Intermezzo: A Love Story - Gregory Ratoff

The year 1939 is usually regarded by historians, film buffs and scholars as the greatest year in film history. During the course of those twelve months audiences saw the premieres of films like The Wizard of Oz, Ninotchka, Love Affair, Wuthering Heights, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Young Mr.Lincoln, La Grande Illusion, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Stagecoach and Gone With the Wind. Most of those films have become enduring masterpieces and are often mentioned in “best of” lists all over the world.

Surprisingly, even amongst that embarrassment of riches, some films from that year have remained in obscurity and are vastly underrated. One of them would be Intermezzo, Gregory Ratoff’s remake of the homonymous Swedish film made in 1936.

It starred a very young Ingrid Bergman as a piano teacher who falls in love with the father of one of her students, a world famous and married violinist (played by theatre actor Gösta Ekman). Upon watching the film, legendary producer David O. Selznick decided he wanted to make an American adaptation. He was so bewitched by Bergman that he asked her to reprise her role as Anita Hoffman in the English speaking version. She accepted and landed her first Hollywood part (a mere three years later she would star in Casablanca and become a legend). For the role of violinist Holger Brandt, Selznick cast British actor Leslie Howard (he was coerced by Selznick who gave him co-producer credits in this film if he agreed to play Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind). The rest of the cast was formed by Edna Best as Mrs. Brandt, Ann Todd as Holger’s daughter Anne Marie, Douglas Scott as his son Eric and John Halliday as his friend and mentor Thomas Stenborg.

The plot mostly follows the romance between Anita and Holger, from its awkward beginning, until the time when they understand that their passion is not what’s best for them and others.

“I wonder if anyone has built happiness on the unhappiness of others” expresses Thomas to let Holger and Anita know what he’s thinking.

Surprisingly for being a product of its era, morality is rarely an issue in the movie. At least not in the way one would expect from the era. The fact that a married man runs off with a much younger woman leaving his family behind is never a central theme. Maybe because it was adapted from a Swedish screenplay and had to reflect European more liberal, values. But translating it into American terms, something must’ve been said by the Board of Censors and the League of Decency.

Perhaps Selznick’s influences worked so that the film would remain as faithful to the original as possible and instead of condemning the characters, the movie works so that their love is at the centre of it all (if only history had been as kind to Bergman when she went through something similar in real life). Watching the desire in Holger’s eyes as he embraces Anita, audience members, like the characters, put their moral and societal values somewhere else and become enthralled by the romanticism.

Because of this, on the surface Intermezzo is probably regarded as a simple, inconsequential melodrama. A “woman’s picture” if you like; films devised only to squeeze tears from the people in the audience, who would be swept by the exquisite romance and impending tragedy of it all. However beneath its delicate surface, this film contains some harsh realities about masculinity. Seen this way, the entire dynamic of  Intermezzo turns into a representation of the masks men are forced to wear to fulfill their roles in society.

For instance Holger’s infidelity doesn’t wreck his marriage in the expected ways. After he leaves with Anita, several scenes portray his wife and daughter’s sadness in direct contrast with the joy he’s experiencing. One particularly striking sequence has his daughter listen to the radio, while his picture stands next to it. Without the need for extensive dialogues or obviousness, we understand that his role as a father is being satisfied by a machine and an image. Another similar scene involves Anita who gently caresses Holger’s violin with a combination of lust and longing in her eyes. The film plays with his instrument as an extension of his sexual reach. Even more, after Holger ends his relationship with Anita, his first impulse is to return home and see his children, his daughter particularly. He expects to be met with resentment and bitterness but is welcomed back as if nothing had happened. As if the affair was a normal phase in his life, an intermezzo of sorts from routine and yet another role he had to fulfill.

The film suggests that this ethical questioning was exclusive to men. In the first part the wisdom is provided by Stenborg who tries to guide Anita and make her see beyond passion. In the last scenes this mission is turned over to Holger’s son, Eric, who forces his father to cope with the magnitude of his actions. Eric is almost an inexistent presence throughout the entire movie, his appearances seem of no consequence to the plot, but during his last scene he almost becomes the lead. It’s as if Holger had been in denial the entire time and the director chose to represent this by hiding the one character who could spark a change in him. In one of the movie’s first scenes Holger arrives at a train station where he is met by his family. After hugging his wife and daughter he approaches his son and shakes his hand arguing that now that he’s all grown up, he no longer can kiss him. The awkwardness of this moment perhaps marks the spot where Holger chooses to detach man and child apart within himself. His eventual selfishness and lack of consideration mark a return to his inner child who refuses to become what is expected of him as an adult. The male characters always work as reflections of Holger and the beauty of Intermezzo is that like Holger they fool us into seeing only what our eyes want to see.

Watch a scene from Gregory Ratoff's remake here: