“To
love, one must be loved”
The
plot to Goodbye Again is one that is
still being written today: A woman named Paula Tessier (Ingrid Bergman) has
been seeing a man named Roger Demarest (Yves Montand) for the past five years.
Neither of them wants to marry since they were both previously married to other
people and their marriages did not work. In the five years they have been
together Roger has been seeing other women on the side while Paula has only
been with him. Their situation does not bother Paula until Roger calls one day
canceling their plans for dinner because he apparently has business.
When
they eventually see each other Roger gives Paula some business from a friend of
his to decorate someone’s house. The woman has a young son named Phillip van
der Besh (Anthony Perkins). From the moment Phillip lays eyes on Paula he is
taken with her. The whole rest of the day he cannot get his mind off of Paula.
He does not even know her name and spends his afterhours looking for her.
Phillip finally finds Paula at a small dive with Roger. Phillip is very drunk
so they drive him home. Paula tells Roger that she likes the idea that someone
has been looking for her.
The
next day Phillip finds Paula at the shop she works at. He feels terrible about
how he acted the previous night and wants to take her out to lunch. She declines
so he just follows her around all day like a stalker.
As
the story goes on Paula finds that Roger has been lying about where he has been
going and the more Phillip talks about her needing real love and how she is
always alone the more she gravitates towards the younger man. She eventually
lets herself go with Phillip but she knows it will not last which unfortunately
he cannot accept that it will not. In the end Paula marries Roger.
The
whole plot is about how Paula struggles with being a woman of forty (Bergman
was actually forty-six but does not look it at all). When Phillip leaves her
one night she yells that she is old and when they go on a small vacation she
overhears a little girl ask how old she is. Paula struggles with the thought
that Roger is always with younger women and sneaks around with them and the
fact that she is going around with a younger man.
Now
if this had been made today I would not have been able to sit through it but
the cast was so good and it was wonderfully filmed. Ingrid Bergman is just
amazing. She has such a magnetism to her and commands your attention. There was
one scene after Paula comes home from being out Phillip and she just sits in
the dark not knowing what to do with herself then Roger comes by and she just
lets loose and tells him what is wrong. Bergman was perfection she was not over
the top whatsoever. Anthony Perkins will unfortunately always be Norman Bates
from Psycho to me. He was very good he
was very believable as his character but I just cannot get into him he irks me
in some way that I cannot explain.
Ingrid
Bergman’s clothes were designed by Christian Dior. You can tell they are Dior’s
designs from the late 1950s/early 1960s. His pieces are so beautifully cut and
designed they are very simple yet completely sophisticated. Along with Adrian’s
costumes Rage in Heaven, Dior’s
clothing looked stunning on Bergman they fit her tall frame wonderfully.
Goodbye Again is a very good movie.
Really I give all the credit to Ingrid Bergman. You can always see her
characters’ struggles in her face and her actions; she becomes her characters
that you see past her as just an actress. That point really drives the story
and makes you feel bad for her character. Goodbye
Again is a very well made film from direction to acting and one I suggest
seeing if you can find it.
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