MovieChat Forums > Anastasia (1997) Discussion > Why did Grandma wait ten years...?

Why did Grandma wait ten years...?

posted 12 years ago by hellotrouble
10 replies | jump to latest

Why did the dowager empress wait ten years to put Anastasia's picture in the paper and say she would give a reward to someone who found her? (I assume it must be the first time she did it considering how much excitement it caused in St. Petersburg)Is it possibly because if she'd drawn attention to the possibility that Anastasia could still be alive earlier then maybe the people who killed the family would start looking for her?
That's all I can think of, otherwise it doesn't make sense that a loving grandmother would wait 10 years to actively search for her granddaughter. In 10 years, the possibility of finding her would have lowered significantly. She could be dead, in another part of the world, look a lot of different, etc. It seems like if she'd gone public about it earlier then maybe Anastasia could have been identified in the orphanage she was in or something.

[–] ANightToRemember 12 years ago

I think it's implied that, because Anastasia survived with the Dowager Empress, people have always assumed she could be alive. There's nothing that states she waited ten years - it's probably like one of those local legends that never dies to the people of St. Petersberg. They've been talking about her being alive for ten years, and with so many people claiming to be her, it just keeps on going.

You've also got to remember that Nicolas and Alexandria had a bunch of kids - I highly doubt a peasant would have recognized their faces if they had seem them in public without a uniform. That would account for the lack of recognition. Plus the Soviets controlled the press, so published pictures of the Romanov Family probably would not have been sent out. They were all dead, so it's not like they had anyone to go looking for.

But you make an interesting point about them going off to kill her if they found out she was alive. If she had, she'd without a doubt be imprisoned if she wasn't executed or exiled. Any claim to the throne would have had to have been eliminated.

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] anya_angie 12 years ago

She didn't wait; she'd been offering the reward for the entire 10 year span that the film skips. It is only at the 10 year point that the audience hears about it.

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[–] JustEs 12 years ago

If she hadn't been doing this for ten years, I don't think she would've given up as soon as she did.

And, naturally, they waited 10 years so that Anya would have a chance to grow up - you don't want a 10-year-old Dmitry falling in love with an 8-year-old, do you?

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[–] hellotrouble 11 years ago

Well yeah I don't know exactly what the story was supposed to be, I only thought the grandma waited 10 years because of the whole "rumor in St. Petersburg" scene and everyone getting so excited about it. If this had been going on for 10 years, it seems like this would be old news and the people wouldn't be making such a big deal about it. But from that song, you'd think it was the first time they'd ever heard of it. I'm sure the dowager empress could put Anastasia's picture on the front page whenever she wants, but I wouldn't think the people would still make such a big deal about it.

[–] MizzNijna 10 years ago

Me and my sisters had the theory that living in St Petersburg at that time wasd so boring and to sing that song every day for a decade was the highlight of their day. That would explain why every single person knows the step to the dance. ^_^

[–] Juno413 8 years ago

For me, and I'm sorry that Im two years late, but when Ana lost her grip on her grandmother's hand and fell. Her grandmother should've went after her. I don't care if you're escaping execution. That's your 8 year old grand child.

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[–] alice-dukesohazzardfan 7 years ago

there were people pulling her back onto the train. a woman as old as her couldn't have fought them back and jumped off the train

[–] PsychiatricPezDispenser 10 years ago

It's like whenever they decide that a celebrities' death was actually a carefully planned murder and make a huge deal about it (Marilyn, Natalie…) even if it's been ages

[–] alice-dukesohazzardfan 7 years ago

i always thought she had to wait after the revolution was over so everyone could calm down instead of just kill her. and remember World War I was also going on at the same time. so everyone was out to keep themselves safe until everything had settled down