People familiar with the actual story of Grand Duchess Anistasia and of Anna Andersen will instantly recognize that this film is a fairy tale. Sad to say, I suspect most people have little or no idea about either of these iconic tales of our times, and/or have got their ideas from this wonderful but utterly phony bit of cinema.

Anastasia, probably better known than Anna, was a daughter of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov; that is, Tsar Nikolai II of Russia (the film seems to favor the correct transliteration of the title, rather than the dissociative Polish rendering – “Czar” – favored by the French and other people who can’t tell Polish from Russian). She, along with her father, mother, brother, and 3 sisters, was assassinated by Bolshevik thugs in Siberia in 1918. Almost immediately, stories began to circulate that one or more of the family had survived the massacre. Anastasia and her brother Alexei were the most frequently mentioned names. Numerous claimants appeared during the next couple of decades, of which Anna Andersen was one of the most convincing if not the most convincing.

The “Anastasia” in this film shares a lot of history with Anna, although only on her passport for the trip to Denmark does she appear as “A. Andersen”. Now, you may have read some old books that make a good case for Anna being Anastasia. However, DNA tests have since shown that Anna was in no way a Romanov. (Of course, neither was any “Romanov” since the barely Romanov Peter III.) Since this “Anastasia” is little more than a Slavic “Cinderella”, we may as well ignore history and actual facts and go with the flow of the script. It should be noted that the Dowager Empress never in fact met Anna.

The title character is played by one of the most stunning combinations of beauty and talent over to work in Hollywood, Ingrid Bergman. “Anastasia” is her return to American film after some years of absence. She had been shunned in Hollywood for the entirely stupid reason that she had had an affair with a married film director. American filmgoers should have lynched the idiots responsible for depriving them of Ms. Bergman’s talents for so long. Like Jeanne d’Arc, this turns out to have been a role she was born to play – and for which she won the Academy Award.

Watching Berman play this role, even during its most painful moments, is a great pleasure. She begins the film as a confused, nameless amnesiac wandering the streets of Paris in the 1920s. She falls in with Sergei Bunin, whose name is spelled in the film in the infelicitous French manner as “Bounine”. Feh. Anyway, Bunin and his associates are searching for a convincing facsimile of Anastasia as part of a scheme to get their hands on a huge inheritance currently held by a bank in Britain. Bunin is convinced the mysterious vagrant will do, and begins to groom her for the job. As we must expect, she almost immediately begins to drop enigmatic clues that she might actually be Anastasia. She’s put on exhibit for the Russian émigré community, with indifferent success. The only recourse is to obtain the recognition of Maria Fyodorovna (the Dowager Empress), Anastasia’s grandmother. She resides in Křbenhavn and lives in the past. (The film doesn’t entirely make clear how deeply the late pseudo-Romanovs are matrimonially entangled with the Danish royal family.)

The Dowager Empress is shown as primarily associated with a companion, “Baroness Elena von Livenbaum” and a nephew, “Prince Paul von Haraldberg”. The latter is said to have become engaged to Anastasia when she was 16; that is, in 1917 – an unlikely year for Nikolai II’s family to have celebrated any social events of the magnitude required by that sort of occasion. In any event, neither the Baroness nor the Prince is a real person. It’s odd, but perhaps a measure of her naiveté, that “Anastasia” would develop an interest in Paul, a notorious womanizer who would obviously never make a satisfactory husband. In any event, the Dowager Empress’ companion and nephew would jointly form a conduit by which she was convinced to meet with her putative granddaughter.

The meeting doesn’t go well until “Anastasia” does a bit of coughing – which, she says, she does when she’s nervous. She’s been doing this throughout the picture, so it’s no surprise it’s important. Naturally, Anastasia has this same habit. This revelation is followed by several minutes of tearful reconciliation, a scene presented with a compelling intensity and restraint.

At its ending, the film returns to Paris, where the Dowager Empress is going to preside over a grand émigré ball, at which the now-recognized Anastasia is to be presented and her engagement with Prince Paul announced. After a few scenes to set the stage, she leaves before the planned ceremony and runs off with Bunin. In this way the film gets to have its dramatic recognition scene yet face up to the fact that no “Anastasia” was ever acknowledged by the Dowager Empress nor by any other surviving member of the imperial family. The first time through this film, this denouement may appear weakly motivated. However, the script and the actors have carefully prepared for this: there is a growing relationship between “Anastasia” and Bunin, and Bunin shows clearly that he becomes more concerned with her welfare and success than with the big London bank account. The careful viewer will see how much they come – in an unspoken way – to care for each other. In fact, the real surprise would have been for “Anastasia” to have let Bunin go in favor of any relationship with Prince Paul.

If Bergman’s performance is a great jewel, it appears in a wonderful setting. The production is a period piece of great sumptuousness. The new DVD version represents the latest in restoration techniques. As a comparison feature shows, it’s a slight improvement over previous efforts, and the result is a brilliantly clear print of the film. The sets range from the realistically scruffy to the royally elegant. There is constantly a sense of place and time which holds the improbable and slightly maudlin story together. The same must be said of the musical score (also winning an Academy Award) by the enormously talented Elmer Bernstein.

The most impressive part of the setting consists of the greatly talented actors with whom Bergman is surrounded. Bunin is played by probably the most perfect actor for that role, Yul Brynner – who won the National Board of Review award for best actor. His grasp of Slavic cynicism is fascinating. He and Bergman play off each other like the old pros they so manifestly are. He is also one of those men who is an absolute pleasure to watch (and hear) every moment of the film, being as stunningly macho as Bergman is stunningly feminine. Woof! Brynner has more than enough charisma on his own to hold his own share of the stage in the presence of La Bergman.

“Anastasia” enjoys a Trinity of magnificent actors. The third is Helen Hayes, who played the Dowager Empress and was nominated for a Golden Globe. Hayes was an ornament to American theater for decades. Like Brynner, she has the inner strength to hold her own against Bergman’s high voltage presence. In a completely natural and convincing manner, she balances vulnerability with hard-as-nails resistance. Her moment of recognition is a masterpiece of understatement combined with emotional intensity.

The big treat of the film is Martita Hunt’s Baroness von Lievenbaum. Hunt appeared in dozens of films made from 1932, the last of them made in the year of her death (1969). In this role, she is gloriously, irrepressibly giddy – and, frankly, almost manages to take the stage from everyone else when she’s on it. What a treat!

Another sterling performance is given by the notable Georgian character actor Akim Tamiroff, who plays Boris Chernov, one of Bunin’s partners in the “Anastasia” scam. He is marvelously volatile.

Ivan Desny, who plays Prince Paul, is more problematic. His performance is calm and aristocratic, and probably little else is called for. In any event, as compared with the actors mentioned above, he’s just not as compelling when he’s on-screen. I’m not sure he needs to be, but there it is. It’s probably more the role than the actor. Don’t look to see Desny in many films … he’s made a bunch, but most of them are in German.

This is a film that everyone should see. Blessed with a more than first-rate cast, a literate script, and a sumptuous production, it deals with an iconic event of the 20th Century – the lost Romanov princess. It deals with that event in an engagingly romantic manner (eschewing the truth, which isn’t very romantic). As a product of the 1950s, it’s pure entertainment without all the “socially relevant” and “politically correct” crap with which so many modern films are hobbled – not to mention our current dependency on totally unimaginative and too much crude language. “Anastasia” is a beautiful and classic bit of filmmaking that belongs in every collection.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older