Intermezzo: A Love Story
(a.k.a. "Escape to Happiness" -- UK)

US (1939): Romance

Ingrid Bergman made her radiant Hollywood debut in this David O. Selznick-produced remake of a 1936 Swedish film, in which she played the same role, a gifted piano teacher. Leslie Howard costars as the brilliant violinist whose world tours often take him from the flow of life within his own family. Married to a fine woman (Edna Best) and blessed with two wonderful children, Howard's character only begins to realize that so much is passing by him when he falls for his concert pianist (Bergman). During a Riviera holiday, the two illicit lovers bask in passion while privately agonizing over the collapse of their separate destinies. Can two people find happiness built on the unhappiness of others? That's the question asked by the sage friend (Cecil Kellaway) whom they both share. In the same year Selznick cast Howard in Gone with the Wind, the sophisticated actor did a fine, sympathetic job penetrating the lost and tormented heart of his character in Intermezzo. But it is Bergman -- the very picture of spring and a magnificent avatar of the perpetual conflict between mind and heart -- who ultimately gives this film its soul. The Selznick machine, with its top-drawer production values and the dreamy gloss of its human stories, makes this film a more poignant experience than the average weepie. Directed by Gregory Ratoff; released thru UA. (Amazon.com)

 View a clip from this film on YouTube.com.

2 nominations