Anastasia (1956)

Director:

Anatole Litvak

Writers:

Arthur Laurents (screenplay)
Marcelle Maurette (play)

Release Date:

13 December 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History

Tagline:

From the sensational Broadway stage success that had audiences crying its acclaim!

Plot:

An opportunistic Russian businessman tries to pass a mysterious impostor as the Grand Duchess Anastasia. But she is so convincing in her performance that even the biggest skeptics believe her.

Plot Keywords:

Russian History | Nostalgic | Russian Orthodox | Reflection | Russian Empire

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 3 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Ingrid Bergman	...	Anna Koreff / Anastasia
Yul Brynner	...	General Sergei Pavlovich Bounine
Helen Hayes	...	Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna
Akim Tamiroff	...	Boris Adreivich Chernov
Martita Hunt	...	Baroness Elena von Livenbaum
Felix Aylmer	...	Chamberlain
Sacha Pitoëff	...	Piotr Ivanovich Petrovin (as Sacha Pitoeff)
Ivan Desny	...	Prince Paul von Haraldberg
Natalie Schafer	...	Irina Lissemskaia / Nini
Grégoire Gromoff	...	Stepan (as Gregoire Gromoff)
Karel Stepanek	...	Mikhail Vlados
Ina De La Haye	...	Marusia (as Ina de la Haye)
Katherine Kath	...	Maxime

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | Canada:G (video rating) | USA:Approved (certificate #18293) | Finland:S | UK:U | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky - 12 Rue Daru, Paris 8, Paris, France

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

The conspiratorial trio of Bounine, Chernov, and Petrovin in the film are purely fictional.

Quotes:

General Sergei Pavlovich Bounine: [To Petrovin] Would you recognize the smile of a girl you knew ten years ago?
Piotr Ivanovich Petrovin: I didn't think of that!
General Sergei Pavlovich Bounine: You're both fools! You're examining her as if she was the real Anastasia. There is no Anastasta! She was shot to death ten years ago by a firing squad. We're not looking for her, gentlemen. We're seeking only a reasonable facsimile.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Biography: Anastasia: Her True Story" (1997)

Very positive about this film.

This is a film that should be re-released. I mean at the motion picture theaters besides video and DVD. Nothing changed. Ingrid Bergman, Helen Hayes and Yul Brynner do superlative acting performances and the direction, music and the cinematography just could not be duplicated, in my opinion.

Other films have been redone with contemporary actors, some successful and some not so.

It would be very difficult to improve on this one. I have seen this film a few times over the past forty years and I appreciate it more and more.

Wish we could have more quality cinema like it!