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gripping drama with a fairy tale ending

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.

The king and her
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).

Movie quote: "The poor have only one advantage; they know when they are loved for themselves."

(I HAVE DOZENS OF GREAT MOVIE REVIEWS)

Well, now that we know the truth...
Anatole Litvak's 1956 Anastasia was Ingrid Bergman's big comeback vehicle after being cast into the moral void for running off with Roberto Rossellini, but it's Helen Hayes' performance that really gives the film its heart and its best scenes. Now that the story of Anna Anderson's claim to the title and inheritance of Tsar Nicholas' daughter has been completely debunked by DNA tests it's more a bit of wish-fulfilment than a compelling mystery, and one that doesn't go out of its way to disguise its theatrical origins - despite the lavish CinemaScope lensing, it rarely strays outdoors unless it's absolutely necessary for a brief establishing shot. Yul Brynner and Akim Tamiroff do their party pieces (stern precision and comically nervous dishonesty) and Bergman fares much better doing imperious than impoverished in a classy production that goes down smoothly but doesn't liner long in the memory. Fox's R1 DVD suffers from an atrocious remix in the opening reel where the music and effects track are amplified while the dialog is reduced to a barely audible whisper even at full volume, a problem that doesn't affect the rest of the film but is irritating as hell while it lasts.

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