Anastasia

This is a great movie with fabulous performances by Brynner, Bergman, and Hayes. My one complaint is not about the movie, but the videotape. Litvak made a beautiful movie and used every inch of the screen. There are multiple scenes where the three principals are located left, right, and center. With pan-and-scan you can never see more than two of them at a time. This movie deserves to be re-released in its original aspect; better yet, release it on DVD. But go ahead and see it; you will be moved by the story.

Bergman is charming as an amnesiac young woman who is recruited by Brynner to impersonate the daughter of the late czar. Bergman won her second Oscar for her portrayal. Brynner is good as the exiled Russian who tries to bring her back into a world she once may have known and Hayes is stand out as the grand dutchess who strives to find the truth behind this girls' credentials. Crisp direction from Anatole Litvak and a lively supporting cast of Akim Tamiroff make this a simply ravishing 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!

I've loved this movie for... I don't know how long. I must have seen this movie about fifty times !!

First of all it's a great story; The mystery surrounding Anastasia. Second of all, it contains such brilliant actors: Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner, Helen Hayes, Matita Hunt etc.

I've always loved Ingrid Bergman - and still do. But when I saw this movie it was another actress who captured me - Helen Hayes. She gives an absolutely outstanding performance as the old dowager empress. I was totally carried away ! And then came that scene... You who have seen this movie knows exactly what scene I'm talking about: The confrontation-scene between the old empress and Anastasia at the hotel.

I can assure everyone who hasn't yet seen this movie, that this is the best and most well-played scene in the entire movie history ! There is no doubt about it. You just have to see the movie and this scene for yourself. I guarantee that you'll agree with me. You really have to promise me; Do not miss Helen Hayes, who truly IS the empress - of this movie!

I just got one question before I go: How can it be that Helen Hayes isn't a more famous actress ??? I've never seen anything like that performance !

Not the most accurate rumination on whether or not Anna was really Anastasia, perhaps, but creamy, expensive entertainment, expertly done. Many share in the credit. There's a witty, epigrammatic screenplay by the always reliable Arthur Laurents (love that closing line, and most of Helen Hayes' dialogue) that manages to speculate perceptively on the nature-of-performance theme without beating it into the ground; an evocative Alfred Newman score that surpasses virtually anything else he did at Fox; fine CinemaScope photography that really uses the outer reaches of the screen, though it does dabble in spectacle for spectacle's sake at times; a superb Hayes (she could be theatrically actressy or resort to little-old-lady tricks in other movies, but here she's the real deal); a delightful Martita Hunt; and chemistry between Ingrid Bergman and Yul Brynner that suggests all the underlying sexual tension without ever stating it explicitly. Also knock-your-eye-out costume design. In a time of rampant Hollywood bloat and slow-moving epics, this one moves along, without too much pretension. And Anatole Litvak's direction, while no great shakes, is nicely paced.