Anastasia (1956) Movie Script

Hey, driver! Oh!
- Happy Easter, Excellency.
- What is it you want, Stepan?
Could you drive to the Kasbek and ask
General Bounine to come here immediately?
Isn't it too late for the Church
to save that master of yours?
- Twenty-five francs?
- No. Ten.
On Easter night? Twenty.
- Fifteen, Excellency.
- All right, Stepan.
- Happy Easter to you.
- Please. Hurry.
- Leave it to me.
- It's very urgent. Please.
Look, Bob.
Don't you adore Russian food?
Faster! Faster!
Faster! General...
- I'm just mad for your place.
- It's always a pleasure to see you here, madame.
General Bounine, my husband.
Excuse me, General. The Count Beresoff
is waiting outside in his taxi.
- He has a message for you.
- From Stepan?
- Yes. He says it is urgent.
- I'll be right out.
Will you forgive me
for just a moment?
- Is she here?
- Yes, sir.
- Where?
- Over there. By the tree.
- Are you sure?
- Yes, Excellency.
All right. Wait here.
Happy Easter.
Happy Easter, Anna Koreff.
It is Anna Koreff. Or at least, so you
were called in the asylum at St. Cloud.
- You see the resemblance?
- No more than 100 women might have.
There is nothing to fear,
I promise you.
- Why do you always run away?
- Always questions. I've lost the answers.
Perhaps if you hadn't told the nun who
you were, there wouldn't be any questions.
- Who am I?
- Grand Duchess Anastasia, I believe.
In an asylum,
a nun might be mad.
- It's contagious.
- Then you do admit that you were in that asylum, don't you?
Stepan, are you positive she is
the same woman you saw in St. Cloud?
- Yes, sir.
- Come on.
Let me go, please!
Let me go!
The General said to wait for him
at the usual place.
Wait! How do you like that?
The nerve of that Bounine.
- Didn't he leave us a message?
- Yes. He said he'd be back shortly.
Late! Always late.
- Petrovin, the hour has arrived for me to tell...
- I know.
You only tell me what
you're going to tell Bounine.
Still, be happy now. In one week,
you shall be telling it in prison.
Petrovin, I forbid that word.
- I didn't hear it.
- It's the logical end to what was always a ridiculous scheme.
Ridiculous scheme, huh? But your eyes
lit up like those of a mad monk...
when you heard our tsar's daughter
might be alive.
- That was ridiculous.
- And yours lit up...
when you heard he had
a 10 million inheritance.
- Equally ridiculous.
- Not equally.
The 10 million lie waiting
in the Bank of England.
But the Grand Duchess Anastasia
Nicolaevna lies buried in Russia.
- Vodka?
- No, thank you. My digestion has been shocking...
ever since Bounine decided
to form our corporation.
Bounine decided?
The idea was mine!
My years of banking experience
are for nothing, huh?
I devised the method of
selling shares to stockholders...
to pay for the search for
their beloved grand duchess.
I worked out the ratio of
so many shares in her inheritance...
to so many shares of our stock.
- And my advice...
- I know! Bounine was nothing.
Bounine was nothing...
Good evening, comrades.
If the term doesn't grate
on your White Russian ears.
- Huh? Oh, I'm sorry. L...
- Excuse me.
- The meeting is called to order.
- "Called to order. "Just like that?
May we have
the financial report, please?
- The financial...
- Yes, the financial report.
- There's another report, General.
- All in due time, Petrovin. Go ahead, Chernov.
As of today, our treasury
shows assets...
of, uh, here... exactly 5,250 francs.
That new suit looks
very well on you, Chernov.
Am I wrong, or were there not some
9,000- odd francs at our last meeting?
My dear general,
may I ask you...
May I ask you what paid for
this club of yours?
15,000 francs from
the stockholders, that's what!
- We live in one room, Petrovin and I...
- Two.
- We share the bedroom.
- This is not a meeting on your housing problem.
- Proceed with the accounts.
- Housing problem, hmph!
Umm, 275 francs
to Natalya Yakovski...
formerly dressmaker
to the Imperial family.
Paid for the information received
on clothes and measurements.
- I see you have made good use of the information.
- I drew it myself.
- Those are her exact measurements.
- The crown is a nice touch.
Yeah.
A face would be a better one.
It's all too late now!
We're facing disaster.
As a son of the former deacon to His
Majesty's court, you should have more faith.
I wish my poor father,
bless his soul, had had less.
All right, Chernov, please.
Give him the news.
I would rather have his first.
- Mine?
- I know that smile.
I'll bet you have another
of your brilliant surprises for us.
- Never mind. What happened, Petrovin?
- Chernov was called...
I was summoned by
the stockholder's committee.
- Oh, how kind of them.
- Kind, huh?
Old General Anikin came
straight to the point.
"Years ago," he said, "rumors started that
the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicolaevna...
"daughter of His Imperial Majesty
Nicholas II...
"had not been murdered with
the rest of the royal family...
"but had escaped
miraculously.
"Ayear ago," he went on, "you and your
friends came to us with the claim...
"you knew Her Highness
was somewhere in Berlin.
Then you said you found
her, but she ran away. "
Was it then we thought of
using the redhead?
- No, no, the one who was always giggling.
- Ah yes, the redhead came later.
- Go ahead.
- "Then," he said, "you needed more money to find her.
"Again we subscribed. Then you said
you found her, but she was too sick.
- More money. "
- Too sick?
- Oh, that was Galina. Too stupid.
- "How long can she be sick, Chernov?
How much money can you drain
from our thin pockets, Chernov?"
- How much have they got, Chernov?
- The joke is on us, General.
- They give us exactly eight days.
- Eight days for what?
Eight days to produce Her Highness,
the Grand Duchess Anastasia.
- Or we go to prison for fraud.
- For fraud!
- Well, it has taken them long enough.
- Is that all you can say?
It really sickens me how
you let him make you suffer...
how you like to suffer...
and you delight in making him suffer.
Not particularly. I merely
thought it advisable...
to determine exactly
what our situation was...
- before suggesting how to deal with it.
- What did I tell you?
All right, General.
Let's have your surprise. Where is she?
- Where is who?
- The woman Stepan saw in the asylum in St. Cloud!
Correct. We have
finally tracked her down.
- Really?
- No!
- Of course, she does not admit that she was there.
- No.
- Really?
- Nor does she admit that she told a nun there...
- that she was the tsar's daughter.
- What does she admit?
- Nothing. I think she may be lying.
- Then why do you believe...
But the important thing is that
properly used, she may serve our purpose.
- How?
- She has certain surprising features.
- Such as?
- You will see.
She also has a rather
intriguing strangeness.
Of course, that may be
simply the result of amnesia.
Him and his surprises.
If he were looking for a grand duke...
- he wouldn't find so many.
- Stepan!
Bring her in.
Come over here.
Don't worry.
These two gentlemen are friends.
Here. Sit down.
How about a glass of vodka?
It'll do you good.
Thank you.
There's nothing to fear.
They merely want to examine you.
Examine? Are they doctors?
- They don't help.
- Doctors? No.
- They are not doctors.
- No, no. We should have kept the redhead.
The tsar's daughter
drinks like a cossack.
- May I have a cigarette?
- Sure. Here.
- Where am I?
- I told you. With friends.
- Strange.
- What?
- The resemblance to the other.
- Yes. Both female.
Have you gentlemen considered
what she went through?
The streets, probably.
I can imagine her walk.
- Stand up.
- What did you say?
Ho, ho, ho!
I said, "Stand up. "
We would like to see you walk
over to there, if you please.
Mm, no. At least with the redhead,
we could have dyed her hair.
But a walk? The grand duchesses
learned with books on their heads.
- You could recognize them
by their carriage alone.
Oh. Stone walls.
What's she talking about?
- Chernov?
That bookkeeper who nearly ruined you
twelve years ago in the forgery affair...
Would you recognize
his walk today?
Would you recognize the smile
of a girl you knew ten years ago?
- I didn't think of that.
- You are both fools.
You're examining her as if
she was the real Anastasia.
There is no Anastasia.
She was shot to death ten years ago
by a firing squad.
We're not looking for her,
gentlemen.
We're seeking only
a reasonable facsimile.
Reasonable, yes.
But that is unreasonable.
Please. Let's be constructive.
- What will the committee say?
- Most of them have seen the original.
- How?
At a court ball, from a balcony?
In church, by candlelight,
flickering shadows?
Yes, you saw her.
Many saw her. From a distance.
- Or in the newspapers.
- What about the servants? Some of them are here in exile.
They saw her through devoted tears,
and they will again.
- All right, and the family...
- The family? If it was the immediate family...
I would not try it...
but they are dead.
And do you have faith in the memories
of uncles, aunts, cousins?
- I don't.
- You have faith in nothing.
They will closet themselves in their bedrooms,
and secretly peer at yellow photographs...
- which that woman will resemble.
- That?
Yes, that. Rouge will turn
the mouth up a bit.
