Very Cool!!!

Too much of everything

Memorable, crazy movie

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

High class soap opera with Ingrid, stylishly dressed and becomingly coiffured, looking wonderful. She of course gives the best performance with Anthony Perkins a close second. The main problem is that her longing for Yves Montand, a stolid lout, is puzzling. In a sign of how the times have changed the enchanting beautiful Ingrid, who states that she is forty, considers herself old and seems desperately afraid of being alone and is willing to settle for crumbs from a man whom she is clearly to good for. Still as these sort of pictures go this is a fine diversion, competently directed with handsome black and white photography. Jessie Royce Landis is fun in a small part as Tony's mother.

GOODBYE AGAIN can bring tears to the eyes of any hopeless romantic. Writer Samuel A. Taylor adapts the novel of Francoise Sagan. Paula Tessler(Ingrid Bergman)is a successful 40 year old decorator that has an emotional struggle with her age. She has spent the last five years with Roger Demarest(Yves Montand), an international tractor and truck salesman. Roger expects Paula to remain exclusive while he lengthens his list of affairs with young women. Paula knows of this and wants her lover to give that life up and settle down with her; Roger is afraid to commit himself to a lasting conventional relationship. Paula, in a weak and depressed moment, enters into her own affair with an obviously younger lawyer Phillip Van der Besh(Anthony Perkins), who is the son of one of her wealthy clients. This relationship finally looses its substance, and besides Paula's reputation begins to take a hit. Meanwhile Roger's list of lust partners increase. He names all of his young lovers Maisie, but his first(Jocelyn Lane)is the one he sets his standard with. Roger actually tires of this way of living every time he leaves on a business trip...he wants Paula to give up Phillip, the hapless lover. Kudos to the notable Anatole Litvak, who directs and produces.

A literate script and excellent acting and direction elevate this love triangle to art.One of the best scenes, late in the picture, takes place on the dance floor of Maxim's and has NO dialog--just facial expressions culminating in a touching of hands.The original French title, "Aimez-vous Brahms?", is reflected here in the use of Brahms's Third Symphony. Again, the feeling is conveyed by the music and the facial expressions of the actors. This music, long familiar to me, took on a new meaning.This is a film made by adults for an adult audience--a 40-year-old audience will appreciate it, a younger audience will not.

As I was watching the opening credits of this movie I was musing that I hate Yves Montand. I don't have any reason to hate him, really. I just do. He could be in a wonderful role like he had in "On a Clear Day", but I hate him just the same. And I love Ingrid Bergman. All of her past roles and just the way she is. She could just sit and stare at the camera for 2 hours and I would enjoy it. Same with Cary Grant. I hated Montand all the more when I thought how much better of a movie it would have been (for me anyway) if Grant had that role. I say all that because that's what the movie is really about.Montand's character should be perfect for Bergman's character, and appreciate her. Instead (happily for me) he plays a hateful, two-timing, immature ass. Bergman's 40-year-old character has no business with the 25-year-old Perkins character (which is wonderful acting on both their parts) but (at least for his sake) you want them to be together. "C'est la vie!" It would be nice if this film were in color. It would be nice if Life had that clarity, too: Love this one, this person's the one for you, no doubts, no shadows. But neither are like that. So it's somehow appropriate to examine the subject of attraction in shades of gray. Goodbye again...A challenge to examine your own attractions, the masks in your life that may slip from time to time as Montand's mask slips on the wall at one point. (There's even some subtle, though perhaps unintended humor, as the mother asks Montand's character his astrological sign and exclaims, "Taurus, the bull! I should have known!") You don't watch this movie because it's fun. And it's no fun to find yourself wishing Montand's character and Bergman's character were back together when Bergman's character becomes Perkins' character's mother figure. And you realize that it's Bergman's character that's the dishonest one...She goes with the status quo and what's safe and easiest for herself. No it's no fun to watch. But it's all so well crafted that you can't turn away. Maybe like those relationships that you somehow need to have, even though you don't know why.I recommend this film but only if you're ready to be affected in ways you didn't expect to be...like the chill you will feel in your stomach at the end.You know...I hate Ingrid Bergman...And that Montand is quite an actor.