Intermezzo: A Love Story

This remake, instigated when producer David O. Selznick saw Bergman in the 1936 Swedish original, features the actress in a reprise of her role as a piano accompanist who falls in love with a married virtuoso violinist, here played by Leslie Howard.

Echoing the production history of another 1939 Selznick production, Gone with the Wind, Intermezzo: A Love Story’s first director, William Wyler, was replaced by Gregory Ratoff, and its first cinematographer, Harry Stradling, was replaced by Gregg Toland. Perhaps because of this, the film’s artistry is mostly informed by the gentle tone of the original, with several scenes lovingly remade almost shot-for-shot. Ironically, the key difference is Bergman herself, whose more mature and restrained performance foreshadows the rest of her Hollywood career.

– Andréas Giannopoulos, Melbourne Cinémathèque, committee member