Some powder, a new coiffure.
Dresses to suggest
the other period.
Walk, manner, voice
taught along with faces, names, places.
It would be easier if we
could present her to the committee...
- lying in her coffin.
- Yes, no questions, no answers, no mistakes.
- No money, either.
- I know. Now I know!
- Know what?
- It's a cellar. You brought me down here to shoot me!
- Are you mad? This is absurd.
- It's a cellar!
- Sit down. Sit down, I said!
- No!
Pretty good, pretty good.
- A little more rehearsal, perhaps.
- What?
He told her how the real one
was shot in a cellar and instructed...
Don't be stupid.
I told her nothing.
The woman can undoubtedly read.
And certainly, enough has been written
describing their death in the cellar.
- Some say she did not die.
- Huh? Where did you get that?
He just said so: From a book,
or a story I was told.
- A rumor, a whisper.
- Or it happened.
It did not, and that woman
is too... too something.
Too crazy, too clever,
too tricky.
I don't care what she is.
The important thing is that she fits.
Get up. Go over there.
- What is it?
- Just a drawing. Stand closer.
Turn around.
- The correct height.
- "The correct height!"
Yes. The crown might
belong on her head.
A drawing of whom?
Who is it?
A princess. A Russian
grand duchess who died in 1918.
A princess!
G...
Petrovin, a glass of water.
- It's all right.
- It's all right, Petrovin. Her Highness is better.
- Don't call me that!
- How well you hear.
And how well you know how to use
what you hear, and when.
It was you who told the nun that
you were the Grand Duchess Anastasia.
- Sick people get sick ideas.
- Then you were in that asylum in St. Cloud.
And before that, in Berlin.
- Let me out of here!
- You know you were.
You were and you weren't,
and why and why not?
Questions like that
can only be answered by lies.
- Let me go, let me go!
- Stop it! Stop it!
No. No. Please.
Please, don't. Don't!
- Look at her hand. Go on, look.
- What?
Well, he wants us to look.
All right. Come.
Now, come under the light.
Sit down.
Open your hands.
I told you there were
surprising features.
- On the palm of each hand, a scar.
- As from bullets.
Now, look at her head.
Above the left temple.
A narrow depression, extending
almost to the forehead.
- Just as we were told.
- Where did you get those scars?
A gift from an unknown admirer.
- Where?
- I don't remember.
Wounds like that
and you don't remember?
- Huh! Who are you?
- No one.
- Who are your parents?
- None.
- Where are you from?
- The river.
- Before that?
- A madhouse.
- And before that?
- Another river, and another madhouse.
Oh, come on now.
Who are you?
- You tell me.
- You must be someone!
- Why?
- Nobody, nothing, no one!
- Incredible.
- But most convenient for us.
All right, gentlemen.
Come over here. Add up the facts.
One: She has a certain resemblance,
which we can heighten.
Two: She's obviously smart enough
to learn what we teach.
Discrepancies in her memory can be
attributed to the head wound.
Three: She has
no identity whatsoever.
Which means it will be exceedingly difficult
for anyone to prove she's someone else.
- Four... precisely.
- We have eight days.
All in favor of the candidate...
two to one, elected.
Two to one elected.
Do you realize there are
10 million at stake?
- Ten million?
- Yes, my dear. The inheritance of 10 million...
left by the tsar
in the Bank of England!
And you want to risk it all
on a madwoman.
I must still be in the asylum...
with the one who sat covered and crouched
on the floor because she wasn't born yet.
It's you who are mad!
I'll have no part of this.
Now, now, my dear. The carriage
of the head not quite so high.
Grand duchesses are proud,
but also modest.
- They are to be killed, not to be sold.
- There you are!
Mad as a hatter! Now she
really thinks she is Anastasia.
- I do not! I am not.
- But you can be.
- I can make you Anastasia.
- She is dead. You said so.
- That doesn't matter.
- Please, please. No one will believe it.
- The family. They'll call the lie.
- No matter, they will accept you.
For 10 million, gladly.
They would accept me, and
pretend to love me for money?
- Is that what they are like? No. I'm going.
- Isn't everyone?
- Where? To the river or the madhouse?
- You have no papers.
The police will
pick you up soon enough.
- If you don't die of starvation sooner.
- Oh, come, come.
Why then did you tell
those stories in the hospital?
To the little nun?
Her eyes grew big as a child's.
But then, in the evening,
she brought me special things to eat.
- An orange, or some grapes.
- We can bring you much more.
But in another hospital I told other
stories, and they believed them, too.
Especially the one
where the train blew up.
We were too close
to where the mine was planted...
so when the train hit it, pieces of
metal fell like a shower of fireworks...
all about us.
The man beside me was killed,
and the man beside him, too.
But I was only wounded.
Oh. So that's how
you got those scars.
Yes, so it would seem.
I thought
you couldn't remember.
L- I can't, always. Things come and go.
- Like waves of mist.
- But look, to be her is what you want, what we want.
Even what
the royal family wants.
So I've heard before. All of it.
Say this, remember that.
You are, you are not.
I know you, I don't know you...
- Oh, I've heard it many times.
- Where?
- Bucharest, Berlin...
- Berlin?
China, I don't remember!
But the enthusiasm and
the promises, those I remember.
And then
when memory failed:
Disappointment, anger, dismissal!
Out in the street,
failure, fake, nobody!
There you're wrong. There will not
be failure this time. Not with me.
Now, listen. You want to know
who you are, don't you?
Oh, yes.
You want to find the family
to whom you belong, don't you?
Yes, yes.
By yourself, you are lost.
But with me, you will find yourself.
Oh, please, I...
I'm tired.
You know I am right. The album. Take
the chance! It's the only one you have.
Oh, I'm too tired to argue.
You don't have to do anything.
I will do it all.
Now, here. Look.
It's you on the deck
of your father's yacht.
- The Standart?
- The Standart?
- You know the name?
- It's written on the lifeboat.
Oh, yes. Now, here you are
with your family:
Your father the tsar, your mother,
your sisters, your little brother.
- My family.
- And here.
Look.
1913. The anniversary of
the House of Romanov. 300 years.
There they are on the balcony
of the Winter Palace:
And that little girl, there...
- that is you.
- Thousands kneeling.
Singing, "God Save the Tsar. "
- The people. Your people.
- Yes. Yes.
- You can see it, can't you?
- Yes, I can.
And now, may I present your staff:
Boris Andreivich Chernov.
Formerly of St. Petersburg.
Banker.
Piotr Ivanovich Petrovin. Former
student of the theological seminary.
Sergei Pavlovich Bounine...
General of the Tcherkess Regiment,
former aide- de- camp...
attached to the person of
His Imperial Majesty, Nicholas II...
Tsar of all Russia.
Then I...
I am Her Imperial Highness...
the Grand Duchess
Anastasia Nicolaevna.
Now, once more.
"Awakened in the middle of the night
and taken down to the cellar.
- "And then, without warning... "
- "... guards appeared in the doorway...
"and began firing.
- One fainted, shielded by the body of her sister. "
- Which sister?
- Was it Olga?
- Right.
Yes. A white dress.
Then darkness.
"One of the executioners
crashed down with his rifle.
"Later, two brothers were among
the guards that came into the cellar...
"to remove the dead.
- "One of the bodies moved.
- Hers.
"Hidden in a farm cart
under straw...
"wrapped in sheets
filled with snow for her fever.
"They fled across the country...
bribed guards with jewels
sewn into her blouse. "
- Skirt.
- Was it?
"And they made their way to... "
- I don't know. Balta.
- Balta.
And from there
across the Romanian border to...
Bucharest.
- And there?
- There?
There she died of heartbreak...
and was thrown into the sea...
to the strains of
an old Russian waltz.
It was all quite good
up to the end.
This icon. You're supposed
to have seen it before.
- Remember? Where was it?
- In my mother's bedroom.
She was very religious, and she
placed holy pictures everywhere.
- Right.
- And books, and albums...
just like these, scattered about,
overflowing the tables.
There was a sitting room between
the bedroom of my mother and my fa...
Oh, no, that was that little reading
room in the hospital. How silly.
- More coffee? She won't sleep.
- She hasn't got time.
I don't very much anyway,
but thank you.
All right.
- Where were we? Oh, yes. Your mother.
- Don't get excited.
But I know what I'm talking about!
We have exactly three days left.
Let us worry about
one thing at a time.
One thing at a time.
- All right, Piotr Ivanovich, I'll take over.
- I think she's very tired.
No, I've had my coffee. Besides, it
all helps to bring my memory back.
And maybe one memory
will convince someone.
Even if it's only me.
Where did you live
in the winter?
- The Winter Palace, St. Petersburg.
- Right. Spring?
Spring?
I don't remember.
- Tsarskoie Selo.
- Tsarskoie Selo.
- Summer?
- Peterhof. Livadia.
- Preferred for the sea air.
- Hunting seat.
- Spala. In Poland.
- Where?
- Piotr Ivanovich.
- And on the Baltic?
