Anastasia
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAnatole Litvak
Screenplay byArthur Laurents
Based onAnastasia
by Marcelle Maurette
Produced byBuddy Adler
StarringIngrid Bergman
Yul Brynner
Helen Hayes
CinematographyJack Hildyard
Edited byBert Bates
Music byAlfred Newman
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century-Fox
Release date
  • December 13, 1956 (1956-12-13)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguagesEnglish
French
Budget$3.52 million[1]
Box office$4.3 million (US and Canada rentals)[2]

Anastasia is a 1956 American period drama film starring Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner, and Helen Hayes. It was directed by Anatole Litvak and written by Arthur Laurents, adapted from a 1952 play written by Guy Bolton and Marcelle Maurette. He was inspired by the story of Anna Anderson, the best known of the many Anastasia impostors who emerged after the Imperial family were killed in July 1918.

Plot

Though the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, and his family were executed in 1918, rumors spread that his youngest daughter, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, somehow escaped and survived.

During 1928, in Paris, an ailing woman named Anna Koreff, who resembles Anastasia, is brought to the attention of a former White Russian, General Bounine, then the proprietor of a successful Russian-themed nightclub. Bounine knows that while Anna was in a mental asylum being treated for amnesia, she had told a nun that she is Anastasia. When approached by Bounine and addressed as the Grand Duchess, she refuses to have anything to do with him. She flees and tries to throw herself into the River Seine, but is stopped.

Bounine then meets with his associates, Chernov and Petrovin; he had already raised funds from stockholders, eager to gain a share of £10 million that belonged to Anastasia held by an English bank- based on his claim that he had found her, which Bounine later privately admits is a scam. Frustrated by the delays, the stockholders have lost their patience and has given him eight days to produce her.

Bounine arranges for Anna to be intensively trained to pass as Anastasia. During this time, the pair begins to develop feelings for one another. Later, in a series of carefully arranged encounters with former familiars and members of the imperial court, Anna begins to display a confidence and style that astonish her skeptics.

Anna now has to go to Copenhagen, Denmark, to convince Anastasia's paternal grandmother and highly skeptical dowager empress, Maria Feodorovna, that she is Anastasia. Meanwhile, Bounine becomes increasingly jealous of the attentions that Prince Paul, another fortune hunter, pays to Anna. At a grand ball in Copenhagen, at which the engagement of "Anastasia" and Paul is to be announced, the Dowager Empress has a final private conversation with Anna. Although aware of Bounine's machinations, the Empress believes that she is truly her granddaughter. Realizing that Anna has fallen in love with Bounine, she helps her run away with him. When asked by a courtier whether Anastasia was real, the Empress responds "Wasn't she?"

Cast

L-R: Sacha Pitoëff, Ingrid Bergman, Akim Tamiroff and Yul Brynner

Production

The film was adapted by Guy Bolton and Arthur Laurents from the play by Bolton and Marcelle Maurette. Some critics believed the film was bound too much to the static settings and theatrical "scenes" of the play, but additional, essentially decorative, ball scenes were added to open up the action.

The film does not reveal whether Anna is the Romanov princess, but suggests through subtle hints that she is. The gradual realisation of her true identity is juxtaposed against Bounine's growing romantic interest in Anna.

The film marked Bergman's return to working for a Hollywood studio after several years of working in Italy with her husband, Roberto Rossellini. Their marriage had caused a scandal, as he divorced his then current wife, Marcella DeMarchis to be with her.

The film was also a comeback for Helen Hayes. She had suspended her career for several years due to the death of her daughter Mary, and her husband's failing health.

Locations

The film was shot on location in Copenhagen, London and Paris. Studio interiors were shot at MGM-British Studios at Borehamwood, England.

The Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Paris, which was a center of worship for Russian aristocrats and other émigrés from St. Petersburg in the city, is featured in one of the early scenes.[4]

Title song

The theme song of the film, also titled "Anastasia", has been recorded by a number of artists. The most popular version was by Pat Boone, reaching number 3 (as a double-A-side with "Don't Forbid Me") on the Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart for several weeks in early 1957.

Reception

Awards and nominations

Award Category Nominee(s) Result
Academy Awards Best Actress Ingrid Bergman Won
Best Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture Alfred Newman Nominated
British Academy Film Awards Best British Screenplay Arthur Laurents Nominated
David di Donatello Awards Best Foreign Actress Ingrid Bergman Won
Golden Globe Awards Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama Won
Helen Hayes Nominated
National Board of Review Awards Top Ten Films 8th Place
Best Actor Yul Brynner (also for The King and I and The Ten Commandments) Won
New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Actor Nominated
Best Actress Ingrid Bergman Won
Photoplay Awards Most Popular Male Star Yul Brynner Nominated

See also

References

  1. ↑ Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1. p250
  2. ↑ Cohn, Lawrence (October 15, 1990). "All-Time Film Rental Champs". Variety. p. M144.
  3. ↑ "Anastasia (1956)".
  4. ↑ Anastasia
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