After the mid-1950s, Litvak began filming in Europe. Among his productions there was the Paris-filmed Anastasia in 1956, starring Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner and Helen Hayes. The film was Bergman's first U.S. film after a seven-year absence from Hollywood, which she left after her scandalous affair with Director Roberto Rossellini became news. The studio, Twentieth Century Fox, conducted a poll and found that the public still had negative feelings toward Bergman. Litvak, however, felt she would be an excellent Actress for the part and insisted on her starring in the film. Bergman won an Oscar for Best Actress for her part, and film critic Michael Barson calls it Litvak's best film of the 1950s.