No luck, General.
The commit...
- In Moscow, you stayed...
... at the Kremlin.
Sergei Pavlovich, no. The committee
will not give us even one more day.
- You think she's ready?
- No.
- Of course, she thinks she is.
- Oh! Listen, she thinks she's Anastasia.
And the great Stanislavski once said,
when an actor believes he is...
- the character he's playing, fire him.
- It's a bit late for that.
It's a bit late for anything.
The eight days are finished.
The play is finished.
We are finished.
- The play is merely being replaced by a pantomime.
- Huh?
Our leading lady will be very weak,
exhausted, too sick to talk.
- With careful staging,
the committee will be satisfied.
And careful casting. Her Imperial
Highness will be too weak...
to see any more than,
let us say, six members.
- Why six?
- Three stupid enough to accept even you as Anastasia...
three important enough to spread
the news that she is Anastasia.
Your Highness, may I present
a few members of our colony here...
who, as I told you are anxious
to see you for just a moment.
His Excellency,
Count Ilia Feodorovich Bechmetieff...
and his brother,
Count Andreikovich Bechmetieff.
His Excellency,
Court Assessor Schischkin.
- Schischkin.
- What?
Your Imperial Highness.
His Excellency, Von Drivnitz.
- It's very rude to stare.
- Forgive me.
Difficult to say.
Madame de Lissenskaia.
Come closer. No.
You, please.
I think I know you. Were you not
a lady-in-waiting to my mother?
Many people know that,
I'm afraid.
I'm trying to remember more.
When I was a child, I used to watch
the faces of the ladies-in-waiting...
to see if they were wearing lip rouge...
my mother did not allow makeup, so I...
I was not mean, just...
just mischievous.
I used to report to her.
What was it my mother
used to call you?
Shura? No. Zina.
I'm sorry, it escaped my...
Nini. Yes, Nini.
Your Highness!
Your Imperial Highness!
- What's the matter? Don't you like my borscht?
- No.
Too bad. The General says
you have to eat it.
- She won't eat!
- All right, go.
This entire household, everything has
been turned upside down just for you.
To make you comfortable,
to help you get well.
- I don't like borscht.
- I don't care whether you like it or not. Eat it.
I specifically warned you not to say
one word to that committee.
You could have ruined everything.
- I told you about Nini, didn't I?
- Maybe, I don't know.
Yes, I did, or Petrovin did, or you
overheard us. But the important thing...
Are you angry because you're
beginning to wonder who I am?
Or because you want me to do
nothing except what you tell me?
I know who you are not, just as I know
that unless you do as I tell you...
I'll have an extra
cigarette girl at my club.
We now have a breathing spell
we need badly.
You still have a great deal to learn to
achieve what we have agreed. Understand?
Yes, I understand,
Excellency.
Then finish your dinner and get to bed.
Work begins again in the morning.
- And now, royal etiquette.
- All right? One.
One, two, three, four.
A queen.
- Your Majesty.
- A prince of royal blood.
- Your Highness.
- A prince of ordinary station outside of the royal family.
Prince, I suppose, or Your Excellency.
- Cabinet ministers of...
- This is absurd!
- Even Anna Koreff would know all of it.
- Pick up the book.
- But why do I need it?
- Pick up the book.
Put it on your head,
and walk over there.
You don't seem to realize
that the gesture, the grace...
- the carriage of a true daughter
of a tsar... cannot be taught.
Either she learns as a child how to hold
herself, or it's too late, Excellency.
- Did she like to play as a child?
- No.
- But your mother wanted you to.
- I still don't like it.
My hands don't have
the strength anymore.
All right, we can use
that as an explanation.
But listen to this.
Now, this is important.
Your tutor wanted you to learn this,
to prove to your mother...
That the lessons were not in vain.
Did I ever learn it?
Yes, but you hated it.
Mm, mm, mm
I like it now.
It's quite pretty.
Now around. That's it.
Once more.
All right. Now the Polonaise.
- Can't I rest?
- Yes, after dinner. Here we go.
- I can't!
- You will. Head up.
Back straight.
One, two, three.
One, two, three, one, two, three.
- Please.
- Please concentrate.
- And one, two, three, one, two, three...
- My feet hurt. I can't anymore.
- A little rest.
- There is no time. The waltz, Petrovin. Come on.
I'm sure you won't mind doing this.
This is the waltz you like so much.
The back, the back.
With ease, style...
Didn't you say the other day
it reminded you of something?
Yes, of my first boy.
- And your first love, no doubt.
- Yes.
- Who was he?
- I can't remember.
Was he fair, or was he
dark with a mustache?
I don't know. One day
he's fair, the next he's dark.
I don't know.
One, two, three, one, two, three,
one, two, three, one, two, three.
- What are you doing here?
- Oh, I can't anymore.
I don't know who I am anymore.
I don't know what I remember,
and what I've been told I remember.
- What is real? Am I?
- Anna...
Anna. Am I Anna?
Why not Tamara, why not Lisa?
Why not Tatiana?
Yes, why not Tatiana?
I can't anymore.
I want to be me, whoever I am.
I want to be me! I want someone
to tell me, someone to accept me.
You have been working very hard,
and you're overtired.
- But we're almost finished now.
- Are you?
- Well, then you know who I am?
- A good night's sleep...
- But you must know. You must!
- Just go to bed.
- No, I'm leaving! I'm leaving! L...
- Stop it!
Go to bed at once!
My father was very strict.
I did not like to obey,
but he was ringmaster in a circus.
General Bounine?
- Yes?
- Who am I?
I don't know.
- Excellencies
Countess Iliana Petrovna...
- and Prince Tigantseff.
- My dear madame!
Her Highness and the general
will be here shortly.
May I thank you again
for all of us for what you're doing.
Oh, I should not be thanked. It makes me
happy to do anything that will help restore...
- what is rightfully...
- Yes.
Oh, Excellency!
I cannot tell you how important
your presence is here today.
My dear Irina, I promised your
late father I'd keep an eye on you.
And occasionally,
it's a little trying.
I promise you will not
regret coming.
That's a promise you may
have some difficulty in keeping.
- May I sit down?
- Oh, do, please.
- This abominable gout.
- This way.
Albert, a chair for His Excellency.
Take care of His Excellency.
You know how he is.
- Baron and Baroness Royalvich.
- The old fox himself.
- I never thought he would come.
- Well...
we may wish he hadn't.
How many are you taking?
- People will think you're hungry.
- Hungry?
I'm not hungry, I'm nervous.
No, thank you.
His Excellency, Count Marzumov.
- Xenia!
- Grischa!
I must say,
a truly wonderful occasion!
- Yes. Red caviar.
- What?
- You mean...
- Yes.
- If the caviar were real...
... she would be real.
- Vasilli Dimitrovich, please remain
here, Your Excellency.
- Hmm?
- Remain here! We will see that they come to you!
- I understand. So many dear old faces.
- Ah, yes.
- And it is their dear old names we want...
- Hmm?
We want their names on signed statements
that will convince the Bank of England...
- Yes! Yes!
- Yes, yes, convince...
Her Imperial Highness,
the Grand Duchess Anastasia.
- This way, Your Highness. Close by the alcove.
- Stepan.
My dear general,
this is all so exciting.
Your Imperial Highness, please.
So, Piotr Ivanovich, here we go.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends...
- Oh, I would like to say a few words, but...
- Too much. She's doing too much.
It is very difficult
for me to speak today.
General Bounine,
would you, please?
As you all know, I am the last one to
believe in miracles or resurrections.
But reality cannot be
established without help.
Legal help. Witnessed
and signed statements.
It is frankly our hope,
and our need...
that those among you who believe will
come forward after the reception...
and sign these testimonials
voluntarily.
Now, I am quite sure...
that some of you have
come here to obstruct.
The reasons... political, monetary...
we all know.
There are some who have been made
understandably cynical by the revolution.
And there are some who will testify
to anyone, and anything, and have.
To none of you do we bring
any pressure.
To all of you we bring someone who has literally
suffered worse than death for ten lost years.
It is our duty to restore this extraordinary
person to the world of the living.
If you are sentimental, say it is
because she has suffered enough.
If you are humane,
say justice must be done.
If you are Russian, a loyal subject
of His late Majesty, then say with me:
Our only hope is his daughter...
Her Imperial Highness,
Anastasia Nicolaevna.
Her Excellency,
Countess Baranova.
Your Highness. When Irina...
When Madame de Lissenskaia told me...
I confess I really had doubts.
You can understand.
- It really is a miracle.
- Is it?
- Yes, Your Highness. We met only once...
- I remember.
- Near the tennis courts at Livadia.
- Yes!
I remember that my uncle Alex got you
the title because he liked dancing.
But from then on, you made a fool
of him. My mother never liked you.
My father never liked you
and I never liked you. Please go.
- Now just a moment. You're not Anastasia yet...
- I said, please go.
You are mad. Don't answer.
But I warn you for the last time.
Your Excellency, you're not leaving...
