Furs on Film – Anna Karenina (2012)

Do you know what we need more of in 2022? Tragedy. Wait, no, I mean Keira Knightley in a bunch of fur. So let's break out the most recent adaption of the Tolstoy classic, Anna Karenina, and check out Keira and her Oscar-winning Imperial Russian costume design. 


Keira Knightley in a Crystal Fox Fur Collar - Anna Karenina, 2012

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ANNA KARENINA – MOVIE [Blu-ray] [2012]

Genre: Drama/Love & Romance
Format: AC-3, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen, Dolby


Anna Karenina – The Film

Holy crap, look at that summary in Wikipedia. I doubt I could have followed this at 1x speed, much less 16x. Tolstoy? I could have sworn this was written by Anton Chekhov, famous for the theatrical principle: “Witnessing a man crushed by a train in the first act must lead to suicide by train in the forty-eighth act.” Spoilers, I guess… I mentioned it was a tragedy, right?

Anna Karenina – The Furs

Keira Knightley in a Crystal Fox Fur Collar - Anna Karenina, 2012

Meet Anna (Keira Knightley) Russian aristocrat and socialite who spends a lot of time in Act 1 on trains and a very brief amount of time in the final act under them. Fortunately, she also spends a lot of Act 1 wearing fur.

Olivia Williams in a Fox Fur Trimmed Cape - Anna Karenina, 2012

She's chatting up Countess Vronskaya (Olivia Williams). The Countess is wearing some fox trim of her own, eerily reminiscent of the fur worn by the 1977 BBC version of Anna on the train.

Olivia Williams in a Fox Fur Trimmed Cape and Keira Knightley in a Crystal Fox Fur Collar - Anna Karenina, 2012

Let's see that wide shot of ladies in fox. I admit my first instinct was to call Anna's fur silver fox, but I looked up the costumes and the color is a lot more obvious when not lit “cinematically.”

Olivia Williams in a Fox Fur Trimmed Cape and Keira Knightley in a Crystal Fox Fur Collar - Anna Karenina, 2012

Here we get a solid shot of the crystal fox collar Anna wears. Off to the right side is the “plot,” the Countess's son and the future subject of Anna's marital infidelity.

Olivia Williams in a Fox Fur Trimmed Cape and Muff and Keira Knightley in a Crystal Fox Fur Collar - Anna Karenina, 2012

We briefly get a good shot of the Countess' entire fox-trimmed outfit and muff at the station.

Later, on a different train ride, Anna remembers her outfit includes a matching crystal fox hat. Bit disappointing this was left out before, but we get some good closeups of Keira Knightley's face haloed in fur. This is quite agreeable indeed.

Keira Knightley in a Black Fox Fur Stole and Hat - Anna Karenina, 2012

Later we get a little indoor sledding. Anna wears the stole we will see more of later. Sadly, the matching hat never makes it further into the film.

Olivia Williams in a Dyed Fox Fur Stole - Anna Karenina, 2012

She is joined by Dolly (Kelly Macdonald) in a dyed fox wrap; we will see a bit more soon.

In its only appearance in the film, Anna wears a different crystal fox-trimmed outfit.

Keira Knightley in a Black Fur Trimmed Cape - Anna Karenina, 2012

The next big-ticket item is this fur-trimmed cape. It may be sable, it may be a black fox, it's very nice either way.

Olivia Williams in a Dyed Fox Fur Stole - Anna Karenina, 2012

Dolly appears with Vronsky while in the powder blue-dyed fox seen earlier that, I suspect, lacks a little period authenticity. Vronsky, by the way, is not, and I can assure you, Timothée Chalamet. Go ahead, check. I'll wait.

We revisit the cape in a slightly more extended sequence with better closeups.

Olivia Williams in a Mink Fur Hat and Collar - Anna Karenina, 2012

Momma Vronskaya returns in this mink hat and collar to berate not-Timothée Chalamet for being a dumbass.

Alicia Vikander in a Fox Fur Trimmed Coat, Hat, and Muff - Anna Karenina, 2012

Next, we have Kitty (Alicia Vikander) out in the countryside and agreeably overdressed for it in this fox-trimmed coat, hat, and muff combo. 

This outfit gets some decent screen time. I wish the entire thing were made of fox, but that's being greedy.

Keira Knightley in a Black Fur Trimmed Coat - Anna Karenina, 2012

Up next is this fox or sable-trimmed coat. I wish I could say it was filmed well, but like every black fur, it was chosen to be shot in the dimmest light possible.

Keira Knightley in a Black Fox Fur Stole - Anna Karenina, 2012

To make things more confusing, the black fox stole returns later, also deeply in the dark.

Finally, rounding things out is a brief appearance by this stole. She literally walks across a room and takes it off. It was rather disappointing that it wasn't around for longer, but it certainly is an excellent way to end the film.

The film technically ends with a train suicide, but you can stop watching after she takes off the white fox stole. Overall it has a solid amount and variety of fur, anchored by the lovely crystal fox trim in the first act that gets all the screen time it deserves. The rest of the furs are a little scattershot, but they're all excellent. Perhaps except for Countess Vronskaya's rather unimpressive mink. The runtime is 8%, which owes more to the film dragging on for over 2 hours. Granted, it clocks in way less than the BBC version.

Fur Runtime: approx 10.3 minutes
Film Runtime: 130 minutes
On-Screen Fur Ratio: 8%

Find-a-Fur: Anna Karenina, 2012

(all times are approximate)

  • 05:40 – 07:00 – fox collars
  • 18:10 – 20:25 – crystal fox collar + trim
  • 32:50 – 35:10 – ”
  • 37:37 – black fox hat and stole + dyed fox quick
  • 38:55 – sable/black fox? trimmed cape
  • 40:15 – dyed fox stole
  • 46:30 – sable/black fox? cape
  • 1:26:24 – mink trim
  • 1:30:56 – sable/black fox? trimmed dress
  • 1:31:54 – 1:34:57 – blue fox trim + hat
  • 1:37:18 – 1:42:00 – sable/black fox? trimmed dress to black fox stole
  • 1:42:55 – white fox stole
  • 1:46:30 – ”

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