C'era una volta una principessa

I saw this movie just yesterday on "Liftetime", and immediately I wanted to know where I could buy it. I was attracted to it at first because of Melissa Gilbert, as she is my favorite actress, but the uniqueness and romance of the film is what kept me interested. I enjoy love stories, and this was a wonderful one. It gave me a new understanding of what effect war has on family and friends of those who fight in it. I truly enjoyed this movie, I recommend it very highly.

Danielle Steels's Zoya creates a deep mark in mind. The director has got an astonishing style of portraying the tragic events in the story.At first I realised it when I saw the dying scene of Zoya's military brother. Zoya is telling him that I am going to bake cakes for you.And the dying man says 'Little Zoya, I am not hungry'.This is really heartbreaking.

The script of the movie has a magical way for directly piercing the heart.When Zoya lost her husband and money,we hear from her son telling about their old neighbour, 'She don't want to remember us, because we don't have money'.

Later at a point we see Zoya who is hunted by tragedies, going to the streets with her children.Her friend asks her ' You have future plans?' And she replies, 'Someone once said, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans' The film's story is fascinating.The anguish of Zoya is handled with a graceful care. It shows the power of mind and love in a woman.It is really worth seeing.

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I have always liked Melissa Gilbert and have watched every movie she is in, whenever possible. I especially liked this movie as Melissa was starring with her husband Bruce Boxleitner. This is a feel good movie of triumph over adversity. Melissa is great with her accent as a Russian Countess and actually losing her accent as the years roll by. If you want to curl up to a chick flick with no violence or swearing, then this is the movie for you. Sometimes us women don't want death and blood and gore in a movie, we just want a simple love story about a woman who is strong enough to live in a man's world. I loved this movie and hope that Melissa makes more of this calibre. Thank you Melissa Gilbert for your hard work.

Well, it is. A very romanticized version of life of aristocrats in exile. The funniest moment was when Zoya revealed that she brought the Faberge egg with her into Communist Russia. It would have been confiscated on the border as a national treasure, she wouldn't even have been compensated.

Zoya herself has too many late-20th century values for my tastes. Like her wanting to be a dancer, when most dancers of her culture and era were, in fact, courtesans. Her marrying a jewish man, while tsarist russia was very antisemitic. Well, it's a cute fairy tale anyway.

For someone who has read the book, I find this movie version such a mis-representation of the characters. The film's Zoya is so different from the dignified Countess Zoya of the book; in the film, she is a talkative chatterbox much like the Russian bride stereotype of nowadays. The storyline is also very different from the book - as can be expected. However the central plot remains the same, overcoming tragedy and learning to appreciate the good things of live - especially family and the people we love. All in all, I would recommend the film to anyone, if only for the history learnt from the different generations that are spanned in the movie.