- without seeing Her Highness.
- I have seen her.
But she will be so disappointed
at not having seen you again.
- And how do you know that?
- Huh? You mean, how do I... Uh, well, uh...
Truthfully, Excellency, we don't,
but we are sure she will.
- We are sure, Excellency.
- And I! Dear Ivan Wassielevich, you stayed this long...
- and after all, you did promise me...
- Now, don't wheedle, Irina.
- Oh, all right. But don't keep me there too long. My foot hurts.
- Excellency.
I think you are
due for a surprise.
- His Excellency...
- I am so glad to see you, Ivan Wassielevich.
- They told you my name. How kind.
- Won't you sit down?
No, thank you.
I don't expect to stay.
My father's chamberlain
was a man of great courtesy.
His Majesty complimented me
on many things.
I don't recall
his mentioning courtesy.
My father's chamberlain was also a
temperate man, who did not judge before...
Madame, forgive me.
I've a miserable attack of gout...
undoubtedly a punishment
for being intemperate.
And I'm eager to return
to my tub of hot water.
There are many characteristics
which you could recall...
many details, but
so could dozens of others.
My relations with His Majesty's
children were impersonal, public.
So in the end, myjudgment could
only be a matter of opinion...
and that opinion can only be
determined by resemblance and manner.
Your Excellency,
ten years is a long time.
No, I've already
noted the resemblance.
As to the manner,
I've been watching.
And you have given me pleasure.
You've taken me back to my seat...
in the Imperial Theater
at St. Petersburg.
Second row on the aisle,
every Tuesday night.
For the purpose of acting
is not only to imitate reality...
but to create illusion.
I'm not being sarcastic when I say
you are an excellent actress, Madame.
Extremely well trained.
My compliments.
- I do not accept them.
- Madame, my foot is troubling me.
My life is troubling me,
and it has yet to be lived.
You do not believe because
you do not wish to believe.
You say my words will not convince because
you're afraid I know the right words.
You misquote, Madame. I said that the
manner, the deportment of a grand duchess...
would convince me, but...
I don't see it in you.
Not a gesture.
Though one would be worth more than all
the words you undoubtedly can produce.
Good day, Madame.
How dare you smoke in my presence
without my permission?
Who are you?
Fifteen, 16, 17, 18.
Out of a possible 31.
And you were so sure it would
be almost a clean sweep!
Didn't the old fox himself say
her performance was great art?
We're not doing this for art,
we're doing it for money!
Now listen,
this can go on forever!
- Some saying she is, some saying she isn't.
- Precisely.
- My mind is made up.
- Oh? To what?
There's only one way:
To go straight to the top.
- You mean, the old icon?
- Yes, the dowager empress.
Sure, the old ramrod sits in her castle
in Copenhagen biting her nails...
because she's waiting for Sarah
Bernhardt here to give her performance.
She's the one chance. As head of the
family, no one would dare dispute her word.
- "Dispute her word. "
- Excellency, Her Highness would like to see you.
- Her what? She can wait.
- Isn't she?
Not too long.
She's packing up.
Packing up?
- And where's Her Highness going?
- I don't know, and it doesn't matter.
- I thought you enjoyed yourself today.
- Yes, until I became ashamed.
Ashamed of allowing myself
to be put on display.
Ashamed of conjuring up tricks
like a circus freak.
Ashamed of asking people
to sign papers that I'm real.
I am real, and I will not
stoop to prove it to them.
- Who are they? I think I know.
- Who are you?
Today? And tomorrow? Will you be
so sure tomorrow, and the day after?
Why? Why can't you
let me believe?
I will even help you believe,
when I'm sure of the truth myself.
No one will ever be sure, and you
least of all. I know that today, too.
Wrong. Those people today
were not worth your efforts.
But there is someone who is. One word
from her and they will all grovel.
- The Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna.
- Grandmama.
- Grandma-MA.
- Grandma-MA.
- She'll never see me.
- She will.
- How do you know? Words!
- I know she will.
Call me schemer, plotter,
call me what you will.
Deep down you know that if anyone can
get you to see that old woman, it is I.
- And I'll get you there for your sake.
- For my sake?
- Yes.
- You never did anything for the sake of anybody but yourself.
You enjoy playing with people,
making fools of them.
That's why you're doing it, as a joke!
To prove that you are great, and alive...
and the others
are small and dead.
Yes, and for money...
Go ahead.
It won't hurt.
Sit down.
If you want to leave after I am through,
I won't force you to stay.
Let us say you are right.
As a matter of fact, you are.
That's all the more reason for you to go
with me to the empress in Copenhagen.
Never trust anyone who functions from
noble motives. The good are never sure.
And in the end,
they'll let you down.
Our motives are different, agreed.
But our goal is the same.
And that's the only thing that counts.
Well?
We'll go to Copenhagen?
- I had a dream the other night.
- Yes. About your father being a ringmaster.
No. This time
he was a doll maker.
My mother, his assistant
who painted the faces.
The correct ancestry
for a puppet.
You know I'll go.
You always know.
She always wore black,
the empress, didn't she?
Yes.
For ten years,
I've wanted to see her.
- She was never very easy, even before the end.
- Yes, I know.
You know,
or you remember?
Prince Paul. Let's see. Nephew to
the empress, second cousin to me...
- engaged to me when I was... how old?
- Sixteen.
Quite attractive.
- Do you remember him?
- No.
You should. I'll tell you a secret,
that first waltz you remember...
It was with him.
- Danish customs. Have you anything to declare?
- No.
Madame. Thank you.
- Madame Anderson. Madame Anderson!
- Oh, yes.
Oh, yes. Bounine.
Everything in order?
Yes, it seems to be. Welcome to
Denmark. I hope you enjoy your visit.
Thank you.
I'm sorry, I forgot.
- I've had so many names.
- It was a struggle to get you that one.
- Why Anderson?
- Oh, well you needed some name...
- and once I was in a situation with...
- With a lady?
Well, as an alias,
it is innocuous enough.
"Madame A. Anderson. "
The least real thing about me
is my legal reality.
What happened to
the other Madame Anderson?
- Oh, nothing very important.
- Just got tired of her?
This visa is good for only 14 days.
Two weeks. Most people have
a lifetime in which to be accepted.
- Suppose two weeks are not enough.
- They must be.
- What's that for?
- In the cavalry, we used to do it...
when we saw
the infantry marching.
- Driver, what is this parade?
- Nothing special.
We have it every day
the king is here in Copenhagen.
Thank you. The king?
- Uncle Chris. Cousin to Grandmama, the empress.
- Good. Very good.
Excuse me, sir.
- Will you see Mrs. Anderson to her rooms, please?
- Yes.
Excuse me, please.
Where is the bar?
That way, sir.
- Well? - Not
good. - Uh- uh.
The empress absolutely refuses
to see you, let alone her.
And him?
No. Our Prince Paul lives
on the old lady's allowance.
He was always
rather courageous.
One possibility. Remember
Baroness von Livenbaum?
That crazy lady-in-waiting
of the empress?
- Mm, vaguely.
- She remembers you clearly.
Uh, just a moment. You have a rendezvous
with her tomorrow at 4:00.
- Rendezvous?
- Yes.
At the Tivoli Gardens.
It isn't! It can't be!
- It is!
- Elena von Livenbaum.
- Sergei Bounine.
- Do sit down.
Thank you...
No, it's too dangerous.
- But I will.
- Dangerous? Come.
Whom could we possibly run into
here at Tivoli, except children?
That's exactly why I chose it.
How fit you look.
Superb. But this is a stiflingly
small town... a village.
A hundred chattering tongues
will go gossiping to Her Majesty...
"Your lady-in-waiting
was seen with that man. "
- That man. A flagon of your delicious beer.
- Yes, ma'am.
I always drink what the natives drink.
Ah, this is madness without the moon.
My dear Baroness,
you will never change.
Now you're trying to bribe me,
just as the empress said you would.
- Where is she?
- The empress?
She's playing solitaire,
with her memories.
No, dear General, Anastasia.
Or should I say, "Her Highness"?
Is it really she?
- I'd love to meet her.
- And so you shall.
As soon as she is properly
introduced to Copenhagen.
What a look you have. How
inevitable that I am useless to you.
- Why?
- The empress will never receive you, or that woman.
You know her. An "unmeltable" icicle.
Uh, thank you.
And you won't get at her
through Paul, either.
He sends her his bills as though
they were invitations.
He behaves as though we were
still in Russia. Russia!
I am all of Chekhov's
three sisters rolled into one.
- I shall never get back there.
- Surely you must have a pleasant life with the empress here.
With Her Majesty, life
is one eternal glass of milk.
- Oh, come. There must be some court life.
- Not a crumb!
- She never entertains?
- Her phantoms. The ghosts of her dead family.
But she must go out for a drive.
Or shopping. Or a museum.
If you ever speak, whisper,
breathe one word...
Well, she does go out occasionally,
if there's anything Russian.
An opera or a ballet.
Let me see.
