Themes: Amnesia, Inheritance at Stake, Cons and Scams
Main Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner, Helen Hayes, Akim Tamiroff, Martita Hunt
Release Year: 1956
Country: US
Run Time: 105 minutes
Plot
Anastasia is adapted from the popular stage play by Marcelle Maurette. The scene is Paris in the early 1920s. Ingrid Bergman plays a would-be suicide who is rescued by Russian expatriate Yul Brynner. Brynner's motives are far from altruistic; together with a group of Russian cohorts, he hopes to pass Bergman off as Princess Anastasia, the daughter of the late Czar Nicholas. If the conspirators are successful, they stand to collect the ten million pounds held in trust for Anastasia in the Bank of England. The biggest obstacle facing Brynner and company is the surviving Romanov empress (Helen Hayes), who must be convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that Bergman is the genuine article. Anastasia represented Ingrid Bergman's return to Hollywood after several years' exile following her "scandalous" affair with Italian director Roberto Rossellini. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The classic treatment of the popular story of Princess Anastasia is this 1956 Hollywood version by Soviet-born director Anatole Litvak, based on a play by Marcelle Maurette. The lustrous Ingrid Bergman won her second Academy Award for her finely modulated portrayal of an amnesia victim who is manipulated by an exiled Russian White general (Yul Brynner) into posing as the long-lost daughter of the late Czar Nicholas. Anastasia marked Bergman's Hollywood comeback from her own exile in Europe following an overplayed personal scandal with Italian director Roberto Rossellini. The skeptical Russian Grand Duchess is played by the reliable Helen Hayes. Highly theatrical in its structure, this Anastasia is slick and entertaining, if not particularly attentive to historical nuances. Litvak uses his own experiences of fleeing both Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union to fashion a thoughtful, sophisticated study about the intertwining of political and personal deception. After Bergman's exquisite portrayal, the character of Anastasia was fated to decline, through it was later attempted by Amy Irving in 1986 and in a Don Bluth animated version in 1997. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
The film tells the story of a young, confused woman in 1920s France (Ingrid Bergman), who is picked up and influenced by a group of Russian expatriates, led by Yul Brynner, into passing herself off as Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, the daughter of the murdered TsarNicholas II of Russia. However, the ultimate test for her is to convince the Dowager Empress, Maria Feodorovna (Helen Hayes), of her authenticity.
The film was loosely based on the true story of a former inmate in a German asylum who became known as 'Anna Anderson' and whose story made headlines for decades. However, the Russian monarchist movement never backed Ms. Anderson, nor did she ever meet with the Dowager Empress, played by Hayes. The script plays with the question of Anna/Anastasia's identity.
Ten years of turmoil have passed since the teenage Anastasia and her sisters and brother were presumably killed. Does the refugee Anna who has turned up in Paris have the bearing, speech, and intimate knowledge of the imperial family that the real grand duchess would have? Or is she merely an apt pupil of General Bounine (Brynner), a recovering amnesiac with a striking resemblance who has been cleverly groomed by the émigré general to stake a claim to 10 million pounds left by the Tsar in an English bank? In a series of encounters with former familiars and members of the imperial court, Anna begins to display a confidence and style that astonish her skeptical interlocutors, yet retains our sympathy by seeming more interested in recovering her own identity than the imperial bank account. In a tour de force climactic meeting with the Empress in Copenhagen, Bergman and Hayes take the measure of each other, alternately projecting imperial self-possession and the anguish of family longing. Meanwhile Bounine has become increasingly jealous of the attentions the fortune-hunting Prince Paul pays to Anna. At a grand ball at which her engagement with Paul is to be announced, the Empress has a private word with Anna/Anastasia, who subsequently elopes with Bounine.
While the film does not reveal whether Anna really is the Romanov princess, a series of subtle hints throughout appear to suggest that she is. The gradual realisation of her true identity is juxtaposed upon the romantic interest that develops within Bounine, who in one of his speeches declares to Anna / Anastasia that he cares for who she is and not what her name is.
Hayes summons all her stage experience to deliver the celebrated last line, summing up the film's poignant exploration of identity and role-playing. Asked how she will explain the vanishing of her supposed granddaughter to a ballroom full of expectant guests, she declares, "I will tell them that the play is over, go home!" The film closes with the regal figure of the Dowager Empress on the arm of Prince Paul, descending the grand staircase.
Production
Ingrid Bergman and Yul Brynner at the opera.
The movie was adapted by Guy Bolton and Arthur Laurents from the play by Marcelle Maurette. The structure of the play can still be detected in the static settings and theatrical "scenes" of the cinematic version, which has additional, essentially decorative ball scenes. It was directed by Anatole Litvak.
