Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

Anastasia Blu-ray Movie Review

Try to remember. . .

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 30, 2016

DNA has solved any number of crimes, even providing the basis for freeing some folks who have been wrongly convicted of various bad acts. DNA analysis also finally solved one of the most intriguing mysteries of the 20th century, namely what happened to not just Nicholas and Alexandra, but perhaps more importantly at least one of their children, the Grand Duchess Anastasia. With the fall of the Soviet Union and better access to data that had evidently been there all along (if sequestered away), the remains of the Romanovs were finally found and it was definitively determined that all seven members of the erstwhile royal family were accounted for. DNA testing also finally debunked the claims of the most prominent of several pretenders to the throne (as it were), a fascinating character who went by the name Anna Anderson, though her birth name was Franziska Schanzkowska. Anna’s “story” (and it indeed turned out to be largely a work of fiction) started circulating as early as the 1920s, and parts of it at least provided fodder for a play originally written by Marcelle Maurette which was then adapted by Guy Bolton and which debuted on Broadway in late 1954, running for 272 performances. By that time, elements of Anna’s story were already rather well known, but Anastasia fictionalized many aspects of her already dubious story, making Anna’s quest to establish herself as the lost Tsarina part of a convoluted scheme to raid an extant Romanov treasury. When Anastasia made it to the screen a couple of years later, it was notable for reintroducing American audiences to Ingrid Bergman, a woman who herself had experienced a kind of ignoble exile after her supposedly scandalous affair with Roberto Rossellini led to the collapse of her (American) film career. Bergman went on to win that year’s Academy Award for Best Actress and Anastasia has continued to delight audiences who probably couldn’t care less what the “real” story turned out to be.

Years before the mystery was finally solved, I was entranced by Peter Kurth’s fascinating book about Anna Anderson (which has evidently been released under at least two titles), one which amply documented not just Anna’s long attempts to establish herself as Anastasia (both legally and “socially”, as it were), but also the rather mind bogglingly wide array of responses she engendered in those who had known the real Anastasia. While many who were intimately familiar with the Romanov family dismissed Anna as an unmitigated fraud from the get go, there were at least a few who thought that she might actually be the “lost” Tsarina, an aspect that helped to foment a certain amount of ambiguity that surrounded Anna until her dying day.

Anastasia ostensibly refuses to definitively state whether or not Anna Koreff (Ingrid Bergman) is actually Anastasia or simply an addled former inmate of an insane asylum, but there’s little doubt that Guy Bolton and Arthur Laurents’ screenplay wants the audience to believe she quite certainly is the Tsarina. The film begins in Paris, where a former Russian general named Bounine (Yul Brynner) has been alerted to the presence of a woman who bears a striking resemblance to Anastasia. Bounine and an acolyte save the troubled Anna (who is largely amnesiac) from attempting suicide on the banks of the Seine.

Bounine’s supposed heroism turns out to be self serving when it’s revealed that he knows of a large fortune left by the Tsar which an heir would be entitled to. That then colors the somewhat melodramatic plot mechanics going forward, as in a kinda sorta riff on My Fair Lady territory, Bounine attempts to “remake” Anna into a glittering princess. What brings him up short on more than one occasion is the fact that Anna has an inherent nobility which can’t be faked, and she at least periodically seems to connect with actual memories which only the real Tsarina could have known (this is still one of the more perplexing elements of Anna Anderson’s tale, as she also had access to information about Anastasia’s home life which only an “insider” should have known).

Bergman’s rather interesting persona, one which combined a steely reserve with an appealing vulnerability, serves her perfectly well in Anastasia, and gives this otherwise fairly fanciful tale a solid grounding in real human emotion. Bergman’s Anna is an obviously deeply troubled woman, one whose attempts to reconnect to her lost identity is motivated by a need for answers rather than a claim to untold riches. That aspect of the film is what tends to resonate the most strongly, even as Bolton and Laurents layer on various romantic entanglements, including an expected developing spark between Anna and Bounine, as well as with another royal interloper, Prince Paul (Ivan Desny).