They're performing a ballet ofTchaikovsky's
this week at the Royal Theater.
Thursday, I believe.
Come over here for a moment.
I want you to look
as beautiful as possible tonight.
- Oh.
- He's quite a simple soul, really, Prince Paul.
His vocation and avocation
are one and the same.
The pursuit
of beautiful women.
If you thought it necessary, I suppose you
would even have sent me to a plastic surgeon.
- Take your seat.
- Do you know how long it is since I've been to a theater?
Don't display too much
excitement. Sit down.
- General, they just arrived.
- She too?
Yes.
- Program.
- Your Majesty.
Box nearest the stage.
- The man you want me to look beautiful for?
- Yes.
- My fiance?
- The lady next to him is Baroness von Livenbaum...
lady-in-waiting to the empress.
- Where's the empress?
- In the back of the box, behind the curtain.
So close, after so many years.
Oh, I'm suddenly frightened.
Go with them to the buffet,
and stand facing this way.
- Tonight can mean...
- I know what tonight can mean.
Go ahead.
Uh, please. Three coffees.
- Good evening, Your Highness.
- Oh, Bounine. We were just talking about you.
- Good to see you again.
- Thank you. When did you return?
- Where from?
- The hunting trip I was told you were on all week.
Oh. My relations with my aunt
force me to be on far too many trips.
- I apologize.
- I understand.
- Who's the lovely lady with you? Extremely lovely.
- Mrs. Anderson?
- Yes, she's rather pretty.
- Anderson? Is she Danish? English?
Well, she's many things.
Would you like to meet her?
You know very well I would.
May I present His Highness,
Prince Paul von Haraldeberg?
Her Imperial Highness,
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicolaevna.
- I should have known.
- Traveling under the name of Mrs. Anderson.
Surprised?
I wasn't sure
I recognized you either.
- But you are sure now?
- Yes.
I shall not ask yet
whether you are.
You're either very kind
or very tactful. My compliments.
- Will you both excuse me?
- You are afraid.
As a little boy
you always were.
Is it such a terrible risk
to have a drink with us?
It seems that anything
with the general is a risk...
- Even a drink.
- Then have it with me.
- Now it is my turn. Will you both excuse me?
- Of course.
- You have changed.
- So have you.
Then you do remember?
I remember a little girl who used to
delight in backing me into a corner.
I remember a little boy who always
took time to make up his mind.
- For example?
- Ah. You're testing me?
No, prodding you to talk,
so I can enjoy looking at you.
- Champagne?
- Why not?
Ah, the Baroness
von Livenbaum, please.
General Bounine, quelle surprise.
Vassili, Her Majesty would like
a glass of mineral water.
You are a monster.
I've survived a revolution,
I suppose I can survive this.
Will you forgive me if I make sure that
Vassili gets the right kind of water?
- Her Majesty is madly particular.
- Certainly.
- Your Majesty.
- Who is it?
- Oh.
- Your Majesty, forgive me.
I did once when
I heard you'd been shot.
- I was sentenced twice.
- By whom, the Whites or the Reds?
- As I recall, by both.
- Good for them. But you're still here.
- I have asked Your Majesty's pardon.
- For what? For this intrusion?
For the effrontery of using the name of
Romanov to launch a commercial enterprise?
For hammering
at my gate for days?
- Your Majesty...
- Bounine...
I have already been shown
two Tatianas, an Alexei, and a Maria...
as well as an Anastasia.
I will not see your client.
I am as weary of these spectral
grandchildren as I am of false hope.
I have lost everything
I have loved.
My husband, my family,
my position, my country...
I have nothing but memories.
I want to be left alone with them.
Perhaps one memory
may be a reality.
The only reality for you
is an investment.
Your Majesty, only a fool
would bring you a mere investment.
Whatever you may think of me,
you must know that I am not a fool.
I too have gone through
the revolution into the world.
The effects of your journey
are not visible.
You know perfectly well this woman
is not my granddaughter.
Quite honestly,
I don't know who she is.
But there is so much that cannot be explained
unless she is the woman she believes she is.
- I see now that it mattered more to you than I thought.
- I beg your pardon.
You really wanted that title you never
got. You're not doing this simply for money.
You have never forgiven
my family, have you?
I'm here simply to tell you that whoever
this woman is, she asks only one thing...
- To see you.
- Unfortunately, there are not enough years remaining for me...
to see every madwoman
with a royal obsession.
If she must see me, show her
my photographs again.
- Your Majesty...
- Go back to Paris, Bounine. You are wasting your time.
General, good evening.
- Your Majesty, I thought perhaps that you...
- Save your nonsense. My cape.
So Bounine is still attractive.
Yes, Your Majesty.
- Madly attractive.
- Yes, Your Majesty.
Livenbaum, your voluptuous
fancies are disgusting.
To a woman of your age,
sex should mean nothing but gender.
Yes, Your Majesty.
You saw her?
What did she say? Did she...
I did not see her.
What did he say?
He was very charming. I like him much more
than I thought I would from your description.
- Do you?
- Don't you want me to?
I want you to make him like you
more than he thought he would.
- Forgive me, Aunt Marie. I just ran into somebody...
- I forgive you.
You ran into a blond.
Very pretty.
Is she married?
- And who is she?
- I don't know yet.
- Go on, you can tell me.
- Livenbaum, I came for the other performance.
Your Majesty.
- The jewels, please.
- Jewels?
Yes, the jewels.
Please, Andrei, will you put
these in the safe downstairs?
Why? They are fake.
- You know that, but the manager won't.
- Oh, public relations.
- Anything else?
- No. See you in the morning. Good night.
Good night.
You did very well tonight.
Thank you.
Am I dismissed now too?
Yes, you had better
get some rest.
Prince Paul will be calling
for you tomorrow evening.
Thank you for achieving
the invitation.
You achieved it.
I merely accepted.
The empress doesn't want
to see me, does she?
- She will see you.
- I'm sure she said no tonight.
So now the route
is through Paul via me.
You don't hesitate to use anybody
for anything, do you?
Oh, I hesitate.
I hesitate until I'm sure
of the desires of those concerned.
Good night.
To begin with, a nice,
clear champagne soup.
And then, uh, I think
a fricassee of champagne.
- No vegetables.
- But a crisp champagne salad.
- Excellent.
- And for dessert?
- A small champagne souffle.
- 1921 is a very good year for souffle.
I really don't like champagne.
I only like what it does to me.
- You won't like it in the morning.
- Mmm.
I'll adore it in the morning. I'll have
a fantastically enormous hangover...
and your friend Bounine
will be furious.
You know what he is?
Vodka. Quick, hard, sharp.
- And you?
- Champagne, I hope.
- Don't be greedy. Mmm.
- As a little girl you used to say that...
Oh, no, no.
Not tonight.
- How many times have we been together? Four, five?
- Three.
And every time...
Well, every time I've heard your mind "click,
click, click. Is she? Isn't she? Is sh... "
It's very, very unattractive
of you, and very noisy.
Tonight I just want
to have a good time.
Do you know who I am?
No. A woman.
- An extremely attractive one.
- Then behave accordingly.
Well that's...
That's difficult.
- No "click, click, click. "
- Not a one.
1921. Definitely.
Excuse me, Your Highness.
I apologize for the intrusion...
but Her Highness has not
yet recovered from her illness.
Her doctor has given
strict orders that she retire early.
Vodka, pure vodka.
That poor Cinderella. The coach
turned back into a pumpkin...
- and the footman into a big white rat.
- Your Highness.
- Don't you think the glass slipper cut her foot?
- Good night, Your Highness.
Oh, that ugly stepsister!
Good night. Thank you.
Thank you.
And thank you.
Thank you.
Pleasant dreams.
Good evening. Ah...
I forgot. My compliments to the chef.
- Good night.
- May I speak to you for a moment?
- It's very late.
- It's very important.
All right, I enjoy her company.
And I agree she's a beautiful woman.
With the possibility
of inheriting ten million pounds.
Bounine, everyone is boringly aware
of my weakness, and yours...
For beauty and money.
I don't think it so inhuman of us. They are
the two most desirable items in the world.
All right.
What do you propose to do?
At times you push too hard.
Her visa expires in four days.
- If she hasn't seen the empress...
- You've been knocking too loudly on the door, Bounine.
It is precisely when my aunt thinks somebody
is trying to force her to do something...
- that she does nothing.
- When do you do something?
- Depends.
- On the odds?
You're pushing again.
They are high this time,
my dear prince. Very high.
Good night.
One, two...
Three, four...
General...
General, I'm hungry.
You just came from
a restaurant, didn't you?
Oh, but, but such
a funny restaurant.
No food! Why don't you
take me there tomorrow?
You've had too much to drink.
No! Not quite enough.
Shall I call for some more?
- No!
- "No! '"It must be very dreary in your room.
Everyone in mine
is having a wonderful time.
Would you care tojoin us?
Please stop the nonsense
and go to sleep.
Go to sleep.
