A concert violinist, stripped of an accompanying piano player, returns home to his wife and children, who he never sees. He sees accompaniment in his daughter's young piano teacher, and despite a twenty-five year (!) age difference, the two start an affair, too in love to see what they're hurting- their families and their lives.
It isn't easy to like the two main characters of this film.
The man, Holger, is a pompous arse who is more than eager to leave his wife Margit and start an affair with his daughter's piano teacher Anita, going on tour with her and not really caring whoever he hurts- his wife, his daughter, his son. I'm not sure why his wife accepted him back at the end. She should have given him an old fashioned Joan Crawford-style smack around the head. With an axe.
The daughter's piano teacher isn't much better- she keeps going on and on about how what they're doing is wrong, yet she doesn't seem very eager to break off the affair. Ingrid Bergman was just twenty-one years old here, and had only been in films for a couple of years...it shows. She has more chemistry with the gut in this one than Leslie Howard, but that's not really hard to do.
With her dark red lipstick, penciled eyebrows and silent-movie eyeshadow, she doesn't look much like Ingrid Bergman to begin with. Thank goodness Bergman had adopted a more natural look within a couple of years.
The guy who plays Holger () actually sort of looks like Leslie Howard if Leslie Howard had dark circles under his eyes and looked like he was always drunk. The actor who played Holger's son was pretty good too, although he was merely window decoration. The child actress who played Anne Marie was WAY better than the one in the American remake. As well, the actress who played Holger's wife was quite a bit better than the one in the remake as well...the rest of the cast was just the same in both the original and the remake.
In terms of production values, this film doesn't have much going for it. All of the actors are shot in soft focus, with shadows over one side of their faces, even more soft focus close-ups, and some scenes where there is so little lighting that the actors appear to be in silhouette. The whole film looks like a dream sequence, and I do not mean that politely. For such a serious story, a hazy, dreamy atmosphere just doesn't fit. And thank goodness for subtitles, because not only are the actors talking quietly, the background noises and music are recorded really loudly, louder than most of the dialogue.
Overall, it's better than the remake, but it still isn't good. I'd love to, but I can't give this film a rating above mediocre.
It isn't easy to like the two main characters of this film.
The man, Holger, is a pompous arse who is more than eager to leave his wife Margit and start an affair with his daughter's piano teacher Anita, going on tour with her and not really caring whoever he hurts- his wife, his daughter, his son. I'm not sure why his wife accepted him back at the end. She should have given him an old fashioned Joan Crawford-style smack around the head. With an axe.
The daughter's piano teacher isn't much better- she keeps going on and on about how what they're doing is wrong, yet she doesn't seem very eager to break off the affair. Ingrid Bergman was just twenty-one years old here, and had only been in films for a couple of years...it shows. She has more chemistry with the gut in this one than Leslie Howard, but that's not really hard to do.
With her dark red lipstick, penciled eyebrows and silent-movie eyeshadow, she doesn't look much like Ingrid Bergman to begin with. Thank goodness Bergman had adopted a more natural look within a couple of years.
The guy who plays Holger () actually sort of looks like Leslie Howard if Leslie Howard had dark circles under his eyes and looked like he was always drunk. The actor who played Holger's son was pretty good too, although he was merely window decoration. The child actress who played Anne Marie was WAY better than the one in the American remake. As well, the actress who played Holger's wife was quite a bit better than the one in the remake as well...the rest of the cast was just the same in both the original and the remake.
In terms of production values, this film doesn't have much going for it. All of the actors are shot in soft focus, with shadows over one side of their faces, even more soft focus close-ups, and some scenes where there is so little lighting that the actors appear to be in silhouette. The whole film looks like a dream sequence, and I do not mean that politely. For such a serious story, a hazy, dreamy atmosphere just doesn't fit. And thank goodness for subtitles, because not only are the actors talking quietly, the background noises and music are recorded really loudly, louder than most of the dialogue.
Overall, it's better than the remake, but it still isn't good. I'd love to, but I can't give this film a rating above mediocre.