Intermezzo

What's the difference between the 1936 and 1939 Intermezzo films? Not much, except that one's in English and the other's in Swedish. Both are exactly the same story, and both star Ingrid Bergman as the alluring other woman who makes a decent family man stray. Basically, you just have to make the choice of whether you want to read subtitles or not.

In this Swedish version, Gosta Ekman is a respected violinist who has two children and a devoted wife. Ingrid is a pianist, and when she starts teaching his little girl how to play, they both start fantasizing about playing duets together. This is a very 1930s plot line, where the woman is the great temptress and the man is practically possessed by his feelings for her. Like in The Blue Angel, the man is not an active participant, but is instead the victim. Sometimes that is the case in real life, when homewreckers really go out their way to seduce a married man. But most of the time, as in the immortal words from French Kiss, they don't "steal anything that doesn't want to be stolen", so a lot of these 1930s movies aren't that realistic. However, if you want to see a very, very young Ingrid Bergman speaking in her native tongue, you can rent it. She doesn't play a femme fatale; in fact, her character is quite sweet, but just keep in mind the blame doesn't rest solely on her shoulders.

The Swedish version of "Intermezzo" is so heartwrenching that it must be true. Okay, so maybe that's an exaggeration, but this film is certainly one of the greatest screen romance films. It's definitely a film for artists, who need to always attempt to balance their lives between the home fires and the passion of one's creative calling. Watching this one will certainly remind the viewer to not take for granted what their love life offers them.

I was lucky enough to catch this at Melbourne's wonderful Astor Cinema and was astonished to re-read the external review that panned it. This was the first pre ww2 Swedish movie I'd seen and I'd have to say that I'm yet to see any Hollywood films of its vintage that are any better. I thought that the principal cast, Gosta Ekman, Inga Tidblad (who yes does look strikingly like Kristen Scott Thomas), Ingrid Bergman, Eric "Bullen" Berglund, and Britt Hegman were terrific and the telling and pacing of the story was faultless. The poor matching of sets and trite dialogue that often marred films that were coming out of the UK and USA at the time was mercifully missing and the film was a delight. Yes its great to see Ingrid Bergman looking radiant (and at times more than a little like Gretta Garbo) but all the other components that make up this film aren't too shabby either. If you get the opportunity to see this film, I don't think you'll regret seizing it.

This is the Swedish version of INTERMEZZO. The film was remade for English-speaking audiences just 3 years later with a mostly non-Swedish cast, except for Ingrid Bergman who reprized her role from the original.

While this Swedish version isn't quite as polished as the other, it is the original and seems a little less polished--and this ISN'T necessarily a bad thing. Because of the lack of polish, the film seems more like it was filmed with real people and the problems seemed more universal. Also, while I didn't approve of the lead running around on his family, it sure brought up a lot of moral questions and made me think. A decent, though not great, film.

The original version of 'Intermezzo', starring Ingrid Bergman - who later recreated the role in Hollywood opposite Leslie Howard - and Gosta Ekman, is an involving story of a mid-life crisis, an intermezzo, a passion driven by music.

Tired, bored, and a stranger to his family, Holger Brandt (Ekman) is searching for a new accompanist but when he finds his daughter's music teacher, Anita Hoffmann (Bergman) events begin to move in quite a different direction. Of course we don't see any romantic involvements beyond a bit of friendly kissing and heightened dialogue between Brandt and Hoffmann which pinpoints their relationship - and the film is all the better for it.

As good as the version with Bergman/Howard, this version is rarely seen but well worth catching. Ekman - who has more than a passing resemblance to the great German actor Conrad Veidt - is the perfect suffering artist, looking for excitement and a new definition of love; while Bergman makes the character of Hoffmann believable in her infatuation with Brandt without seeing ridiculous.