When we sleep, we sleep.
General, I have
a confession to make:
I was lying.
There's no one here but me.
Can you hear me? General!
Why don't you
make a concession?
Uh, I mean confession.
Well, it's the same thing.
Come on, General.
One little confession.
One sweet tiny confession.
Prince Paul was asking
for you twice, Your Majesty.
Thank you, Fedya.
Good afternoon, Your Majesty.
Did Her Majesty enjoy the drive?
Yes, it was quiet for a change.
- Prince Paul...
- I heard. He called twice.
He's still waiting, Your Majesty.
- Sorry, Your Majesty, to be so persistent, but it is a...
- Money?
- Much more important.
- Oh, a woman.
Very well, come in.
Well, who is she?
- I'll come straight to the point.
- You usually do.
- Is Her Majesty back?
- Yes.
Late, dear Countess, late.
Livenbaum, I'm in
no mood for you.
I had to go all the way
to town on the trolley.
- On the trolley, my dear, while you...
- Oh, your bursitis again.
- I do not have bursitis. I have migraine.
- In the shoulder?
Another area wouldn't
surprise me as much.
Livenbaum, enough is...
- Is there someone in there with her?
- Paul.
Paul? You know he's been seen
publicly with that woman?
- Which woman?
- The impostor.
Prenez garde, Comtesse. Perhaps
the empress will accept her?
- You mean he's going to talk her into it?
- She's getting old.
- Never.
- And lonely.
- Never.
- And she...
- Never.
- Livenbaum.
Your Majesty.
Do you know
what he wanted?
- I can imagine, Your Majesty.
- To see that woman.
How easily he swallows
the trick she performs.
And what do they prove? That she can
memorize the teachings of Bounine.
What if there is a resemblance? What
if she does think she is Anastasia?
Wanting a dream
does not make it true.
She's a fraud.
She must be.
- Well, isn't she?
- I... don't know, Your Majesty.
You all think
I'm stubborn, don't you?
I am. Very stubborn.
Perhaps too stubborn.
At what hotel is she staying?
"Believe me, I really tried.
My sincere regrets. "
Sincere.
"Signed, Paul. "
- Miserable handwriting.
- You think he really saw the empress?
What's the difference whether he did
and she refused, or whether he didn't?
The answer's
the same for us: No.
Hello. Yes.
And who? Thank you.
Baroness von Livenbaum is
on her way up... with a lady.
- What lady?
- I think you'd better go inside, both of you.
- Lady? Do you think it i...
- Yes, I do.
Petrovin, come.
Who is on the way up?
I think the empress.
She's coming here? Now?
I don't think I'll be able to face her.
- Don't be a fool.
- No, I'm not well enough.
Must it be now?
If I only could have some time?
Get ready.
- Your Majesty.
- Wait downstairs, Livenbaum.
I am deeply grateful,
Your Majesty.
I only hope that you will not allow
your opinion of me to interfere...
Bring her in.
Your Highness,
Her Majesty's waiting.
Courage.
Yes.
The resemblance is quite good enough
for a waxworks gallery.
- Don't you recognize me?
- Should I?
Who are you?
Where were you born?
My birth certificate
says Tsarskoie Selo.
But I was really
born in Peterhof.
Daughter, no doubt,
to Tsar Nicholas II and Alexandra.
And granddaughter
to Maria Feodorovna...
dowager empress.
I have received too many appeals
from resurrected Romanovs.
The firing squads were such poor shots
it's amazing the revolution succeeded.
Twice I started out
to find you, but...
There were so many days, weeks, even
months when I didn't know who I was.
And now you do?
I thought I did,
but if you don't know me...
Have I changed so much,
Your Majesty?
One does not change,
mademoiselle.
No, not if one is loved.
Perhaps if love
had not been cut off so abruptly...
I would not have changed so much.
You are making vulgar
and sentimental use...
of an episode which is for me
a great personal sorrow.
Forgive me.
I forgot for a moment...
that you would regard that tragedy
as more yours than mine.
I am trying to... You're making it
very difficult for me, Grandmama.
I did not give you permission
to call me that.
I'm sorry.
You think a lonely old woman should be
eager to hear someone call her "Grandmama"?
- My loneliness has been as sharp as yours.
- We are most of us lonely.
And it is mostly
of our own making.
But no masquerade of any kind
can fill the emptiness.
You ask me for recognition.
You do it well.
Your eyes are moist, your voice
blurred with feeling.
I believe you are lonely
and you want love.
Who does not?
But the love you beg from me
belongs to one who is dead.
Are you so sure?
You have won the endorsement of the
sentimental, the greedy. I am none of those.
So you shut me out before
you even open that door.
I was told you would
ask me difficult questions.
You are not even interested enough
to ask me one!
I am not interested in a demonstration
of the tricks taught you...
- by your business associates.
- I care nothing about their business!
- I care nothing about the money!
- Ah, but you know of the inheritance.
I know what they've told me.
I don't want money.
- Tell me to whom it should be given and I'll give it.
- Easily said.
But you cannot give it away
until you have it.
And you cannot get it without
first obtaining my recognition.
It's useless to say that
that is not what I want.
You are so hard.
I remember hearing Father say that in a fight
you were harder than anyone in the family.
I thought at the time that
that was a very strong word to use...
just because you and my mother
were quarreling over a necklace.
Some, some emeralds. Yes.
You wanted to keep them, though
they belonged to the imperial treasure.
Who told you that? Oh, there were
many who could have known.
You wore them with
your last court dress...
Green and gold velvet,
and a long train.
The photograph was
unflattering, but accurate.
My father took my mother's side
in the quarrel.
There they were, all of them
against you, but you were stubborn.
- You kept Figgy's emeralds.
- How did you learn to call Catherine the Great "Figgy"?
We always called her that.
Sometimes we gave the nickname to Maria
because she had such an eye for the men.
- And Olga used to say...
- Stop!
I forbid you
to bandy those names.
I can speak of them if I choose.
They are my sisters.
Impostor!
You call me that.
If you have any decency, end this
charade at once. I will pay you.
- I will give you more than whatever Bounine promised you.
- Go away!
- I'm offering you money.
- Oh, please go.
So, you are giving up.
It wasn't enough to have
suffered the asylum...
Some people trying me,
using me, rejecting me.
And before that,
the cellar and the flight!
The rescue from the very edge
of the grave...
Years of lost memory in an asylum...
excellent material for melodrama.
Long empty days, in which the consciousness
of living came only through pain.
Hardly melodrama.
And then slowly,
finally struggling up...
out of the water,
into the light...
into the air, thinking...
"Yes, perhaps yes, I may be...
"I must be... I am.
I am, and my grandmother
is still alive to tell me so. "
My grandmother is alive to hold out
her hand full of money.
I'd rather you slapped me
across the face with that hand!
The tragic scene of despair.
Well done.
You are forgetting nothing,
are you?
I am sorry, mademoiselle...
that your failure to win me over
is such a cruel disappointment.
Good-bye.
- Oh, don't go.
- But you just told me to.
I promise I will not say anything
more to try and convince you.
- Then what do you want of me?
- A moment or two longer. A moment more to be with you.
To pretend you do not think
what you do.
To close my eyes and pretend
it is years ago.
A terrace in the summer sun.
No, no, no. I promise, I promise
I will not say names or places.
The smell of the sea air.
The sound of a tennis ball. The laughter
from the courts beyond the trees.
And your voice
calling me "Malenkaia".
And then the sudden lightning
in the summer sky.
Are you ill?
I was, but I'm not now.
Have you seen a doctor?
A good one?
I'm well acquainted with doctors.
But it is kind of you to ask.
- I'd better go.
- I'm really not surprised that you do not recognize me.
- I have changed very much indeed.
- You asked for just one moment.
What is strange
is that you have changed so little.
It is as though the horror of all these
last years has only made you stronger.
I am not strong, mademoiselle.
Let me go.
You are too clever for me. I am an old
woman. My strength is only outward now.
- At least we met again.
- And we will another time when my mind is clearer.
- But now...
- No, we'd better not meet again.
You have softened towards me,
but later you'll regret it.
You'll say,
"It was all acting.
She was some cheap little actress
they hired for money. '"
And... in a way
they did hire me.
I was starving after I ran
from the last asylum.
I had nowhere to go. Bounine
found me on the bank of the Seine.
Maybe there is more
good to him than we think.
Or maybe I should have run away from
him too, but I was so tired of running.
- Are you all right?
- Yes.
And if it is better
for you not to believe...
- You are ill.
- No.
I cough only because
I'm a little frightened.
It doesn't mean...
Say that again.
That I cough
when I'm frightened?
When you were a little girl
you coughed when you were frightened.
Malenkaia... Malenkaia!
You have come from so far away,
and I've waited so long.
No, no, no.
Don't cry.
There's no need to be frightened.
No, don't speak.
You are safe, Anastasia.
You are with me. You're home!
The phantoms can go.
The closed rooms can be opened.
I have a footman...
Oh, he's a very old man...
