Ingrid Bergman won an Academy Award for her Hollywood comeback role (after 5 or 6 years of European film-making with husband Rossellini)as the title character. This is quite a good film that never reaches the dramatic heights it could, but is nevertheless entertaining with it's intriguing plot and great acting performances.
The intrigue surrounds Bergman's character, Anna Koreff, who General Bounine (Yul Brynner, possibly the most attractive bald man ever)is trying to pass off as the Grand Duchess Anastasia in order to collect the fortune left by Anastasia's father, the Czar of Russia in the Bank Of England.
As history has it, after the Romanov dynasty in Russia was overthrown in Russia in 1917, the Czar, his wife and their five children were slaughtered in a cellar by Bolsheviks the following year. But some were not(and still are not)convinced that the youngest daughter, Anastasia, was slaughtered along with the rest of her family and believed that she had escaped to another country, broken and destitute. Anastasia's fate is one of the biggest mysteries of the 20th century, and Bergman's Anna is based upon a real-life woman, Anna Anderson, who claimed to be the Russian Princess. This film is set in 1928, 10 years after the massacre.
Bergma is perhaps a little too old for the role, but her more mature appearance adds to the drawn, worn-out, broken character of Anna. Bergman's Oscar was well-deserved, her dramatic talent and flair for emotion is apparent here. Helen Hayes is a wealthy old dowager in support, and she is superb. Brynner, in his 'other' performance in the year in which he won his Academy Award, is also very good.
7/10.
The intrigue surrounds Bergman's character, Anna Koreff, who General Bounine (Yul Brynner, possibly the most attractive bald man ever)is trying to pass off as the Grand Duchess Anastasia in order to collect the fortune left by Anastasia's father, the Czar of Russia in the Bank Of England.
As history has it, after the Romanov dynasty in Russia was overthrown in Russia in 1917, the Czar, his wife and their five children were slaughtered in a cellar by Bolsheviks the following year. But some were not(and still are not)convinced that the youngest daughter, Anastasia, was slaughtered along with the rest of her family and believed that she had escaped to another country, broken and destitute. Anastasia's fate is one of the biggest mysteries of the 20th century, and Bergman's Anna is based upon a real-life woman, Anna Anderson, who claimed to be the Russian Princess. This film is set in 1928, 10 years after the massacre.
Bergma is perhaps a little too old for the role, but her more mature appearance adds to the drawn, worn-out, broken character of Anna. Bergman's Oscar was well-deserved, her dramatic talent and flair for emotion is apparent here. Helen Hayes is a wealthy old dowager in support, and she is superb. Brynner, in his 'other' performance in the year in which he won his Academy Award, is also very good.
7/10.