Anastasia (1956 film)

Anastasia is a 1956 American historical drama film directed by Anatole Litvak. Set in interwar France, the film follows the story of a suicidal amnesiac Ingrid Bergman, whose remarkable resemblance to the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia the youngest daughter of the late Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, who is rumored to have survived the execution of her family draws her into a plot devised by the former White Russian General Bounine Yul Brynner and his associates to swindle from the Grand Duchess an inheritance ofmillion. However, the ultimate hurdle to their plan is the exiled Russian aristocracy in particular the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna Helen Hayes whom their handpicked claimant must convince of her legitimacy if they wish for their scheme to succeed.

Ten years of turmoil have passed since the teenage Anastasia and her family parents, sisters and brother were presumed to have been killed by Bolshevik revolutionaries. Does the refugee Anna who has turned up in Paris have the bearing, speech, and intimate knowledge of the imperial family that the real grand duchess would have? Or is she merely a recovering amnesiac with a striking resemblance who has been cleverly groomed by the migr General Bounine Brynner to stake a claim tomillion pounds left by the Tsar in an English bank? In a series of encounters with former familiars and members of the imperial court, Anna begins to display a confidence and style that astonish her skeptical interlocutors, yet retains our sympathy by seeming more interested in recovering her own identity than the imperial bank account. In a climactic meeting with the Empress in Copenhagen, Anna and the Empress take the measure of each other, alternately projecting imperial selfpossession and the anguish of family longing. Meanwhile, Bounine has become increasingly jealous of the attentions the fortunehunting Prince Paul pays to Anna. At a grand ball at which her engagement to Paul is to be announced, the Empress has a private word with AnnaAnastasia, who subsequently elopes with Bounine.The movie was adapted by Guy Bolton and Arthur Laurents from the play by Bolton and Marcelle Maurette. The structure of the play can still be detected in the static settings and theatrical scenes of the cinematic version, which has additional, essentially decorative ball scenes. ........

Source: Wikipedia