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I agree that movies set in foreign-speaking locales are much more realistic when the characters aren't forced to attempt the local accent. It allows the audience to move more fully into the story, serving as a part of the breakdown of cultural barriers that foreign films represent.
Still, I think that it has a similar effect as attempting the local accent if all of the characters randomly choose their accent. Also, in the Russian court at the time of Anna Karenina, French was the language of choice among the nobility, so they would have likely spoken in French with a Russian accent.
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