MARCEAU VOICES HER GOOD FORTUNE : FRENCH ACTRESS GOES FROM `BRAVEHEART' TO LEAD ROLE IN `ANNA KARENINA'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Writer

Sophie Marceau went into the making of ``Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina'' knowing that she had two hard acts to follow.

Greta Garbo's, of course, was one. In the short but potent 1935 MGM production, Garbo defined the doomed Russian romantic for generations afterward - and for millions, probably, who never plowed through the 850-page, 19th-century novel.

But Marceau also had a high point of her own to live up to. Few are the European actresses who've made their Hollywood debut in a Best Picture Oscar winner, but two years ago Marceau did, as ``Braveheart's'' French-born English princess.

One of France's biggest movie stars for more than half of her 30 years, the tall and talkative Marceau exudes both the confidence required to play one of literature's key tragic heroines and the disarming charm of someone who knows she's been lucky and can't quite get over it.

``It's amazing to be allowed - and blessed - to do these two films,'' she says in mildly accented English. ``So what else? Even if it stops tomorrow, I swear, I don't know a lot of actresses who have had the chance to do things like this.''

The latest ``Karenina'' is the first shot in Russia by a Western company (Mel Gibson's Icon Productions, which was also responsible for ``Braveheart''). Directed by Bernard Rose (``Immortal Beloved''), the film co-stars British actor Sean Bean as the dashing officer Count Vronsky for whom Anna gives up her much older husband (James Fox), her beloved son, her place in society and, ultimately, her life.

Marceau, who had read the book as a teen-ager, took an intuitive approach to the role. She tried to relate her own, extremely different life experiences to Anna's, while keeping clear track of the character's flaws as well as her devastating disappointments.

``When she feels something, she really goes for it, which makes her kind of a pain in the neck,'' Marceau says. ``People like that want you and themselves and everything else to be the best it can be. She wasn't expecting to fall in love with Vronsky, but once she did, she wanted to make it more wonderful and really fantastic. The problem comes when she suddenly discovers that it's not so fantastic. The vulgarity of it makes her see that her choice wasn't so smart.

``At the beginning, I think, the story with Vronsky is very sexual,'' the actress continues. ``She's 28, and that is a turning point for a woman. The best thing that could have happened to her would have been to become a mother for the first time. That's what happened to me at 28, and that was my personal turning point, something so huge and very new that happened to me.

``But she was already a good mother, already a good wife; she had a good name, everything was OK. Maybe she felt like, `Wow, I'm getting older, so something must happen.' What happens is sex.''

Marceau, who lives in France and Poland with her husband, director Andrzej Zulawski, and their 2-year-old son, is not worried about comparisons between her and Garbo's interpretations of Anna. Some things, she wisely recognizes, just can't be compared.

``I can't tell you why, but Garbo was a phenomenon; she was a star with or without `Anna Karenina,' '' Marceau says. ``I looked at her film again recently, just to see what she did, and there was not one moment you could compare.

``Was (Garbo) a great actress who gave a great performance of Anna Karenina? No. Was she more beautiful than anybody? No. Did she have great mannerisms? No, she walks like a man, she walks like a truck driver. But the only pleasure I had watching the film was her. She was a kind of mystery, a star phenomenon. So there is no way to compare yourself with her, to try to do better or as good. I never thought about myself watching her, and that's great.''

Marceau knows something about how truck drivers walk; her father was one. Drawn to acting at an early age, she became a sensation in 1981 with ``La Boum,'' a huge hit in France about a teen-ager's struggle with her bickering parents.

Since that time, Marceau has made a number of noteworthy films, including ``Police'' with Gerard Depardieu and Michelangelo Antonioni's most recent production, ``Beyond the Clouds.'' She also has a third English-language film, the period British family drama ``Firelight,'' awaiting release.

As for her future in Hollywood, Marceau is both realistic and a bit defensive - but still feeling mighty lucky.

``I mean, what can I expect from fame, becoming rich or whatever?'' she asks. ``Well, I'll be richer and I'll be more famous, that's it. But it's endless, you can always be richer and more famous than, what, God itself? I don't know what's inspiring about that.

``But to have the chance to start with `Braveheart' - it was a French part, I didn't have to become someone else or make compromises because I wanted to be in a Hollywood movie. No, I was asked to do something interesting, I can really defend it on trial.

``And `Anna Karenina,' can you imagine that? So what else? Of course, I expect to do more films like this because I'm an actress, and I need to work. But only if I am very motivated.''

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Sophie Marceau gets her first English-language starring role in ``Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.'' The 30-year-old French actress also had a part in Mel Gibson's ``Braveheart.''