GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Michael Neumann A once famous Czech actress, fallen on hard times since emigrating to New York City in 1968, finds the strain of maintaining her professional integrity beginning to take its toll after too many humiliating off-Broadway auditions. But unlike its title character the film of the same name is (thankfully) far less neurotic, presenting a fresh mix of otherwise familiar narrative elements. It's part show-biz satire, part fish-out-of-water drama, and in large part a cross cultural variation of 'A Star Is Born', with the melancholy Anna sheltering an impoverished but attractive peasant girl from the Old Country (Paulina Porizkova) whose unexpected (and unsolicited) success begins to eclipse her mentor's own fading career. The relationship is given added resonance in the young protégé's naive ignorance of Prague Spring, giving the domestic show business story a richer European perspective, which no doubt came natural to screenwriter Agnieszka Holland, an accomplished filmmaker herself. But after having created such memorable characters (rewarded in the title role by a performance to match, from unlikely Oscar nominee Sally Kirkland) it's too bad Holland's script then had to settle for such an abrupt and artificial ending.

jcrawford-15 As an actor who works in film and television, I think Kirkland's performance in "Anna" is one of the greatest ever given by an American actress on screen. Every actor should see it, as well as Kim Stanley's in "The Goddess" and Geraldine Page's in "The Trip to Bountiful".I also think this film is important in its message to Hollywood - stop putting looks above talent!This film is a fascinating story, all too true for actresses in the US, especially today. Anna, an enormously talented middle-aged woman, is overlooked, while exceptional opportunities come along for a pretty young girl with little to offer but looks and a perky personality, who just happens to use Anna to get to the top.The story is supposed to be based on a real person and her experience trying to find work in New York after having been a star in Europe. Kirkland brings this character to life with amazing depth and courage. Although she lost the Oscar that year to the well - deserving Cher for "Moonstruck", I think if more people had seen this film, Kirkland would have walked away with the little gold man that night. I am still inspired by what the film has to say about women in this business who lose opportunities because of ageism. What is it with American producers? I love Judi Dench and Vanessa Redgrave, but if they were American women, they would never find work! The Hollywood film industry should take a lesson from their European counterparts and use the talented older ladies we have right here!!! Every time Dench or Redgrave make a film, they are nominated or win for it. There are thousands of equally gifted ladies right under our noses in Hollywood who never get a shot at greatness. Sadly, Sally Kirkland just had the one...

Matowynn I found it quite absorbing. I haven't seen it since 1988 or so. I remember Paulina Porizkova was a pretty famous model back then, pre-supermodel days. I was deeply struck by the relationship between the two woman. Youth and middle-age. The incredible losses of not only youth, but of possibility and love are touched on in a way very rarely seen in movies. Especially from a woman's point of view. The mentoring of the younger woman and then the incredible sense of loss when she is whisked away by public reaction to her beauty and then actually takes on the painful past of her mentor, in a way steals it is incredibly moving. You end up feeling for Kirkland's character because she seems to have greater depth than the younger woman, but at the same time is that just the result of age and circumstance? And the poignant relationship to her lost image and the contacts and opportunity that her youthful beauty once promised her. Now she is alone and forgotten in a foreign land. It is pretty incredible.

RonM626 This film is all about Kirkland's performance, which is still one of the best performances I've ever seen on film. She was nominated for an Oscar but lost to Geraldine Page for The Trip to Bountiful in one of those sympathy votes going to the lesser performance things (Page had been nominated without winning something like eight times prior, so a lot of people in the Academy probably thought it was time to give her something). Porizkova does pretty well for her debut performance, but then again she was pretty much playing herself as an eastern European beauty who is discovered and becomes a model.But I'm writing this review solely to give Kirkland the praise she deserves for her terrific performance.