In Intermezzo, the most famous of her Swedish films, Ingrid Bergman portrays an aspiring pianist doing home tutorial for the young daughter of famous violin virtuoso Gösta Ekman, who is about to embark on yet another tour of European concert halls. The first encounter Bergman has with the entire violinist’s family and colleagues, while accompanying him on the piano, is an expertly executed scene of camera set-ups, looks and subdued acting, where each individual’s hopes and fears of things to come are movingly rendered. Intermezzo is a melodrama in the truest and finest sense of the word, and already one year after her screen debut, Bergman demonstrates she was the best Swedish actress of her generation as she brings character and depth to the part.
Celebrated stage and screen actor Gösta Ekman made his film debut already in 1912, and is internationally most known for his performance as the title character in F.W. Murnau’s Faust (1926). His tendency for theatricality and over-acting in sound films is present also in this film (his second to last before his premature death in 1938), but is in some way in-character with the musical genius he is portraying, and Intermezzo is arguably his best sound film performance. The violinist’s adolescent son is played by Ekman’s real life son Hasse, later to become one of the most celebrated actor-directors in Swedish cinema. Their relationship in the film is partly mirroring that of real life, as Hasse Ekman in his memoirs accounts for the experience of growing up with a very famous, and often absent, father.
David O. Selznick acquired the rights to Molander’s and Stevens’ script, and produced an American version in 1939 entitled Intermezzo: A Love Story, directed by Gregory Ratoff and shot by Greg Toland. Ingrid Bergman repeated her performance in this her first American film, and the part of the violinist was played by Leslie Howard.