Anastasia - Die letzte Zarentochter

In the mid-1950s, interest in the alleged survivor Anastasia Nikolayevna Romanov peaked again. There was a new Broadway play, and a new feature film in West Germany and in Hollywood. While Hollywood offered the substance as a spectacular color movie CinemaScope, West Germany produced a more artsy black-and-white film whose biggest asset was Lili Palmer in the lead role. Unfortunately, everything else seemed to fall short. This wonderful international star made a number of great German films in the 1950s, including Fireworks and remakes of the classics A Woman Who Knows What She Wants and Girls in Uniform. There was thus no better choice of actress for the legend of the last daughter of the Russian Tsar. How things really were with Anna Andersen did not become clear until many years after her death, and we are left with an almost tangible memory of a phenomenon that erupted in the 1920s, perhaps out of a desire to preserve the old golden days, thanks to many media treatments. The legend of Anastasia perfectly illustrates the painful cut made by the First World War and its effects on modern times. (20/02/2021)