Actors - Anastasia

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	Actors - Anastasia

Anastasia is a 1956 film which tells the story of a young, confused woman in France after the Russian Revolution of 1917 who, backed by the Russian emigre community, attempts to pass herself off as Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, the daughter of the murdered Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. It stars Ingrid Bergman as the possible Grand Duchess, Yul Brynner as a dashing ex-aristocrat, and Helen Hayes as the Dowager Empress Maria Fyodorovna. Supporting players include Akim Tamiroff, Martita Hunt (who provides comic relief as a fluttering lady-in-waiting), and, in a small role, Natalie Schafer (familiar to television audiences from her later role on Gilligan's Island).

The film was 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 Maria (played superbly by Hayes.) The film plays skilfully with the question of Anna/Anastasia's identity, with the "is she or isn't she?" plot providing Bergman with a tour de force acting opportunity running the gamut from pathos to imperial disdain. The film ends with Anna/Anastasia choosing real life (and romance with Brynner) over the identity of the Grand Duchess. There is some ambiguity in the final exchange between the Dowager Empress and her jilted nephew, Prince Paul, but not much.

Hayes summons all her stage experience to deliver the celebrated last line, one that sums up the film's poignant exploration of identity and role-playing. Asked how she will explain the vanishing of her supposed grand-daughter to a ballroom full of expectant guests, she declares, "I will tell them that the play is over, now go home." The film closes with the lonely, regal figure of the Dowager Empress descending a long, formal staircase.

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.

The film marked Bergman's return to Hollywood after several years in self-imposed exile following the scandal that resulted from her romance with director Roberto Rossellini. Anastasia won her Academy Award for Best Actress; it was nominated for Academy Award for Original Music Score. The title song theme from the musical score became popular.

The subject of Anastasia was recast in 1997 as an animated musical feature by Fox Animation Studios, one that lost even the Bergman version's tenuous connection to the story of the real-life Anna Anderson. See: Anastasia (1997 movie)

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Actors - Anastasia

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