1910-2010MAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE FESTIVAL  The Centennial Festival that will commemorate 100 years since the death of Leo Tolstoy, is expected to be an important cultural event for Greater Los Angeles, and a tribute to this eminent 19th Century Russian writer. The greatness of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy in the Western World was granted after the introduction of his most important novels through very good, even excellent translations. However, an extensive interest in his work and in him as a novelist, was, no doubt, triggered by the emergence of yet another, new, category of art – the film industry. Although, Tolstoy, undoubtedly, did not suspect the huge success of his principal novel on the screen, the two capital versions of “War and Peace” – 1959 King Vidor’s movie made in Hollywood and Italy, with an international cast, and 1968 Sergey Bondarchuk’s, over five hours long, essentially historical film, made his novel known beyond expectation. The second one was probably the most expensive movie ever made, with a scene of the memorable battle of Borodino, running for 45 minutes and featuring 120,000 soldiers. Consequently, it may be expected, that this tribute to the famous Russian writer on the centennial of his death should be given in the world’s capital of the movie industry, underlining the significance of this new form of art, able to interpret in a condensed way his greatest novels.
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