More about Anna Anderson...
Many films have been made and many books have been written about AA. We all know the DNA evidence ultimately confirmed that Anastasia Nikolaievna perished with her family in Ekaterinburg. I think it would be a real challenge to make a film about Franziska Schanzkowska, “la fausse Anastasie,” as Gilliard called her. How and when did she conceive of perpetrating royal identity theft on such a grand scale? One could begin with her childhood in Poland, her early career as a factory worker and, later, her move to Berlin. Did some conspirators quickly see imposter potential in Franziska and begin her immersion in the minutiae of Court life and royal deportment? Were other candidates also considered, or was delusional FS favoured from the start? How did she convince people of her alleged identity such that they remained devoted to her until the day she died? The film should convey the enormous tension between FS’s awareness that she was a fraud and the necessity of constantly have to convince people of her assumed identity. Merely romanticizing and dwelling on the possibility that AN survived is easy; this film would present a tale of ambition and delusion closer to the truth. It would take as great an actress as Franziska herself to convey how she so skillfully manipulated people’s gullibility and suggestibility. This film could be no worse than the many other films on this theme.
