Sofa Cinema

Gifts - NEW | Help | Sign in

Hotlists: Rent games; New releases; Coming soon; In cinemas now; Top rated; Most popular; All-time favourites; Divided opinions

Games: DS; GameCube; PS2; PS3; PSP; Wii; Xbox; Xbox 360

Collections: 100 Wild Westerns; 100 Most Wanted; 100 Hot Hits; 100 must-see movies; 100 Big Adventures; 100 Horror Films; 100 Cops & Robbers; 100 Rom-Coms; 100 Swords and Sandals Films

Hi-Def: Blu-ray; HD DVD

Intermezzo (1939)

Average rating

(55%)

Starring:	Leslie Howard \| Ingrid Bergman \| Edna Best \| John Halliday \| Marlene Dietrich \| Charles Boyer \| Basil Rathbone
Director:	Gregory Ratoff
Studio:	FREMANTLE HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time:	70 mins
Genres:	Drama
Languages:	English
Released:	October 13, 2003

David O. Selznick's INTERMEZZO is Ingrid Bergman's first English-speaking film and the movie that launched her Hollywood career. Billed as the greatest love story of all time, it avoids the schmaltz factor despite being highly melodramatic, due to Gregory Ratoff's swift direction.

Rating of 4 stars out of 5

Also known as Escape to Happiness, this was producer David O Selznick's remake of the Swedish movie which also starred Ingrid Bergman. Originally only intending to purchase the story, Selznick was persuaded to also import Miss Bergman, who here makes her American debut, and her natural beauty was the movie's initial sales gimmick. The tale of obsessive love is old hat, but is remarkably and touchingly well played by Bergman and Leslie Howard. The film was to have been directed by William Wyler, who Selznick allegedly fired in order to hire the Russian émigré Gregory Ratoff, who owed Selznick and could therefore forfeit his director's salary to pay off his gambling debt to the producer! Nevertheless, with the camera in the hands of the great Gregg Toland (who shot Citizen Kane for Orson Welles), Intermezzo remains a most moving and mercifully short love story.

Rating of 3 stars out of 5
Halliwell's Film Guide

Archetypal cinema love story, Hollywoodized from a Swedish original but quite perfect in its brief, sentimental way.

Highest rated reviews

1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 5.0 stars
Sweet music from Bergman and Howard

BARRIE MACHIN from Reading England, 7th January, 2005

Ingrid Bergman was cast opposite almost all of Hollywood's leading men during her career and 'Intermezzo' (also the title of the enchanting and haunting theme music throughout the film) is the only film in which she was cast opposite Leslie Howard. The story is the eternal triangle of 'wife and home' versus the enchantress at the office - or in this case a famous violinist's (Howard) piano playing accompanyist (Bergman) when on tour.They obviously make lovely music together (in more ways than one) but Howard gets pangs of conscience about his loyal wife and family back at home whilst he is away on his whistle stop tour of the capitals of Europe ,despite the manifest attractions of his pianist! He returns home only to witness his little daughter being knocked by a motor car - which plucks at the heart strings even more. Does he go back to wife and home or does he stick to fiddling with Ingrid Bergamn's affections? I'll not spoil the ending for you but this beautifully crafted piece is an overlooked classic and well worth reserving now! The haunting 'Intermezzo' (dubbed by Yehudi Menhuin I learned) is worth the rent on it's own! Enjoy!

Read all highest rated reviews

*** May contain spoilers ***

Rated 3.0 stars
Run of the mill love story

JSG from , 12th February, 2009

An average run of the mill love story with a few magical touches to make it more memorable than it probably should be. However, it does make a change that an extra-marital affair in a pre-1970s film doesn't result in the death of a main character. Ingrid Bergman is very good in her English-speaking debut. Leslie Howard and the other English actors however all appear a bit stilted. There are some clever camera angles to hide the fact that it isn't Howard who is playing the violin. The two stand out moments come when Bergman leaves Howard for the first time while looking into a shop window - the direction and photography is haunting, dazzling and almost ghost-like. And the other is when Bergman says goodbye to Howard for the final time. However, the film feels light especially due to its short running time.

Read all highest rated reviews

Rated 3.0 stars
Musical interlude

Cato from , 2nd August, 2005

I can see why this film was so popular in its day (1939), i.e. it's a tale of illicit love with plenty of extremely schmalzy music, played incidentally by Yasha Heifitz with Leslie Howard dubbing. The thing that makes it so exciting is the introduction of Ingrid Bergman onto the Hollywood screen as the young pianist whom the rather middle aged Howard falls for. This actress was a divine mixture of brains and beauty, and film goers must have loved her from the start. The film itself is mercifully short but is shot well and holds dramatic tension for the most part. One of Leslie Howard's last films before he was shot down in the war.

Read all highest rated reviews