And each night he goes
from one room to the other...
lighting the empty lamps...
until the great dark rooms
are a blaze of light.
And perhaps that is true
of all of us.
We are lighting dead lamps
to illumine a past that is gone.
I thought you were gone, but
you have come back, Anastasia.
You have come back!
But, oh, please, if it should not
be you, don't ever tell me.
Many beautiful shops
and restaurants... Yes.
Also we might make
a small trip to America.
After all, it's the only country left
with a proper respect for wealth.
- I hate trips.
- I would like to go to Uruguay.
- Yes, why?
- I like the name, "Uruguay".
- I hate it.
- And "Guatemala".
- They sound so far away.
- Yes, very.
- Why don't you charter a boat and sail the high seas?
- I hate the sea.
My dear Maxine, you're here to eat,
drink, enjoy the show and have a good time.
I hate Russian food.
I hate bad champagne.
I'm sick of the gypsies,
and I'm having a terrible time.
Then why don't you go home?
I hate my room even more.
So soon? Hey, he's back
from the station.
- Maybe she was not on the train.
- Maybe.
Anything wrong?
Did you meet the train?
She was on it?
Empress? Paul?
- Well?
- Everything is up...
Go powder your nose.
How long should I take?
We'll call you.
Go on. Go on.
Well, Petrovin, they all arrived.
- Then why isn't he at the hotel with her?
- Yes.
- It is Copenhagen all over again.
- They should have stayed there.
"Stayed there. " But the empress
would not let him see Her Highness.
Or at least that's
what Paul said.
No, it was wasting
money to stay.
Von Livenbaum is expecting you
at 10:00 in the morning.
You mean they agreed to the presentation
ceremony tomorrow night? Wonderful!
Then we can have
the press conference at 7:30.
- In the grand ballroom of their hotel.
- Good.
- What about the marriage rumors?
- Yes.
Can we announce
her engagement to Paul?
You know, every time
Paul is mentioned, he gets peculiar.
- You don't think he's getting jealous?
- Yes.
I began to think
back in Copenhagen.
You're eating
like a pig again.
I'm nervous again.
- Where the devil did that come from?
- The opera warehouse.
- I think it is very impressive.
- Stepan, get rid of those lights.
What time is it?
7:40. The press has already
been waiting for her.
- Too late to do anything
about that throne.
Oh, for heaven's sake, stop
that nonsense! Petrovin!
- But they are rehearsing.
- They'll rehearse later.
Please, gentlemen, please,
after the press conference.
I am confused.
Confused!
- When we originally discussed...
- Stepan, tell Her Highness we are ready.
Petrovin, let the press in.
- Did you see her? Did you talk to her? Di...
- I told you 50 times.
I have not seen her,
nor him, nor the empress.
Perhaps if I write it very carefully,
in very big letters...
I'm sorry. I'm bored
with the whole business.
The sooner it's over with,
the better.
You certainly have changed,
Excellency.
But don't get too bored.
It is a little too late.
This way, please. You'll find
copies of the guest list...
and other information
on this table.
This is the very room in which
the presentation ceremony...
will take place
later this evening.
Ladies and gentlemen, I regret
you cannot be present here tonight...
but such is the wish of Her Imperial
Majesty, the Dowager Empress.
However, Her Imperial Highness, the
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicolaevna...
has graciously consented to see you
for just a few moments.
"At 9:30, the ball will be opened by
the Grand Duchess and His Highness...
"Prince Paul von Haraldeberg.
- At 10:15... "
- Is it true they're going to be married?
Will the engagement
be announced tonight?
Well, unofficially
and off the record...
At the present time, there is no
information on that subject. Proceed.
"At 10:15, the dowager empress
will make her appearance.
"At 10:20, the Russian national
anthem will be played...
- and Her Majesty will formally present her granddaughter... '"
- Ladies and gentlemen...
it is my humble pleasure to
present Her Imperial Highness...
the Grand Duchess
Anastasia Nicolaevna.
What a beautiful dress.
Get a picture of her
coming down the stairs.
- What is it?
- Extraordinary taste.
Can we get a picture
on the throne?
Her Highness has not fully recovered
from her long illness.
I must request that you be as brief
as possible with your questions.
Is it true that it was difficult for you
to get to see the empress?
I was three weeks in Copenhagen, almost
all of which I spent with Her Majesty.
Are you gonna marry
Prince Paul?
I found the city extremely charming
and hospitable.
- What about the inheritance?
- How do you plan to spend it?
Will you get the whole
ten million?
If I receive an inheritance, it will
be more of a surprise to me than to you.
Did you go to Romania
after you escaped from Russia?
Yes.
Were you in a hospital
in Bucharest in December, 1920?
Yes, I was in a hospital in Bucharest.
- When, I do not remember precisely.
- Don't you? I do.
I was convalescing in the next ward
when they brought you in.
- It is possible.
- Possible, but you don't remember.
Well, when they discharged you, a man
was waiting for you and took you home.
Me.
- General, I beg you. We cannot proc...
- Quiet.
- What is your name?
- Mikhail Vlados.
- Vlados.
- And yours is Anna Koreff!
- Koreff, is that true?
- Yes, I have used that name.
- Used it?
- Her Highness has used many names.
As you know, she has been forced to
hide. Also she has suffered amnesia.
Please.
Mikhail Vlados...
Yes, we were in the same hospital
in Bucharest.
- They treated you for head wounds...
- They did.
Which you got in a train explosion
outside Bucharest.
- Is that true?
- Were you in a train wreck?
- Please, I would like to answer.
- All right.
Ladies and gentlemen, please!
Please!
Her Highness cannot hear your
questions, let alone answer them.
What is it you wish to know,
whether I was wounded...
- in a train explosion on the way to Bucharest?
- Yes.
I remember being
in a train explosion.
Whether or not I was wounded,
I do not know.
- Well, where did you get the wounds?
- In Russia or in Bucharest?
- Is it not possible to have been wounded twice?
- In a war maybe.
What else is a revolution?
I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen,
the interview is over.
Make sure there are men
posted at every entrance...
to keep the reporters
from the guests.
- And check every invitation at the door.
- Yes, sir.
I don't make things easier
for you, do I?
Was it a disaster?
No matter what the papers print,
before they can be on the street...
the guests will be here, and the empress
will have made the presentation.
- Oh, forgive me. May I?
- You may even give me one.
Thank you.
The stairs aren't
doing that dress any good.
- It doesn't matter.
- It will in an hour.
I haven't seen you
in a long time.
And you missed me terribly.
I missed you, yes.
Whose orders kept you from
seeing me, the empress's or Paul's?
Apparently, it has
never occurred to you...
that I can function
without orders from anyone.
Then you didn't want
to see me. Why?
I thought it better not to.
The marriage rumors are true.
You yourself told me that
Paul and I were engaged years ago.
- Aren't you taking your royal duties a bit too seriously?
- Independently, you mean.
- The puppet has pulled the strings herself.
- This is childish.
You've always had an obsession that people
want you to do only what they tell you.
No, not people. You.
- Nonsense.
- Is it?
You pushed me at Paul.
And now you're against him. Why?
- Are you afraid that he's going to be in control?
- Over what?
- Over me. Over the money.
- I don't give a hang about the money.
Then what is bothering you,
that I might be Anna Koreff?
I don't care what your name is.
I care what you are.
What bothers me
is the way you've changed.
- I'm the one who has changed.
- Yes!
When we began you wanted
to find out who you were.
You said that was
all you wanted.
- Yes, I s...
- But is it? No!
Now you must be the Grand Duchess
Anastasia Nicolaevna.
Now you must be placed upon a throne
before a morgue of royal corpses.
- Must you always hate? Must you always ridicule?
- Ridicule who?
Your loyal loving subjects?
Those embalmed skeletons?
They don't care about you!
They don't care who is Anastasia, so long
as they get money and a better position...
in a world that is dead
and buried, and should be!
You didn't say that a month ago. Then
you wanted it, and you wanted it for me!
- Well, now I like it.
- Go on, like it.
Be a grand duchess!
And make it really royal.
Marry a man who wouldn't come
within ten feet of the altar...
if you were not an heiress.
Oh, the truth is insulting.
You told me once that I was
selfish and ambitious.
And I admitted
that you were right.
Why don't you now have the courage
to admit that I'm right?
- Remember?
- What?
- The music. This waltz.
- Yes, of course.
- No, you don't really.
- Sorry. Should I?
No, it was a long time ago.
My first waltz.
My first ball.
- My first...
- What?
Partner.
I thought it was you.
It must have been somebody else.
- It might have been me.
- It really doesn't matter.
It might not even
have been at the ball.
- Frankly, I don't understand you.
- Why?
- Because I didn't deny what Vlados said?
- Yes.
How do you know
that I'm not Anna Koreff?
- Be serious.
- I am.
You're deliberately behaving
very strangely tonight.
How do you know
how Anna Koreff behaves?
I know how you behave.
And all I care about is you.
- Do you mean that?
