Anastasia (1997)

Angela Lansbury: The Dowager Empress Marie

Photos 

Quotes 

• Dowager Empress Marie : Young man, where did you get that music box? You were the boy, weren't you? The servant boy who got us out? You saved her life and mine and you restored her to me. Yet you want no reward.

  Dimitri : Not anymore.

  Dowager Empress Marie : Why the change of mind?

  Dimitri : It was more a change of heart.

• Sophie : It's a perfect ending.

  Dowager Empress Marie : No. It's a perfect beginning.

• Dowager Empress Marie : [after showing Anastasia the music box; singing]  On the wind, 'cross the sea, / Hear this song and remember...

  Dowager Empress Marie , Young Anastasia : [singing together]  Soon you'll be home with me / Once upon a December.

• Dowager Empress Marie : [as Dimitri recklessly drives the Dowager Empress Marie's car]  Ilya, slow down.

  Dimitri : I'm *not* Ilya, and I *won't* slow down, NOT until you listen.

  Dowager Empress Marie : You... how dare you! Stop this car immediately! STOP THIS CAR!

• Dowager Empress Marie : You're a very good actress, best yet in fact. But I've had enough.

  [starts to walk away] 

  Anastasia : Peppermint?

  Dowager Empress Marie : Oil for my hands.

  Anastasia : Yes... I spilled a bottle. The carpet was soaked and it forever smelled of peppermint - like you. I used to lie on that rug and oh how I missed you while you were away...

• Dimitri : I don't want your money.

  Dowager Empress Marie : What do you want then?

  Dimitri : Unfortunately, nothing you can give.

• Dowager Empress Marie : [looking through her memory box]  Oh look! The drawing you gave me! Remember?

  Anastasia : Oh yeah... Olga made me so mad; she said it looked like a pig riding a donkey!

  [laughs] 

  Anastasia : She was right.

  Dowager Empress Marie : [nostalgically]  Ah, your laughter. Once again, I hear my Nicky, your dear father.

  [retrieves a tiara from her dresser] 

  Dowager Empress Marie : But you have the beauty of your mother, Alexandra - Empress of all Russia.

  [ceremoniously places tiara on Anastasia's head] 

• Anastasia : [Looking at a photo of her family]  I remember now how much I loved them.

  Dowager Empress Marie : They would not want us to live in the past, not now that we have found each other.

• [voiceover; first lines] 

  Dowager Empress Marie : There was a time, not very long ago, where we lived in an enchanted world of elegant palaces and grand parties. The year was 1916, and my son, Nicholas, was the Czar of Imperial Russia.

• Dowager Empress Marie : [Anastasia is trying to get onto the train]  Hold on to my hand!

  Young Anastasia : [Sobbing]  Don't let go!

  Dowager Empress Marie : [Anastasia's hand slips, she screams]  Anastasia!

  [Anastasia hits the ground and loses consciousness] 

  Dowager Empress Marie : ANASTASIA!

• Young Anastasia : [the music box begins to play]  It plays our lullaby!

  Dowager Empress Marie : You can play it at night before you go to sleep, and pretend it's me singing!

• Dowager Empress Marie : [about Dimitri to Anastasia]  He didn't take the money.

• Dimitri : [after the Russian ballet]  Please inform Her Majesty, the Dowager Empress, that I have found her granddaughter, the Grand Duchess Anastasia. She's waiting to see her just outside the door.

  Sophie : I'm very sorry, young man, but the Dowager Empress, she will see no one.

  Dowager Empress Marie : You may tell that impertinent young man that I have seen enough Grand Duchess Anastasias to last me a lifetime.

  Sophie : You'd better go.

  Dimitri : Please, let me just...

  Dowager Empress Marie : [interrupting]  Now if you'll excuse me, I wish to live out the remainder of my lonely life in peace.

• Dowager Empress Marie : You'll stop at nothing, will you?

  Dimitri : I'm probably about as stubborn as you are.

• Dowager Empress Marie : [voiceover, after the siege of the palace]  So many lives were destroyed that night. What had always been was now gone forever. And my Anastasia, my beloved grandchild - I never saw her again.

• Dowager Empress Marie : [voiceover narration]  We were celebrating the 300th anniversary of our family rule. And that night, no star burned brighter than that of our *sweet* Anastasia, my youngest granddaughter. She begged me not to return to Paris, so I had a special gift for her to make the separation easier for both of us.

• [Young Anastasia and Empress Marie are stuck in Anastasia's room. Young Dimitri enters from a secret door in a wall] 

  Dowager Empress Marie : [as she tries to take Young Anastasia out the main door]  Please, hurry.

  Young Dimitri : [stops them and drags them to the secret door]  Come this way! Out the servants quarters!

  [Young Anastasia accidently drops her music box as she's being forced in the door] 

  Dowager Empress Marie : [follows Anastasia]  Hurry, Anastasia!

  Bartok : [watches them escape from the bedroom window]  Rasputin, she's getting away!

  Young Anastasia : [heads back in the room]  My music box!

  Young Dimitri : [gently forces her back out the door]  Go, go!

  [closes the door]