Anastasia (1956)
- kbroer
- Nov 8, 2024
- 2 min read
Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner, Helen Hayes
Directed by Anatole Litvak
Available to stream on Prime Video
Our next film is another favorite from 1956 - Anastasia. In 1928 Paris a group of exiled Russians led by General Bounine (Yul Brynner) conspires to collect the Romanov fortune by passing off an amnesiac homeless woman (Ingrid Bergman) as the Grand Duchess Anastasia, daughter of the late Tsar of Russia.
Why we love it: It's a wonderful story, based on the historical rumors that one of the Tsar's daughters survived when the family were shot in 1918. It has a brilliant cast, with Ingrid Bergman in an Oscar-winning performance, Helen Hayes in an Oscar nominated performance, and Yul Brynner at his best. There are some beautiful moments in the scenes with Ingrid Bergman and Helen Hayes, and an interesting twist to the ending of the story, which Helen Hayes rounds off with "The play is over. Go home." Quite a satisfying movie watching experience.
Fun Facts:
This was Ingrid Bergman's first movie for an American studio in seven years (although it was filmed in Europe). She had essentially been blacklisted from Hollywood since 1949 when she went to Italy to make a movie with Italian director Roberto Rossellini. She and Rossellini had an affair (while both still married to other people) and their son was born out of wedlock because Bergman's first husband, Petter Lindstrom, wouldn't give her a divorce. Lindstrom gained custody of his and Bergman's ten-year-old daughter and essentially kept her from seeing her mother. The hatred that spewed from the American public toward Bergman was intense. She was even denounced on the floor of the Senate as "a powerful influence for evil." With this film Hollywood welcomed her back, but she wouldn't actually film a movie in Hollywood until Cactus Flower in 1969. Bergman finally received an apology from the Senate in 1972.
Ingrid won her second Oscar for Best Actress for her role as Anastasia. Her friend Cary Grant accepted the award for her.
Yul Brynner won the Academy Award for Best Actor not for his role in this film but for his other starring role that same year in The King and I (1956).
The movie is based on the story of real-life Anna Anderson, a woman who claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia, but whose claim was eventually proved false in 1970.
For more reviews and articles from the time, go to the Fan Magazine Reviews page.
Featured Cocktail:
Empress Q1908
The flavor inspiration for Empress 1908 Indigo Gin, developed in 2016, came from the afternoon tea service at the Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia. The gin's unique color comes from one of its botanicals—butterfly pea blossom. The color changes depending on the ingredients it is mixed with.
2 oz (60 ml) Empress 1908 gin
¾ oz (25 ml) lemon juice
1 Tbsp (15 ml) sugar syrup
¾ oz (22 ½ ml) egg white
Add all ingredients except egg white to a shaker with ice. Shake and strain to remove ice. Add the egg white and shake again without the ice. Carefully pour into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with edible flowers if available.
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