Maddyclassicfilms Intermezzo is directed by Gregory Ratoff, produced by David O. Selznick and Leslie Howard, has a screenplay by George O' Neill, is based on an original story by Gosta Stevens and Gustav Molander. The film stars Leslie Howard, Ingrid Bergman, Ann Todd and Edna Best.This beautiful love story features the Ingrid Bergman in her first English speaking role.Renowned violinist Holgar Brandt(Leslie Howard)returns home from a tour. He is warmly welcomed back by his loving wife Margit(Edna Best)and young daughter Ann Marie(Ann Todd). He meets his daughters piano teacher Anita (Ingrid Bergman)and the two fall in love. As time goes on they begin an affair and Anita leaves her employment with the family and becomes Han's piano accompanist on his tours. Holger soon begins to miss his wife and daughter and comes to realise the pain he is causing them.You feel for Holger and Anita because they genuinely do love one another but they both know their affair is wrong and Anita tries to find the strength to end it, even though it is very painful for her to do so.Ingrid is excellent in her American debut, she conveys her characters feelings so well through her expressions, her eyes especially show so much to the audience. Howard is very good as a rather self centred man, his music is his greatest passion and he falls for Anita partly because she shares his love and talent for music, Holger would be difficult to like if it were not for his love of his daughter, it's obvious he cares for her and that is a redeeming quality.Edna Best is very good as the long suffering wife, confused as to why her husband seems to have stopped loving her and who finds herself unable to forget him or hate him even when he has the affair.The film looks beautiful thanks to Gregg Toland's exquisite photography. Classical music lovers will enjoy the soundtrack and both Howard and Bergman are quite convincing in the scenes where they have to play musical instruments.

writers_reign In 1939 Leslie Howard made a meal out of noble suffering and he did it equally well when the budget was a stick of gum as here or when it ran into the young millions as in Gone With The Wind. This is a movie you Want to like not least because it marked the English-speaking debut of Ingrid Bergman who was just as gorgeous at 24 as she remained until her death - trivia buffs may like to know that she played a classical pianist both in this, her first English-speaking film and Autumn Sonata her last film on the big screen which was, of course, shot in Swedish, her native language. With only seventy minutes to play with Gregory Ratoff is prodigal with time; the film opens with violin maestro Howard playing a farewell gig at Carnegie Hall; he then TELLS his audience that he is returning home to Sweden; he is then SHOWN on board ship to Sweden in a scene that adds little to the story and then he Arrives in Sweden. Today, in fact for the last forty years or so, a director would cut from Carnegie Hall directly to Howard at home in Sweden but that's really a minor beef. What we have here is our old friend the 'woman's picture' or 'weepie' and it's strangely disjointed; Ratoff at times seems to be anticipating the New Wave in his abrupt cuts. It's ironic that Bergman made her to all intents and purposes film debut as an adulteress who would play the part for real a decade later when she co-starred with Roberto Rossellini in Life Imitating Art. Perhaps in an effort to sugar the pill the adulterers are depicted as cultured, cultivated people, classical musicians in fact as if that somehow lessens the pain of those left behind and almost adding insult to injury they throw in a scene where Howard's young daughter (Ann E Todd) is so happy to see him when he makes a fleeting visit home that she dashes in front of a car and is badly injured. But relax, folks, this is 1939; we don't do infant mortality and lo and behold if in the final scene long-suffering and saintly wife Edna Best takes him back into the fold no questions asked. A few years ago 20th Century Fox reissued some of their classic films (Laura comes to mind) in truncated versions, a gimmick that failed to catch on and Intermezzo is reminiscent of one of these, its actual seventy minutes feeling more like forty and investing it with an air of Adultery-lite.

blanche-2 "Intermezzo" is a beautifully photographed, bittersweet story about a the love affair between a concert violinist (Leslie Howard) and a pianist (Ingrid Bergman). This was Bergman's second time at the role, the first time being in her native Sweden. This film catapulted her to fame. Her natural beauty and freshness is shown to wonderful advantage here, as is her sensitive acting in the role of Anita Hoffman.Howard plays Holger Brandt, a married man with two children who leaves his wife and family when his affair with Bergman becomes too intense. Hoffman becomes his accompanist on tour, sublimating her own career plans because she wants to be with him. While vacationing, he becomes attached to a little girl who obviously reminds him of his daughter (Ann Todd), whom he adores, and Anita wonders if their illicit affair can ever bring them happiness.The film is rich in subtext and metaphors. "Aren't you giving it too much importance?" Anita's piano teacher asks as she rips into a concerto. "We were all impressed with you the night you played here ... with my husband," Holger's wife says, asking Anita about her studies. "I really had no choice," Anita almost whispers. Even the title of his daughter's favorite piece that he plays, "Intermezzo" takes on a special meaning.Few actors have cut the romantic, ethereal figure that Leslie Howard did during his film career. Tall, blond, with that soft voice and faraway look in his eyes, he makes a perfect musician who is always listening to a melody in his head. Though some people feel his phoned-in Ashley Wilkes doesn't hold up today, in fact, he was the embodiment of Ashley without making much effort, a soft dreamer with impractical values from another time. And so he is here, not thinking ahead and lost in a romantic fog.A touching and dramatic film with very effective performances.

Framescourer A cultured and unfussy weepie. Strong leads from Leslie Howard and Ingrid Bergman front a strong cast - right down to the excellent Ann Todd as Howard's young daughter.The story is of a concert violinist who leaves his wife for another woman. Naturally there is quite a bit of music in the film. Great care has been taken to equate the miming with the soundtrack. All the musicians look as if they are really performing, detail typically neglected nowadays. The score itself, despite being the fruit of many hands, is exemplary in its integration with the film: Heinz Provost's titular melody uses the opening phrase of the act 2 love duet of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, showing the long reach of Wagner's fully-integrated musico-dramatic ideas in romantic American film scores more than 50 years after his death.The final sequences are slightly out of kilter. However mitigating against this lumpen denouement are some wonderful location shots and two outstandingly executed leave-taking sequences as Bergman literally dissolves into the chiaroscuro of the shot. A thoroughly affecting and well-made film. 7/10