Details
Movie Description
In 1917, Russian revolutionaries overthrew the last czar, Nicholas, imprisoning him and his family and executing them one year later. Shortly thereafter, rumors began to spread that one of the czar's daughters, Anastasia, was still alive. In 1928, a woman surfaced claiming to be Anastasia. Based on the play, and the fictionalized account of actual events, ANASTASIA tells the story of Anna (Ingrid Bergman), the impoverished, suicidal Russian woman living in Paris who believes she may be Anastasia. When ex-military leader General Bounin, deftly played by Yul Brynner, and his cohorts discover Anna, they convince her, through grueling training sessions, that she is, in fact, the real princess. Yet Anna's own unmistakable memories unnerve even the general who, upon finding her, believed she was only a fake. The climax of the film, in which the Dowager Empress (Helen Hayes), who is still alive, meets Anastasia, is poignant and riveting. Shot on location in Paris, director Anatole Litvak commands incomparable performances from Bergman, Hayes, and Brynner in this captivating tale of lost identity. Bergman won her second Oscar for her winning portrayal that introduces just the right regal note of doubt about her real heritage.
Synopsis
Years after the last Russian czar and his entire family are murdered during the revolution, a former asylum patient, Anna (Ingrid Bergman), surfaces and might be Czar Nicholas's daughter, Anastasia. With only dim memories--and an uncanny resemblance to the lost princess--to guide her, she allows herself to be taken in by the ex-czarist military leader and con man Bounin (Yul Brynner) and be unveiled as the princess. Only a meeting with Anastasia's grandmother, the Dowager Empress who is still alive in Denmark, will reveal if Anastasia really is who she claims to be.
Film Notes
ANASTASIA was adapted from the play by Marcelle Maurette.
Ingrid Bergman won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Anna.
There was, in fact, a woman named Anna Anderson, a former mental patient who, for over 60 years, claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov. While there was circumstantial evidence to support her claims, which many supported, DNA testing in the mid-1990s matched her DNA against that of her would-be cousin, the British Prince of Wales, and proved she was indeed a fake.
ANASTASIA marked the return of Bergman after her six year absence from Hollywood, where she was shunned over her scandalous affair with director Roberto Rossellini, with whom she had a daughter, the actress Isabella Rossellini.
Natalie Schafer, who plays the exiled Russian aristocrat Lissenskaia, is best known for her role as Mrs. Howell on TV's GILLIGAN'S ISLAND, but she also starred in another Litvak film, THE SNAKE PIT, as Olivia de Havilland's mother.
The film was remade in 1997 as a Fox's first animated feature.
Industry Reviews
"Wonderfully moving and entertaining."
Quotations
"If the caviar was real, SHE would be real."--A guest at a party where Anastasia is introduced to the exiled aristocracy in Paris for the first time
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