"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 Saint-Cloud." "You see the resemblance?" "No more than a hundred 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 you were in that asylum, don't you?" "Stepan, are you positive she is the same woman you saw in Saint-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 tzar'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." "I-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, Piotr Ivanovich." "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!" "Um, 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."" ""A year 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 Saint-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 tzar'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 tzar'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 12 years ago in the forgery affair..." "Would you recognize his walk today?" "Would you recognize the smile of a girl you knew 10 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 10 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?" "It's a cellar!" "This is absurd." "Sit down." "No!" "Sit down, I said!" "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?" "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 Saint-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." "What?" "Go on, look." "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." "She has a certain resemblance, which we can heighten." "She's obviously smart enough to learn what we teach." "Discrepancies in her memory can be attributed to the head wound." "She has no identity whatsoever." "Which means it will be exceedingly difficult for anyone to prove she's someone else." "Four- We have eight days." "Precisely." "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 tzar 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?" "Isn't everyone?" "No." "I'm going." "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." "I-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?" "Or 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 tzar, 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 Tzar."" "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, tzar 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?" "And 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 to sleep." "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." "Where?" "In Poland." "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 tzar- ...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." "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, Piotr Ivanovich." "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 ball." "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!" "I-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." "Zenia!" "Grischa!" "I must say, a truly wonderful occasion!" "Yes." "What?" "Red caviar." "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 10 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 also 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-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, my judgment could only be a matter of opinion, and that opinion can only be determined by resemblance and manner." "Your Excellency, 10 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?" "To go straight to the top." "You mean, the old icon?" "Yes, the dowager empress." "Oh, 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?" "Isn't she?" "She can wait." "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?" "Who are you?" "I think I know." "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?" "I know she will." "Words!" "Call me schemer, plotter, call me what you will." "But 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 10 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." "Well, 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 to 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 of Tchaikovsky'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 fiancé?" "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." "[ "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" ]" "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." " Have you ever seen her before?" " The one with Bounine?" "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 forces me to be on far too many trips." "I apologize." "I understand." "Who's the lovely lady with you?" "Mrs. Anderson?" "Extremely lovely." "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 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." "Ah, 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 blonde." "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, Andreivich, 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 soufflé. 1921 is a very good year for soufflé." "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." "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, Bounine." "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 £10 million." "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 to join 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..." "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 Tzar 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!" "No, 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 towing 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, Piotr Ivanovich, they all arrived." "Then why isn't he at the hotel with her?" "Yes." "Probably 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 10 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." "Then 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 said-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 10 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 could 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 Her Highness 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 10 years, they should not mind waiting 10 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."" "Subtitled by Captions, Inc."