David Del Valle calls Anastasia a “fairy tale” in the new commentary included on this Blu-ray as a supplement (Del Valle is a wonderful raconteur and his anecdote about Natalie Schafer when he was briefly her agent is hilarious). That's probably an apt summation of the film's general tenor, though I might add it’s a fairy tale masquerading as supposed history. It’s a big and glossy affair but it still manages to create some significant emotion, with some standout scenes between Anna and the imperious elder who might be her grandmother (Helen Hayes). Anastasia’s tale, and to a lesser extent, Anna’s, has continued to intrigue dramatists of various ilks through the years. Many will no doubt remember 1997’s animated Anastasia , as well as the 1986 television movie with Amy Irving Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (an entry which was at least relatively more faithful to Anna Anderson’s actual story). Those who are interested in the tale and who love Russian music may want to track down the Original Cast Album of the Broadway flop Anya, a short-lived 1965 musical by Wright and Forrest, a team who built much of their career out of adapting the music of classical composers into works that traversed a territory somewhere between operetta and musical. The pair had previously adapted the works of Edvard Grieg into the song score of Song of Norway and then the works of Borodin into the song score of Kismet. With Anya, the duo utilized the evocative music of Rachmaninoff to help bring the “fairy tale” of Anastasia to life.

Anastasia Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Anastasia is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.36:1. This presentation certainly improves on the DVD in terms of overall saturation and clarity, but I still found the palette slightly ruddy looking at times, something probably not helped by the DeLuxe color, which was never as bold and vivid as Technicolor. Reds can be slightly brown looking, something that also tends to affect flesh tones. Blues still resonate strongly, and part of this lack of "pop" can be ascribed to a somewhat tamped down production design, one which initially at least tends to indulge in grays and browns and other nondescript tones before Anna is "reborn" as a royal and things start to look more colorful. Detail is generally very good to excellent, though Jack Hildyard's cinematography sometimes exploits pomp over intimacy in some of his widescreen framings that were probably interpolated into the story to give it a bit more of an epic feel (see screenshot 12), with detail levels understandably falling. When close-ups are employed, fine detail is excellent in revealing some of the textures of the often stunning costumes and sets. Grain looks natural if a bit chunky at times and encounters no resolution issues. There are occasional slight stability problems, with one example at circa 32:30 where the image shifts horizontally back and forth rapidly.

Anastasia Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

One of Anastasia's crowning glories (sorry) is its Oscar nominated score by Alfred Newman, presented here as an isolated track (see the supplemental features listing) as well as in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 as part of the actual soundtrack. The old DVD of Anastasia had some sound issues which have been ameliorated here, and both soundtrack options offer Newman's sumptuous music in full bodied sound. Dialogue is also presented very cleanly and clearly and is well prioritized. The surround track nicely splays the score as well as delivering discrete channelization for various sound effects. Fidelity is top notch and there are no issues of any kind to warrant concern.

Anastasia Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Fox Movietone Newsreels (480p; 7:18) offers some archival promotional tie-ins.


• Song Demo (3:17) is a wonderful piece of film audio history with Alfred Newman at the piano and his longtime vocal collaborator Ken Darby singing.


• Original Theatrical Trailer (480p; 2:20) is presented with either its original soundtrack or an isolated score track, the first time in my recollection that Twilight Time has offered something like this.


• Audio Commentaries

  Screenwriter Arthur Laurents, Actor James MacArthur, Film Historians Jon Burlingame and Sylvia Stoddard

  David Del Valle with Twilight Time's Julie Kirgo

• Isolated Score Track is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 3.0. There's some music here that didn't make it to the final cut of the film.

Anastasia Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As history, Anastasia is fanciful at best, but when contrasting it with what might be considered its nearest cinematic counterpart, Nicholas and Alexandra, it has emotion to spare. That is due almost entirely to the wonderful performances, especially from Bergman, Brynner and Hayes, though no one in the rather large supporting cast is anything less than wonderful. The film is probably a bit too glitzy to come off as anything other than a lush romance, but it offers a nicely romantic "version" of events which should appeal to those with a wistful bent. Technical merits are very good to excellent, and the two commentaries on the Blu-ray are each fun to listen to. Recommended.