- Of course.
Then let's announce
our engagement tonight.
I want to very much.
Prince Paul von Haraldeberg
to Miss Anna Koreff.
- Will you announce that?
- Certainly not.
- Oh.
- Because it's not true.
No? Suppose I have no title,
no inheritance, nothing.
I can't suppose that when I know
perfectly well who you are.
Still, what if I can't get the money?
Or if I make no claim to it?
You can and you will. Why be poor
when you can so easily be very rich?
The poor have only one advantage.
They know when they are loved
for themselves.
Sorry, but I refuse to take
that remark seriously.
- The empress is ready. She's upstairs in the green room.
- Good.
- It's almost time.
- All right.
- Oh, Piotr Ivanovich. Should I not be back in time...
- Why not?
Just go ahead without me.
Sergei Pavlovich,
isn't this all superb?
- I have never seen you look so well.
- In this? Oh.
They don't know how
to make baggage nowadays.
Imagine trying to fit this
into a modern suitcase.
Oh, the times
aren't suited for elegance.
But you have
brought it back ce soir.
- What's the matter? You look upset.
- No, just tired.
Would you ask Her Majesty if she would
receive me for just a moment?
You know I will.
General. General!
- You may go in.
- It's very kind of you.
- Just in case, she's heard about the reporters.
- Thank you.
Vassili, Her Majesty
is expecting the general.
I was going to send
for you, Bounine.
My granddaughter tells me to expect
some unpleasantness in the newspapers.
- I'm afraid so, Your Majesty.
- Thank you.
The man was probably
a hired troublemaker.
- Her Highness says that actually...
- I'm aware what she says.
Unfortunately, she is not aware...
that truth serves only a world
that lives by it.
I have prepared a statement
for the press...
that I want you to give to them
before you leave tonight.
I am leaving now,
Your Majesty.
Oh, and why?
I feel that my work is finished,
satisfactorily, I trust.
And since this is your evening
I felt it my duty...
No, that isn't quite true. I simply
wanted to say good-bye to you.
Extraordinary.
You want to leave
before the spectacle.
I should have thought no one would
watch it with more triumph than you.
If the evening belongs to anyone,
General, it is to you.
- We are all grateful.
- Thank you, but I want no further part in it.
Come. After all, you performed
an enormous task.
You've restored my granddaughter
to her rightful position.
And, unless I have been misinformed...
you even effected her reunion
with her childhood sweetheart.
Yes, to a degree, I suppose I did.
But you are not particularly pleased
with it, are you? You are not pleased.
- Why not?
- But I am not in a position...
Oh, come. After all,
it is extremely unlike you...
to speak of position, Bounine.
When I am with Your Majesty,
I'm deeply aware of it.
Thank you.
Then I request you answer.
If it is what the grand duchess
really desires...
why then, I must be pleased.
But for myself, no,
I am not pleased.
We should not only
have given you that title...
we should have made you
an ambassador.
How deviously you have arrived
at what you wanted to say.
And even now,
you don't say it.
You have not given me even
a piece of string to hang you with.
Sergei Pavlovich,
what do you wish to ask?
Why do you try to ask me?
Why have you not asked her?
Often what is difficult
for others is simple for me.
But what has always been the simplest
for others, is impossible for me.
I made the attempt, Your Majesty,
but it became translated into anger.
You're less of a knave
than I thought...
but very much more of a fool.
Yes?
Excuse me, Your Majesty.
It's time.
So soon.
Bounine, I want you
to wait for me here.
This time it is a command.
Will you?
Yes, Your Majesty. I will.
Your Majesty, I cannot wait for you
to look down into the ballroom.
You'll weep absolute tears.
Everyone's there.
And the gowns. And the uniforms.
It's incredible, like it used to be.
Yes, I can smell the mothballs.
Your Imperial Majesty,
I beg you... Excuse me.
If Your Majesty will permit me
to explain the ceremony, and...
- Livenbaum.
- We discussed the ceremony this morning.
- Yes, but, uh...
- The "but" we'll discuss later.
Yes, Baroness.
How lovely you are.
- Are you having a good time?
- Yes, Grandmama.
- Where is Paul?
- He's dancing with the Princess of Falkenburg.
- He dances very well.
- Yes, very well.
- And he's very handsome.
- Yes, he's handsome.
- Your Majesty, a thousand apologies...
- Your Majesty, it is time.
If they have waited ten years, they
should not mind waiting ten minutes more.
Livenbaum, I want to speak
to my granddaughter alone.
Out, gentlemen! Out.
Where is Bounine? It is just like him
to disappear when he is really needed.
All right, ladies. Count.
Livenbaum.
That gentleman you are so fond of, see
that he does not leave the green room.
Yes, Your Majesty.
- They're whirling in delight down there.
- Yes.
Come here.
Let me put it on for you.
Are you that tired of it already?
- It's just that I'm not used to one.
- It takes time.
Are you sure about Paul?
I, I like him very much.
- Why do you stammer?
- I was surprised by the suddenness of the question.
If you love, the answer
is always ready.
I've been asked to announce
your engagement tonight.
- Are you sure you want me to?
- I want to marry.
Why?
I suppose I want
the belonging, the closeness.
- Am I selfish?
- No, but do you want all this with Paul?
I think it will
please you, Grandmama.
And anything that will please you
would please me.
Do you know you are talking
exactly like Bounine?
- Oh, no.
- Oh, yes.
Anastasia Nicolaevna, you don't
really want to marry Paul.
- I don't know.
- You do know.
Because you really
want someone else.
Do I? Maybe.
Except that all this time...
the only thing I thought
I really wanted was you.
That you already have.
And it's not enough,
nor should it be.
No one can blame me for living with
my dear phantoms. But you...
You must find the things from which
other women make their happiness.
Sit here for just
one moment longer.
Livenbaum says things are just as
they used to be down in the ballroom.
She is foolish.
The world moves on, Malenkaia...
and we must move on with it,
or be left to molder with the past.
I am the past. I like it.
It's sweet and familiar.
The present is cold and foreign.
And the future...
Fortunately, I don't need to concern
myself with that. But you do.
It's yours.
Unfasten this for me,
will you please?
- Figgy's emeralds?
- Yes, I want to give them to you.
Grandmama, you have given me
what no one else in the world could...
Myself. Thank you.
Here, here.
You'd better fix it yourself.
Go into the green room.
- Livenbaum will help you.
- Yes, Grandmama.
Hurry.
There's not much time.
Forgive me, Your Majesty.
Yes, what is it?
I thought you'd like to know that
the gentleman no longer waits alone.
Good. I suppose we shall
have to go on with the performance.
- Bring in the jesters.
- Yes, Your Majesty.
- Ladies and gentlemen...
- Baroness.
Oh, Your Majesty, I beg you.
We cannot keep them waiting any longer.
- May we proceed now?
- Yes, yes. Proceed.
Majesty. Oh, uh...
- The musicians?
- All arranged.
- Good. Take your position by the curtains.
- Yes, sir.
Eh! Straighten your tie.
And you, Excellency, please don't forget,
all the names... loud, strong, clear.
- Don't worry.
- Oh, thank you, Excellency.
Uh, ladies, get ready.
Where is, uh...
- Where is Prince Paul?
- I told you twice, he's coming.
Twice, and three times you've told me
you cannot find Bounine.
- I also told you that he said...
- Yes, yes, to go ahead without him.
Well, I say there is something
unbalanced with him tonight.
And the sooner we fin...
Oh, Your Highness.
Your Majesty.
I've never seen you
look like this before.
I have never felt
like this before.
It is time.
Would you be so kind as to inform Her Imperial
Highness, the Grand Duchess, we are ready.
- Right away.
- Hurry.
Baroness, uh, the procedure.
Just to refresh your memory as
to what we discussed this morning.
- You think my mind is failing?
- Baron...
Ladies and gentlemen,
there will be a, "a drumroll. "
After that, Her Imperial Majesty,
the Dowager Empress, will come forward.
And when she passes
through the curtains...
the orchestra will strike up
our national anthem.
- After that, the grand duchess, escorted by His Highness...
- She has gone! She has gone!
Gone? Gone where?
What is he talking about?
She's not there!
I looked all over. She has gone!
- But this is impossible. I mean, she must be...
- Silence!
- You have looked in the green room?
- Yes, Your Majesty.
- There is no one there.
- No one.
Perhaps she went to her room.
Quick, send somebody...
You won't find her. It's a waste
of time. They have both gone.
- Both?
- She and your friend Bounine.
- Bounine?
- But why? I don't understand.
- You never did.
- You mean the others were right?
- She was not Anastasia, after all.
- Wasn't she?
Your Majesty, I beg you.
They're all waiting down there.
- What shall we say to them? What can we say to them?
- Nothing.
Paul, your arm.
I will speak to them.
Oh, thank you, Your Majesty.
Everybody, please.
Forgive me, Aunt Marie,
but what will you say?
Say? Oh, I will say...
"The play is over. Go home. "