Best Actress: Ingrid Bergman II

 Don't call it a comeback.

via whistledownn

Even thought it was! Anastasia was Ingrid Bergman's first Hollywood film since the Rossellini Affair scandalized the world and sent her firmly to Europe, where she continued to work, unapologetically, for the next several years. 

Was there a mystery that gripped the world stronger than that of Grand Duchess Anastasia and her whereabouts? It wasn't until 2007 that they definitively found her grave and confirmed that she was indeed killed in the Russian Revolution, and it was apparently a lucrative business in the early to mid 1900s for imposters to come out of the woodwork and claim to be her. With the benefit of time and advances in DNA technology, they were all disproven, and, like I said, eventually her grave was found and the bones therein confirmed to belong to the Russian Imperial Family. 

But I digress. Anastasia tells the story of a young woman who can't remember her past. Who looks similar to what Anastasia would've looked like (if she'd lived) and who can be used to serve a purpose for the Old Guard (claiming an inheritance from Empress Marie Feodorovna, Anastasia's grandmother). But this young woman has been ill, doesn't remember her own past, and her fragility threatens the whole scheme. 

As Anastasia, or Anna, Ingrid Bergman has the regal looks and the sensitivity to portray the mysterious woman. She's vulnerable and tender and at times, she remembers her past as Anastasia and at others, she's crushing under the guilt at the thought that she knows she isn't her. But she manages to convince her grandmother (played beautifully by Helen Hayes) and falls in love with her protector/chief mastermind General Bounine (played stoically by Yul Brynner, who won Best Actor this year, but not for this, for The King and I), and in the end, even though there's evidence for Anastasia being who she says she is and evidence that she's a mentally ill woman being taken advantage of, the film leaves it open to interpretation for the audience to determine if she had been telling the truth or not.

As Marie Feodorovna says, in the final line of the film, "I will say the play is over, go home."

I will say that there seemed to be so much build up to whether or not Anastasia's grandmother would recognize her, and whether or not the plan would work, that when it does, it seems anticlimactic. You're sitting there watching like, "That's it? Now what?" 

Then it turns into a love story between Anastasia and General Bounine. Then there's a second swindler storyline, with Prince Paul, who was Anastasia's betrothed as a child also not being on the up-and-up. There's melodrama, with Marie Feodorovna wanting to believe and believing, then being heartbroken at the idea that she was tricked and still loving Anastasia anyway. 

It's a great fairytale, it just feels incomplete. 

Ingrid Bergman was nominated against Carroll Baker (Baby Doll), Katharine Hepburn (The Rainmaker), Nancy Kelly (The Bad Seed) and Deborah Kerr (The King and I). I think there are a lot of fantastic performances nominated this year. I did enjoy Baby Doll and The Bad Seed but (and I'm sorry) I didn't much care for The King and I and I don't believe I've seen The Rainmaker yet. Maybe I'd have voted for Ingrid, just for this being such a triumph after her exile from Hollywood, but I think this is another one of those years where no matter who wins you'd have a deserving performance.

DID I LIKE ANASTASIA? It feels like it's too abrupt an ending and I do think there are better Ingrid Bergman films that should've garnered her Oscars, but that's not to say that she wasn't great! 

Did you like Anastasia? What are your thoughts on Ingrid Bergman's second and final Best Actress Oscar win? 

Keep up with all my Rewatching the Best Actresses posts here.