Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

These are Leslie Howard's words to Bergman on the first night they have a drink together. It was his description of her. I think it is also an apt description for my opinion of this movie. I was expecting to like this more than I did. I am a sucker for a love story, but this one just didn't move me.First, I find Leslie Howard rather lacking as a leading man. He is too much the disillusioned dreamer in almost every role I remember him being in. After a while, it just seems redundant. I think he tends to act overly melodramatic in places too. But I do think his violin playing looked very believable (even though it was dubbed). To sum up my opinion of Howard, using his own words from this film, "Not at all a fetching fellow." Howard is 46 years old here, compared to Bergman's 24 years - but somehow he pulls it off as he still has a youthful face.Bergman, on the other hand, is remarkable in her American screen debut. At her young age, she is in my opinion already a seasoned performer. I think it just came so naturally for her. Also, its amazing that she was filmed without makeup, per Selznick's orders as he wanted to achieve the same fresh faced look she had in her Swedish films. The camera just loves her. The daughter, Anne Marie, played by Ann Todd is so adorable and acts quites naturally. Howard's wife is played by Edna Best, who looks and acts quite bland and comely. Perhaps this is on purpose so as to make the audience be more understanding how he could be unfaithful to his wife.The cinematography is amazing - I especially liked the scene where they try to say goodbye and their reflection is caught in the shop window. I would think that would have been difficult to light.Even though there is an obvious moral failing in the adulterous affair, there are good lessons such as when Halliday's character tells Bergman "I wonder if anyone has built happiness on the unhappiness of others". Bergman finally realizes this and tells Halliday "I have been an intermezzo in his life - we know where he belongs." Also, when Bergman finally leaves and writes a note, it says "Love like ours is wrong. It drags itself down with remorse and fears, and the unhappiness of others." Too bad more people don't heed that advice today. Another touching scene is Howard with his son when he returns back home. The son is bitter, to which Howard responds: "When we're young, we expect the people we love to behave like gods, especially our fathers. But sadly as we grow older, we realize we are all human, tragically human. We all make mistakes - one day maybe you'll understand. And if so, perhaps forgive... even your father."I think there are admirable aspects to the film, especially Bergman's performance and the cinematography. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece, but it is worth a look.

The familiar David O. Selznick gloss is all over this minor 1939 soap opera, most noteworthy as the American film debut of 24-year old Ingrid Bergman. She was brought over from Sweden by Selznick for this melodramatic remake of the 1936 film which brought her great acclaim in her homeland. Her fresh-faced beauty and natural manner are intoxicating as she plays Anita Hoffman, first a piano teacher to the young daughter of renowned violinist Holger Brandt and then his accompanist on a world tour. It's a brief movie, only seventy minutes long, directed by Gregory Ratoff (more famous as the ulcer-ridden producer Max in "All About Eve") focusing on the illicit affair that develops between Anita and Holger.Much of the story has to do with the guilt they both experience in terms of the familial repercussions, and the ending reflects as much. A role away from his Ashley Wilkes in "Gone With the Wind", obviously the more important Selznick movie in production a the time, Leslie Howard plays Holger in his familiar erudite manner. Veteran character actor Cecil Kellaway (later the monsignor in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner") plays the sage maestro who acts as the film's conscience. Scenes often seem strangely truncated to move the story briskly along. Beyond Bergman, the most accomplished aspects of the film are Gregg Toland's lush cinematography, Lyle Wheeler's art direction (making Monterey, California look very much like the Italian Riviera) and Max Steiner's romantic music (oddly uncredited). But the impossibly striking Bergman is the primary reason to see this predictably developed film. The 2004 DVD offers no extras.

"Intermezzo" is a beautifully photographed, bittersweet story about a the love affair between a concert violinist (Leslie Howard) and a pianist (Ingrid Bergman). This was Bergman's second time at the role, the first time being in her native Sweden. This film catapulted her to fame. Her natural beauty and freshness is shown to wonderful advantage here, as is her sensitive acting in the role of Anita Hoffman.Howard plays Holger Brandt, a married man with two children who leaves his wife and family when his affair with Bergman becomes too intense. Hoffman becomes his accompanist on tour, sublimating her own career plans because she wants to be with him. While vacationing, he becomes attached to a little girl who obviously reminds him of his daughter (Ann Todd), whom he adores, and Anita wonders if their illicit affair can ever bring them happiness.The film is rich in subtext and metaphors. "Aren't you giving it too much importance?" Anita's piano teacher asks as she rips into a concerto. "We were all impressed with you the night you played here ... with my husband," Holger's wife says, asking Anita about her studies. "I really had no choice," Anita almost whispers. Even the title of his daughter's favorite piece that he plays, "Intermezzo" takes on a special meaning.Few actors have cut the romantic, ethereal figure that Leslie Howard did during his film career. Tall, blond, with that soft voice and faraway look in his eyes, he makes a perfect musician who is always listening to a melody in his head. Though some people feel his phoned-in Ashley Wilkes doesn't hold up today, in fact, he was the embodiment of Ashley without making much effort, a soft dreamer with impractical values from another time. And so he is here, not thinking ahead and lost in a romantic fog.A touching and dramatic film with very effective performances.

A cultured and unfussy weepie. Strong leads from Leslie Howard and Ingrid Bergman front a strong cast - right down to the excellent Ann Todd as Howard's young daughter.The story is of a concert violinist who leaves his wife for another woman. Naturally there is quite a bit of music in the film. Great care has been taken to equate the miming with the soundtrack. All the musicians look as if they are really performing, detail typically neglected nowadays. The score itself, despite being the fruit of many hands, is exemplary in its integration with the film: Heinz Provost's titular melody uses the opening phrase of the act 2 love duet of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, showing the long reach of Wagner's fully-integrated musico-dramatic ideas in romantic American film scores more than 50 years after his death.The final sequences are slightly out of kilter. However mitigating against this lumpen denouement are some wonderful location shots and two outstandingly executed leave-taking sequences as Bergman literally dissolves into the chiaroscuro of the shot. A thoroughly affecting and well-made film. 7/10