Synopsis
War and Peace, Part II: Natasha Rostova (1966) — watch online on iFILM — shifts away from the battlefields of Part I and into the ballrooms and opera houses of early 19th-century Russia. Sergei Bondarchuk's second chapter belongs to Lyudmila Savelyeva; the camera rarely leaves her face.
At a New Year's ball on December 31, 1809, Prince Andrei (Vyacheslav Tikhonov) decides he wants to marry the young countess. His father agrees to the match but demands a year of secrecy and separation. Andrei leaves. Natasha waits — until Anatol Kuragin walks into the opera house and upends everything. An elopement is planned and nearly carried out. Bondarchuk's Pierre has to pull Natasha back from the edge, and the conversation that follows surprises even him.
Where Part I measured itself in panoramas and cannon smoke, Part II earns its weight in quieter registers. It is a love story told without sentimentality, and Savelyeva's performance holds it together. Stream War and Peace, Part II (1966) online on iFILM.
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