anastasia

The story of Anastasia, youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas of Russia, long rumored to be the only survivor of the 1918 revolution that left the rest the imperial family dead, had slowly blossomed into the stuff of legend. So it was only fitting that a legendary actress should take on the role when it came time to adapt it to the screen. But, as film historian Julie Kirgo explains her liner notes, 20th Century Fox's casting of Ingrid Bergman was anything but a safe bet, re-introducing the actress to American audiences after a string of scandals that kept the Casablanca star overseas for over a decade. In Hollywood, 10 years is a lifetime...maybe two if you're a woman pushing 40. But real talent is timeless.

Anastasia (1956) finds Bergman playing opposite Yul Brynner (who was having quite a year starring in both The King and I and The Ten Commandments), here as former Russian General, Sergei Pavolvich Bounine, working with a shady group of his fellow countrymen under the pretense of tracking down the long-lost princess. Their true motivation though is money (Anastasia would inherit over 10 million pounds), which explains their eagerness to accept Anna Koreff (Bergman), a former mental patient with questionable claims of royal blood, as the genuine article.

But as Anna runs the gauntlet of dinner parties and interrogations, all part of the General's attempt to prove her legitimacy, it becomes obvious that she knows more details than her long hours of coaching could possibly explain. Is she mad, brainwashed or the real deal? When the time comes to audition before the only audience that really matters, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna (Helen Hayes, staging her own comeback here as Anastasia’s grandmother), no one is sure what to believe!

Based on a Broadway play inspired by the actual accounts of Anna Anderson, an ex-asylum patient who made similar claims of royal blood, Anastasia starts off quite turbulent and wordy. Even Bergman's performance in early scenes is cranked up to a level more fit for the stage. But as her character's tutoring begins, the film finds a glorious sort of rhythm as the two actors dance (literally and figuratively) around an unspoken attraction that turns the story from a tragedy to a the best kind of golden age studio romance.

The script avoids most of the expected melodramatic pitfalls; it's narrative drive first and foremost being the quest to uncover Anna's identity, a process that the movie cleverly includes Anna as an active - and sometimes clueless - participant. Each introduction peels back another layer, toying with the audience to the point where we don't really want to know. As the Dowager Empress says, "If it should not be you, don't ever tell me." Anastasia is a fairy tale that never turns the final page, but still pulls off a happy ending. And Bergman's performance (which won her a second Oscar) is convincing enough to warrant a DNA swab!

Twilight Time's 3000-copy limited edition Blu-ray looks drop dead gorgeous in high-definition. Extras include two audio commentaries, an isolated score track, demo track of the film's romantic theme song, Fox Movietone newsreel and the original theatrical trailer.