Audrey Hepburn, War and Peace (1956) starring Henry Fonda and Mel Ferrer

War and Peace is the first English-language film version of the novel War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. It is an American/Italian version, directed by King Vidor and produced by Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti. The music score was by Nino Rota and the cinematography by Jack Cardiff. The film stars Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda, and Mel Ferrer, along with Vittorio Gassman, Herbert Lom and Anita Ekberg, in one of her first breakthrough roles. It was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film and it had Academy Awards nominations for Best Director (King Vidor), Best Cinematography, Color (Jack Cardiff) and Best Costume Design, Color (Maria De Matteis).

The film script had to condense the extensive original. It is primarily focused on Natasha Rostova, Count Pierre Bezukhov, and Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, their complex relationship and personal maturation on the backdrop of the historical events of the Napoleonic invasion. In Moscow, most of the scenes take place at the Rostov residence, and episodes at the country estates are curtailed, with some exceptions such as the hunt where Natasha first meets Andrei. There are no scenes from St. Petersburg. The relationship between Nikolas, Sonya and Mary is toned down. Historical figures that are retained are General Kutuzov and Napoleon. Minor battles are omitted, while Napoleon’s crossing of the Berezina is added. The concept of the inner dialogue is retained, notably in regard to Natasha, however, the extensive use of French is not retained in the movie. Events of the epilogue are not included in the movie, nor are Tolstoy’s discourses about history.

• This post is part of the Celebrating Audrey Hepburn series, wich contains 350 high resolution pictures of the film icon Audrey Hepburn, including movie posters, stills, on-set pictures and fashion photoshoots (21 posts, 290 Mb) :
Beautiful Audrey Hepburn – Happy new year 2013 !
Audrey Hepburn, We will all go to Monte Carlo (1951)
Audrey Hepburn, Secret People (1952) starring Valentina Cortese
Audrey Hepburn, Roman Holiday (1953) starring Gregory Peck
Audrey Hepburn, Sabrina (1954) starring Humphrey Bogart and William Holden
Audrey Hepburn, War and Peace (1956) starring Henry Fonda and Mel Ferrer
Audrey Hepburn, Funny Face (1957) starring Fred Astaire
Audrey Hepburn, Love in the afternoon (1957) starring Gary Cooper and Maurice Chevalier
Audrey Hepburn, Green Mansions (1959) starring Anthony Perkins
Audrey Hepburn, The Nun’s Story (1959) directed by Fred Zinnemann
Audrey Hepburn, The Unforgiven (1960) starring Burt Lancaster
Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) starring George Peppard
Audrey Hepburn, The Children’s Hour (1961) starring Shirley MacLaine
Audrey Hepburn, Charade (1963) starring Cary Grant
Audrey Hepburn, My Fair Lady (1964) starring Rex Harrison
Audrey Hepburn, Paris when it sizzles (1964) starring William Holden
Audrey Hepburn, How to steal a million (1966) starring Peter O’Toole
Audrey Hepburn, Two for the road (1967) starring Albert Finney
Audrey Hepburn, Wait until dark (1967) starring Alan Arkin and Richard Crenna
Audrey Hepburn, Robin and Marian (1976) starring Sean Connery
Audrey Hepburn, Always (1989) directed by Steven Spielberg