Anna

This film is all about Kirkland's performance, which is still one of the best performances I've ever seen on film. She was nominated for an Oscar but lost to Geraldine Page for The Trip to Bountiful in one of those sympathy votes going to the lesser performance things (Page had been nominated without winning something like eight times prior, so a lot of people in the Academy probably thought it was time to give her something). Porizkova does pretty well for her debut performance, but then again she was pretty much playing herself as an eastern European beauty who is discovered and becomes a model.

But I'm writing this review solely to give Kirkland the praise she deserves for her terrific performance.

Sally Kirkland is standout in this character driven drama. This film is what great films are all about, they tell great stories about people and get you thinking.

The script is fantastic and Kirkland is heart breaking. The film should be far better remembered than it is and film schools should use it in class.

Kirkland should have won the Oscar and had the film had better distribution and some more money behind it, she would have, but CHER had a huge campaign behind her for Moonstruck.

Kirkland is under rated and her two best roles since ANNA have failed to get distribution:

What's up Scarlet and Norma Jean, Jack, and Me.

A must see for film fans and those who love actors...

what makes this film worth watching, other than the unrecognized talent of sally kirkland, is the authentic feel of lower new york and the off broadway scene. the ending is not what i expected and i appreciate the fact that someone knows how to write an ending that makes you think about what you just saw and feel somehting for the characters that you have to think about before you decide exactly what you felt. i saw this film several years after its release and i think if i could vote the oscars now i would vote it in lead actress, screenplay and cinemotagraphy. an excellent film proving creativity not money is what makes something worth watching on screen. 3 and 1/2 stars. timelessly moving

ANNA is a very uneven film BUT Sally Kirkland's performance is not. Shame that more people didnt see if they did she might have gotten an Academy Award. Fortunately she was nominated.

I found it quite absorbing. I haven't seen it since 1988 or so. I remember Paulina Porizkova was a pretty famous model back then, pre-supermodel days. I was deeply struck by the relationship between the two woman. Youth and middle-age. The incredible losses of not only youth, but of possibility and love are touched on in a way very rarely seen in movies. Especially from a woman's point of view. The mentoring of the younger woman and then the incredible sense of loss when she is whisked away by public reaction to her beauty and then actually takes on the painful past of her mentor, in a way steals it is incredibly moving. You end up feeling for Kirkland's character because she seems to have greater depth than the younger woman, but at the same time is that just the result of age and circumstance? And the poignant relationship to her lost image and the contacts and opportunity that her youthful beauty once promised her. Now she is alone and forgotten in a foreign land. It is pretty incredible.