Anna Karenina Page #24

fan. Betsy gives Anna her fan.

VRONSKY:

--is restrained by an Officer.

OFFICER:

Her back's broken!

The Officer takes a pistol from his holster. Vronsky, enraged and in grief,

takes the pistol from him.

KARENIN:

--persists with Anna.

KARENIN:

I'm asking you . . . if you wish to go . . .

He touches Anna's arm. She jerks it away.

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ANNA:

No, leave me alone.

BETSY:

I'll bring her home, Alexei.

KARENIN:

(SMILING POLITELY)

Excuse me, Princess, but Anna is not well

and I want her to come with me.

A gunshot is heard from the course. Anna turns her tear-streaked face

towards it.

INT. MOVING COACH--DAY

Anna's hysteria has solidified into a blank despair. Karenin seems to want

to pretend that nothing important has happened.

KARENIN:

You know . . . they say the Emperor dis-

approves of the races . . . the danger of

injury . . . but I . . .

Anna looks at him contemptuously.

ANNA:

What?

KARENIN:

I'm saying there is a value in manly sport,

for the military--

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ANNA:

I don't understand.

KARENIN:

In my opinion, it's not the sport itself that's

wrong, it's the spectacle, it's making a cruel

spectacle out of--

ANNA:

What are you talking about?

Karenin changes tack.

KARENIN:

I have to tell you--

ANNA:

Yes.

KARENIN:

I have to tell you, you behaved improperly

today.

ANNA:

And how was that?

She has raised her voice. He raises a warning finger, and reaches to close the

communication window behind the coachman's box.

KARENIN:

By making plain your feelings when one of

the riders fell. Your conduct was improper.

It must not occur again. I have said it before.

Anna smiles faintly. He is misled by that.

108

KARENIN (CONT'D)

You are going to say my concern is unneces-

sary and ridiculous. You are my wife. I am

wrong to think that . . . yes--perhaps I was

mistaken.

Anna looks at him despairingly.

ANNA:

No, you were not mistaken. I love him. I

am his mistress. I can't bear you, I'm afraid

of you, I hate you. Do what you like to me.

Karenin is literally winded--gasping for breath, slowly getting his breath-

ing under control. Anna huddles away from him in her corner. Karenin

recovers himself only to the point of sitting stock-still, looking at nothing,

not moving.

The coach lurches, unbalancing him so that he is pushed against Anna. He

recoils as if from a contamination.

The coach slows. The coach stops. A Servant comes to the coach door, opens

the door.

KARENIN:

Wait, please. Move away.

The Servant backs off.

KARENIN (CONT'D)

I will not have a scandal. Therefore . . . You

will not see . . . this man again. You will

behave in such a way that nothing is known

against you, by society or by the servants.

In return, you will keep the privileges of a

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wife--and the duties. Tomorrow you will

return home. That is all.

Anna gets out of the coach and runs into the maze.

EXT. MAZE--NIGHT

Anna comes to Vronsky. She is still shaken by the showdown with

Karenin in his coach, but is now overtaken by concern for Vronsky after his

fall.

ANNA:

Are you hurt?

Vronsky shakes his head. He is moved by the sight of her, full of love and

desire, but in her embrace he detects something new, a nervous exaltation.

VRONSKY:

What's happened?

ANNA:

I told him I'm your mistress.

Vronsky lifts her face, strokes her cheek. He waits.

ANNA (CONT'D)

He thinks I can give you up and go on

living.

He embraces her for that, relieved, grateful, loving--understanding that

she is not going to give him up.

110

VRONSKY:

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