimist myself, I'm quite happy to encounter it.

As Hugo Rifkind remarks in The Times today: "Still, it was nice to see them all living happily ever after. With those generations of peace and prosperity stretching ahead of them. In 19th century Russia. Yes."

I'd forgotten, but the epilogue (acc. to Wiki) reminds us: There is a hint in the closing chapters that the idealistic, boyish Nikolenka and Pierre would both become part of the Decembrist Uprising. The first epilogue concludes with Nikolenka promising he would do something with which even his late father "would be satisfied" (presumably as a revolutionary in the Decembrist revolt).

[Nick Armstrong]

As Hugo Rifkind remarks in The Times today: "Still, it was nice to see them all living happily ever after. With those generations of peace and prosperity stretching ahead of them. In 19th century Russia. Yes."