In 1956, Hollywood released the feature film "True and False Princess", and although it received a "cynical and mediocre film" from Director Truffaut, the film was a huge success at the box office, and the actress Ingrid Bergman also won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Truffaut angrily pointed out in the film review that the theme of a film about historical mysteries such as "True and False Princess" is the most stupid and empty subject, but it can always fill the movie theater.
This historical mystery, which is highly sought after by audiences, is the case of a mentally ill man named Anna Anderson who impersonates Theastasia, the younger daughter of the last Tsar.
The pursuit of truth is the nature of historical research, and it is also the reason why the public is deeply interested in historical mysteries. But when the complex clues and fragments of true and false are pushed in front of people, how to judge and identify? And when the counterfeits are already in full bloom, what are those who still choose to believe?
Two years after the news of the execution of the last Tsar Nicholas II was reported by the Ural Workers' Newspaper, it was claimed that Nicholas II's youngest daughter, Anastasia, had been found in a mental hospital in Berlin.
Previously, the message published in the Ural Workers' Newspaper did not mention Nicholas II's wife, son, and the four sisters who were famous all over the world, and it was suspected that they might still be alive and that Nicholas II had a huge fortune in the bank.
The woman in the mental hospital was sent because of her life, with body and head injuries, usually melancholy and silent, and her tone and accent were very different from other patients, which was a very distinctive tone.
After reading about the Tsar's family in the newspaper, the patient in the same room decided that the unidentified woman was Tatyana, the last second princess of Russia, and the patient was quickly discharged from the hospital, and the news spread.
Nicholas II and the Queen's close friends rushed to check it out, denying at first glance that she was Tatyana, and a few days later, news came that she was the fourth princess, Anastasia.
The woman began to recount what had happened to Anastasia, saying that she was saved by a soldier while her entire family was being shot and killed, and the two of them fled, under the pseudonym Anna Anderson, and had a child.
When she came to Germany to ask the royals for help, no one paid any attention to her, so she chose to commit suicide. She also told some little-known royal secrets, but she explained that she chose to forget because it evoked painful memories because it evoked memories.
Although there were many doubters about these flawed remarks, there were many european relatives of the Russian royal family and Nicholas II's family who believed what she said.
The daughter of nicholas II's family therapist also came out to affirm that she and Anastasia looked very similar. Anna Anderson was first patronized and patronized by many European nobles, and then Empress Alexandra's brother took her to Denmark and lived a privileged royal life.
For those European nobles, it didn't really matter whether Anna Anderson was really Anastasia, all they needed was the title of the last princess of the miserable life to show how good they were.
But for the relatives of Nicholas II's family, who suffered the massacre, there is no room for jokes. Queen Alexandra's brother, the Duke of Ernst, invited private investigators to investigate, and the results left nowhere for the nobles who pursued Anderson:
The woman, whose original name was Francesca, suffered severe mental illness from the blow of her fiancé's death in battle and the blowing up of a co-worker by a mistake at work. Moreover, Francesca's cousin was approached and confirmed that it was his cousin, a Polish female worker with severe mental illness and not some last princess.
The nobles who had financed her angrily took her to court, but the matter was dismissed by the fact that the witness Francesca's cousin had changed his mind and the Duke of Ernst had tried to protect her daughter, who believed she was a princess, from harm. Those who have lost face of the imperial relatives and nobles, in order to protect their own face, of course they cling to this truth, so people have been kept in the dark.
Anna Anderson, who could not mix in Europe, went to New York with the title of the last princess, Anastasia, and funded her by a Russian princess who married a wealthy local merchant and was a cousin of the real Anastasia.
The physiotherapist daughter who said that she looked very similar to the real princess was the introducer, and she published many articles promoting Anna Anderson as the last princess. The reason for this may be the delusion that Nicholas II and another legendary inheritance may be inherited by Anna Anderson, and even suspicion.
The reason why Anderson can tell the little-known royal secrets is also because there is a physiotherapist daughter who is familiar with the princess to help. The publicity of the physiotherapist's daughter allowed Anderson to live a good life in New York. And, as the paranoia grows worse, she has become addicted to the lie that she is the last princess, Anastasia.
The physiotherapist's daughter helped her hire a lawyer to ask for the inheritance, but it was later found to be a small inheritance and refused to hand over to Anna Anderson.
But she continued to earn a lot of money and a comfortable life with that title until her death at the age of 86, impersonating Princess Anastasia for 64 years.
Her life, whether it is tragic or lucky, it is difficult to define, because of the painful encounter and loss of her true self, and thus obtained a good life, but always became a tool for others to obtain benefits, but also to bear the crime of deception. The real Anastasia, who died in that bloody massacre at the age of 17, was confirmed after the remains of her parents and two sisters were excavated in 1997.
Anna Anderson's DNA was also sent to be compared with Nicholas II, which turned out to be unrelated. Compared with Anderson, the real Anastasia is a lively and naughty little girl, who was born in the imperial family and died so tragically before the day of blooming.
She grew up in isolation from Nicholas II, and although she was a princess, Empress Alexandra taught her daughters very harshly and did not live a very luxurious life.
The ridiculousness of such a ridiculous lie that lasted for 64 years was not Anna Anderson, whose fate was tragic and mentally insane, not the people who looked forward to a miracle because they regretted the tragic life of The Flower, not the queen's relatives who had lost their loved ones and wanted to protect their children without exposing the lie, not even Anderson's cousin, who did not want to hurt his cousin who had gone mad; it was the hypocritical, greedy, and vain people.
Text/Wen Shi Wangwang