Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna

Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (DVD) (*)

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Screened, competed or awarded at:
Emmy Awards
Golden Globes
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
Dutch ( Subtitles )
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )

Product Origin/Format:
Netherlands ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
194 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Short Film

Movie filmed in 1986 and produced in:
Austria ( Germany, Central Europe )
Italy ( Italy, Greece )
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Marvin J. Chomsky

Written By:
James Goldman
Peter Kurth (book)

Actors:
Amy Irving ..... Anna Anderson
Olivia de Havilland ..... Dowager Empress Maria
Jan Niklas ..... Prince Erich
Nicolas Surovy ..... Serge Markov
Susan Lucci ..... Darya Romanoff
Elke Sommer ..... Isabel Von Hohenstauffen
Edward Fox ..... Dr. Hauser
Claire Bloom ..... Czarina Alexandra
Omar Sharif ..... Czar Nicholas II
Rex Harrison ..... Grand Duke Cyril Romanov
Jennifer Dundas ..... Anastasia
Christian Bale ..... Alexei
Andrea Bretterbauer ..... Sonya Markov
Sydney Bromley ..... Herbert
Arnold Diamond ..... Dr. Markov

Synopsis:

This two-part TV movie recounts the life of Anna Anderson, who until the day she died at age 82 insisted that she was really Anastasia Romanov, daughter of Czar Nicholas. Anna first makes her claim in 1920, when she is an inmate in a Berlin asylum. Her story of escape from the Bolsheviks who killed the rest of her family in 1918 seems so vivid that many Russian expatriates are willing to believe her. The film concludes in 1928, with Anna restating her claim before the surviving Romanovs living in New York. Amy Irving plays the leading character in a lady-or-the-tiger fashion, so that we never know if she truly swallows her own tale or if she's merely a clever charlatan. Olivia DeHavilland, Rex Harrison, Claire Bloom, Omar Sharif and Susan Lucci co-star in this opulent, location-filmed production, which originally aired on December 7 and 8, 1986.

The film starts in December, 1916, just before the Russian Revolution, then moves to 1917's February Revolution, the family's forced move to Siberia in summer, 1917 after Nicholas II's forced abdication in March, the late-1917 Bolshevik takeover and start of the Russian Civil War and the July, 1918 mass shooting of the family. Afterwards, it revolves around Anna Anderson, who believes that she is Anastasia Romanov, daughter of Nicholas II of Russia. Anna first tells her story in the 1920s when she is an inmate in a Berlin asylum after her suicide attempt. Her story of escape from the Bolsheviks who killed the rest of her family in 1918 seems so vivid that many Russian expatriates are willing to believe her. She slowly gains more trust, but the Romanov family is very resistant to believe her tale and publicly denounces her as an impostor. The movie culminates in 1938 with Anna deciding to sue the Romanovs in Germany's courts to force them to recognize her as Anastasia, but it never reveals if Anna really is Anastasia. The ending epilogue narration says that she eventually moved back to the U.S. and settled in Charlottesville, Virginia where she died in 1984.

Story of Anna Anderson, who claimed to be Anastasia Romanov, the only "surviving" child of the last Czar and Czarina of Russia.

This product was added to our catalog on Friday 24 March, 2006.

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