Anastasia
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Movie Reviews of Anastasia
Movie Review: A compelling drama with a fascinating music score...
Summary: 5 Stars
In 1917, the Romanoff dynasty - rulers of Imperial Russia - were overthrown by revolution... Some of the nobility and their followers fled to safety but the Czar, his wife Alexandra and his five children were imprisoned and then slaughtered in a cellar in 1918 by the Bolsheviks...
Shortly after, rumors started that the youngest daughter of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolayevna had not been murdered with the rest of her family but had escaped and was still alive...
In the years that followed, the whisper grew louder and louder... Several women outside Russia claimed her identity... All were aware that l0 millions pounds were at stake left by the Czar in the Bank of England...
The film opens in Paris 1928 - Russian Easter...
An amnesic woman, using the name of Anna Corev (Ingrid Bergman), is about to commit suicide on the bank of the Seine... She is saved by a White Russian General, called Bounine (Yul Brynner).
With a face hint by fatigue and stress, lost and broken, frustrated and unhappy, and tired to argue, she accepts modestly to be taken under care and to be trained by the General and his business associates Boris Chernov (Akim Tamiroff) and Petrovin (Sasha Pitoeff) in order to be passed off as Princess Anastasia, the daughter of the Czar of Russia...
Bearing a strong resemblance to the Grand Duchess, the plan of the Russian group can succeed... There is an opportunity for them to share the inheritance, the fortune left by the Emperor...
After days of training, the unknown lady becomes another woman... Elegant, radiant and healthy, arousing profound solemnity, dignity and even royalty...
The Grand Duchess wins her first victory when 18 of the 25 individuals recognized her as 'Anastasia,' but the most significant victory is yet to come... She must be recognized by her grand mother, the Dowager Empress of Russia, who lives in Copenhagen, Denmark...
Helen Hayes is simply superb as the melancholic old Empress with a wistful desire to accept the vague truth...
Yul Brynner plays his role with enormous task...
The motion picture marks Ingrid Bergman's comeback to the Hollywood cinema after the European exile... She gives a gracious, confused, eloquent, moving performance, following back the progress of a woman, from the deepness of hopelessness and confusion, through strenuous efforts with uncertainty and disillusion, to a successful display of bravery, self-respect and love...
Directed with elegance by Anatole Litvak, and with a fascinating music score by Alfred Newman, "Anastasia" is a combination of mystery and romance, a compelling drama with quite considerable charm which persuade without projecting any flame on history...
Movie Review: A royal fairy tale
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been fascinated with the story of the Romanovs since grade nine, when I did a project on Anastasia. Having read almost all the books on the subject of Anna Anderson (who passed herself off -- or rather, was passed off -- as the princess Anastasia from the late 1920s till her death in the early 1980s), I'm still of two minds as to whether she really was who she claimed. That being said, it's always nice to believe in fairy tales, and Fox's 1956 version of the story definitely leans toward to romantic rather than the cynical version of events.
Ingrid Bergman, one of my favorite actresses of all time, won a much-deserved Oscar for her portrayal of the mystery woman whom con artist Yul Brynner picks up off the streets and trains to pass as Anastasia before her grandmother, the Grand Duchess (Helen Hayes). It's a tour-de-force performance that is as subtle as ever won an Oscar. Watch her face during the scene in which she realizes she's being used by Brynner to get money. It's a mixture of betrayal, hurt, anger, and relief (she's falling for him too, and scared of it).
Fox's presentation of ANASTASIA, the 9th in its hopefully long-running series of Studio Classics, is a grand presentation in the original 2.35:1 CinemaScope aspect ratio. The colors jump off the screen at you, and I finally understood how it was meant to be seen, after years of knowing only the cropped home video version. There's an audio commentary by Alfred Newman biographer John Burlingame, screewriter Arthur Laurents, and actor James MacArthur (the son of Helen Hayes), who relate trivia about the score, the film, and Hayes' experiences making the movie, respectively. Joining them on the commentary is historian Sylvia Stoddard who gives us some background on the film, but focuses mainly on the reality of the Anastasia/Anna Anderson saga. Stoddard also contributes an audio essay about the Romanovs.
