Intermezzo

Ingrid Bergman... rowr. That's it, that's my entire review.

The original Swedish hit that Selznick arranged to have re-made in Hollywood to introduce Ingrid Bergman to English-speaking audiences. It's interesting to see Bergman pre-Hollywood...she's--dare I say?--a tad gawky, but of course, lovely. The speeches about music and performing are rather quaint, and the whole thing assumes a simpler, more naïve world. Except for the violin music, a fairly standard melodrama. Bullen Berglund's Charles is the only person one is truly happy to see enter a scene.

The Swedish version of Ingrid Bergman's Intermezzo. Here it's Gösta Ekman who turns into her lover. Ekman is perhaps a little too much like an stage actor, but Bergman, especially when she smiles, is full of beauty for the silver screen. Watching this film makes it easy to understand why Hollywood wanted her as the "next Garbo #253". Thankfully for Bergman she didn't become the next Garbo. She became Bergman the First.