Anastasia (1956) - film review

Paris, 1928.  A decade after Tsar Nicolas II and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks, rumours continue to circulate that the tsar’s daughter, Anastasia, somehow survived.  A Russian general, Bounine, has a plan to pass off an unknown woman as Anastasia so that he can claim her inheritance, lodged in a British bank.   That woman is Anna Koreff, a fugitive from an asylum who has lost her memory and who believes she is Anastasia.  By getting Anna to digest every known fact about the missing princess and her family, Bounine is sure he can convince the world that Anastasia still lives.  But the world – in the form of those who knew the princess and her family, are unconvinced.  Bounine’s only hope is to get a positive identification from Anastasia’s grandmother, the Dowager Empress.  However, the latter is suspicious and refuses point-blank to see Anna...

The most memorable and charming of director Anatole Litvak’s films during the American phase of his career is this timeless adaptation of a popular French stage play by Marcelle Maurette, which was inspired by a true story.   The film has the production values and appeal that audiences came to expect of Hollywood in the 1950s – lavish sets, a great script, a superlative cast – including legendary performers Ingrid Bergman and Yul Brynner – and one of the most haunting film scores (which later became a popular song).

Litvak’s direction, with its evident Russian and French influences, is on a par with his earlier great film Mayerling (1936), which bears some stylistic similarities.  The colourful design and spacious sets convey a sense of unbridled opulence, which the beautifully shot exterior scenes (in Paris and Copenhagen) can only reinforce.

The film marks Ingrid Bergman’s return to Hollywood after a period in exile in the early 1950s, following her scandalous affair and then short-lived marriage to Italian film director Roberto Rossellini.  Bergman won her second Oscar for her role in this film – and deservedly so, for this is undeniably one of her most captivating and intense performances.  Bergman is particularly successful in playing the ambiguity of her character’s identity – even at the end of the film, you cannot be sure whether Anna is or is not Anastasia.

Yul Brynner gives a solid performance, exuding his inimitable brand of charisma and machismo in every shot, although it’s hard to see much real emotional attachment between his character and Bergman’s (on which the story ultimately hinges).   More impressive is Helen Hayes who brings both majesty and humanity to her show-stopping portrayal of the Dowager Empress, one of the supreme highlights of her career.

© James Travers 2007

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