There's an A&E biography special on Anastasia, a few newsreels (some from 1956, others from 1917!), and the requisite trailer and restoration featurette. All in all, a wonderful presentation of an exceptional movie.
The Film: 4 1/2 stars.
The Extras: 5 stars.
Movie Review: gripping drama with a fairy tale ending
Summary: 5 Stars
Anastasia had a tight plot, gripping dialogues and a brilliant portrayal by Ingrid Bergman. When Anastasia (Ingrid Bergman) was first confronted in the cellar, she denied to be the grand duchess while her words and fragmented memories more than once betrayed her past. Most intriguing was that she herself did not know who she was, after futile efforts to convince others she was the princess in the past 10 years. She could not differentiate what she actually remembered from what she was told to remember in the 8-day crash course of training.
The most touching scenes were how Anastasia responded to the successive examinations of board members, followed by of Russian aristocrats and finally by the Emperess, her grand ma ma (Helen Hayes). Ingrid Bergman succeeded in playing a confused Anastasia whose sudden bursts of personal experiences buried deep in her heart would convince the skeptics at the critical moment.
To cap it all, the flawless performance of the two actresses had made the emotional grandma-grandaughter reunion scene heartbreaking. The closeness between Yul Brynner and Ingrid Bergman was perfect and subtle as it should be. The romance was not so much said as it was felt - a simple kiss on the hand. Ingrid Bergman was the princess in the bones, she was diffident yet stately, long suffering yet proud. While Anastasia was eager to please her long lost grandma, her grandma loved her so much that she would let her free and grant her the happiness she long deserved - a fairy tale ending.
Movie Review: Great film, horrible voice track!
Summary: 5 Stars
A film for the ages, and it's so controversial because of A.Laurents' screenplay, a thorough critique of the Romanov Dynasty and monarchy in general in 1956 when everybody was running from McCarthy.
Ingrid Bergman is so superb, as is Yul Brynner and Helen Hayes.Waht can you say about the scenes between Ingrid and Brynner and Ingrid with
Helen Hayes? They are so brilliant! And the p[hotography, the use of CinemaScope!
Akim Tamiroff and Martita Hunt are marvellous too. However, this DVD has major flaws with respect to the transmission of sound. The music overwhelms everyone, and the voices are low and not understandable as aresult of many imbakances. There was the Fox Tape, not LBXd but clear and balanced. What the heck happened?
. Keep the LBX tapes from Fox Movie Channel and be content, or, if you can get the Chinese DVD import, get it, beautiful sound and color. This release is sad, to be sure, but the Fox Dvds are very bad, and need to be re -done some day by competent people, by people who love film.
Look at The Gang's All Here, for example, and other box sets from Fox, the Tyrone Power one..keep the old tapes.
Movie Review: The king and her (recommended)
Summary: 5 Stars
Has Ingrid Bergman actually topped her performance in Casablanca or is she so great that every role she portrays is classic? Perhaps it's the excellent digital color re-mastering that illuminates Anastasia among prior theatrical presentations. Or it could be the moments of humor and romantic chemistry evident in the perfect pairing with Yul Brynner as a financially motivated con artist who plucks "Anastasia" from the brink of despair and trains her how to assume the royal throne. Maybe it is due to the fact that the story is based on non-fictional events and throughout the film, the viewer nor characters are quite certain of whether there is actually any deception taking place.
Everyone will certainly be drawn to Bergman as she once again delivers a profusion of drama through unrivaled facial expressions. Brynner would make an eloquent King and Berman is a true princess, regardless of the picture's outcome (but that's another movie). DVD extras include a detailed documentary about the real Anastasia.
Movie quote: "The poor have only one advantage; they know when they are loved for themselves."