Anastasia (1956)

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Professional Tourist
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Re: Anastasia (1956)

Post by Professional Tourist »

I've loved Anastasia ever since I saw a screening of it at the Museum of Modern Art, which must have been back in the 80s. They had a great print projected in all its wide screen glory. Several years back I purchased it on DVD and since then I play it a couple of times a year. I especially like to watch it around easter time, since that it when it begins. This film has it all going on -- great story, performances, sets, costumes, romance, intrigue. . . . Although I like the leads, I think my favorite characters/performances are Helen Hayes as the dowager empress in exile and Martita Hunt as her lady-in-waiting Baroness Livenbaum -- they're sensational! :)

The only thing I don't like about Anastasia is the ending, so abrupt "go home, the play is over." To me it's an unsatisfying way to wrap up such an involving experience.
Vecchiolarry
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Re: Anastasia (1956)

Post by Vecchiolarry »

Hi,

I have always enjoyed all Ingrid Bergman films and was happy she won an Academy Award for this film.

However, the film does have some inaccuracies:

It says 1928 for the story line at the beginning. In that year, the Dowager Empress would not be travelling to Paris nor going to the Opera - she was in failing health from 1925 (her last public appearance in Copenhagen). This was for a memorial service in the Russian Orthodox Cathedral there for her just deceased sister, Queen Alexandra of Britain. There's a famous picture of her decending from a car helped by her Cossack bodyguard.

And, the Dowager Empress never did meet Anna Anderson; she refused to recognize any and all fakes.. Her daughter, Olga, did meet her and pronounced her false...

But of course, it's just a movie and an enjoyable one too!!!

Also, "Anastasia" has a scene where Ann Spaulding, George Hamilton's mother, walks past the camera in a huge pink flamingo cape. You just see the side and back of her very quickly.
Ann, who was a great friend of my grandmother, became an extra in the concert scene and purposefully bought that expensive cape, thinking she would be filmed coming out of a doorway and slowly walking past the camera - face and front filmed and then her walking past & away from the camera.
And, she was; and was very pleased with herself and the whole scene.
But, when the film premiered, she was only seen walking away with the back of the cape showing and was livid with Litvak, personally calling him a 'big turd' - only she didn't use the word "turd" but - well you know!!!

Anyway, don't miss her big moment!!

Larry
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mrsl
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Re: Anastasia (1956)

Post by mrsl »

,
Well, I saw this movie so long ago that I can't remember how long it was or how old I was. I do know that after seeing it, I was old enough to go to the library alone and look up the Tsar and his family, to learn how far off the movie was. I was disappointed to learn just how much of it was made up. However, after seeing it countless times ever since the first, including on T.V. with and without commercials, the made for T.V. version, and the Disney cartoon version, that doesn't stop me from wishing each time I see it, that it would end with Anna actually being the princess. That's the kind of softie I really am! Kind of not wanting Barbara to have to go off to jail at the end of Remember the Night, and Rhett Butler turning around and coming back to Scarlett. Obviously, I loved the movie and the entire cast was perfect although I kind of doubted it the first time I saw Yul Brynner, he just did not seem romantic to me until I grew up.
,
Anne


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Professional Tourist
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Re: Anastasia (1956)

Post by Professional Tourist »

Masha wrote:
Professional Tourist wrote:The only thing I don't like about Anastasia is the ending, so abrupt "go home, the play is over." To me it's an unsatisfying way to wrap up such an involving experience.
I believe the ending is perfect. I feel there is no good alternative.

It would have been disappointing and we would feel cheated if it was shown that she was a fake.

I would have been greatly disappointed to learn that she was real and then not see how he fit into her life after she assumed her position. It would require at a minimum at least an hour or two more to see that.
It was absolutely shown that Anna was real: she coughed when she was frightened and her grandmother remembered that about Anastasia as a child. There would have been no way for Anna to find out something like that and so to play-act it. It was real and she was real. But even though she was real, she chose to put aside her position to run away with Bounine and live a private married life.

My problem with the ending is that it is so abrupt and even, to me, a bit insulting -- "the play is over, go home." Like, just forget about it, we're done with you now, who cares what happens next. Indeed! I think it would be more respectful to the viewers, who have been so emotionally invested in these characters for a couple of hours, to have some kind of resolution. I haven't thought through the possibilities, but perhaps watch from a distance as the empress and prince Paul go down to the ball to tell everyone that Anna is gone and what has happened. We don't have to hear what she says; it can be as though we're watching through a window from above the ballroom. Then perhaps a scene a few months later, the empress is at home and receives a letter from Anna. After reading through it and smiling, she then reads a portion of it aloud to Livenbaum, who then makes one of her witty remarks (probably in reference to Bounine) and the empress laughs. Fade out.

Just another few minutes, that's all it would have taken to give the viewer some closure rather than to be told "go home."
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