Arch of Triumph (1948)

[moira finnie]

Arch of Triumph (1948), a dramatic film based on the Erich Maria Remarque novel about the fate of displaced persons, featured beautifully acted roles by Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman and Louis Calhern. I've never fully understood why this movie was such a noted failure, except, perhaps, for the note of realism it struck about the romantic fate of the principals, who were desperately trying to hang on in Paris during the German occupation.

Perhaps people in 1948 just didn't want to see this sort of story after the war. It may also have been affected by having so many individuals hurt by HUAC in the cast, Roman Bohnen, J. Edward Bromberg, and Art Smith (all veterans of NY's Group Theater and excellent character actors). In any case, if you have a chance to see it or have an opinion of it, I hope you'll post. Here's a clip from youtube featuring several evocative scenes from this dark but resonant film. The music is "My Immortal" by Evanescence, and the cinematography is by Russell Metty under Lewis Milestone's direction:
[youtube][/youtube]

[CineMaven]

Nice YouTube fare on"Arch of Triumph." So, reunited after "Gaslight" ey? Is it my imagination...or is there a light that shines from inside Ingrid Bergman out into your heart when you watch her performances? Just asking.

[Mr. Arkadin]

AOT is a film I've long wanted to see as a fan of Bergman and Remarque. I know it was just released on DVD, so hopefully my library will get a copy soon.

[Mr. Arkadin]

Is it my imagination...or is there a light that shines from inside Ingrid Bergman out into your heart when you watch her performances? Just asking.

Yes! Check out Voyage to Italy (1953). Bergman simply communicates with her eyes in much of the film and the result is astounding.

P.S. Nice to see you here CM.

[MissGoddess]

I absolutely have adored this film for YEARS, ever since I was a kid, ha! OK that wasn't THAT many
years...

I think the acting is great and the cinemastography but I also like the way it captures a certain
rueful, if understandably dark hopelessness that so many refugees must have felt in those sad
days of occupation in Paris. They are so "gallant" in a way, but do everything possible NOT
to speak or refer directly to their plight and circumstances---that is not the behavior of a "good
soldier". I feel this movie also truly captures Remarque's "flavor" as an author, and you can
almost feel the presence of Dietrich, too, who absorbed so much of his viewpoint. Bergman
almost looks like she's channelling Dietrich in her beret, cynical pout and casual cigarette. I really
like her character, I always liked Bergman "unhinged" and here she's so desperate to live fully
in the moment, like a hunted thing who knows the hunter is on her heels. I like how Boyer shows
himself alternately irritated and fascinated by her mercurical emotionalism.

Fantastic stuff! I need to watch it again, maybe tonight, and I can take a couple of screencaps
if anyone's interested.

[moira finnie]

Nice YouTube fare on"Arch of Triumph." So, reunited after "Gaslight" ey? Is it my imagination...or is there a light that shines from inside Ingrid Bergman out into your heart when you watch her performances? Just asking.

What a perfect description of Bergman at her finest. I was just thinking about this quality she had without putting it into words as you did the other day when viewing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), CineM. In one of her most sensual and natural performances as the victim of Hyde, she seems so much more alive than most actresses who were her contemporaries.

AOT is a film I've long wanted to see as a fan of Bergman and Remarque. I know it was just released on DVD, so hopefully my library will get a copy soon.

Wow, I thought this would never show up on a commercially issued dvd and I'm such a turnip, I didn't know I could actually get my mitts on a copy. Thanks for mentioning this, Ark. I agree about Voyage to Italy (1954). I have recently seen the Jean Renoir film, Elena and Her Men (1956). The director said he wished to photograph Bergman smiling on camera, since she so seldom had roles that allowed her to do so (this is before Indiscreet, of course). Lovely, even "renoiresque" in her beauty, I suspect that Max Ophuls could have blended the comic with the serious a bit differently than Jean, but Bergman is really luminous and touching here too. All these movies are, thankfully, on dvd now.

I think the acting is great and the cinematography but I also like the way it captures a certain rueful, if understandably dark hopelessness that so many refugees must have felt in those sad days of occupation in Paris. They are so "gallant" in a way, but do everything possible NOT to speak or refer directly to their plight and circumstances---that is not the behavior of a "good soldier". I feel this movie also truly captures Remarque's "flavor" as an author...

That's such an apt way to describe the desolate yet valiant air of the displaced persons in this film. Have you seen There Shall Be No Night (1941), also produced by that very interesting producer, Walter Wanger from another novel on this theme by Remarque?

I always liked Bergman "unhinged" and here she's so desperate to live fully in the moment, like a hunted thing who knows the hunter is on her heels. I like how Boyer shows himself alternately irritated and fascinated by her mercurical emotionalism.

Yeah, Miss G. Love it when Boyer tries to distance himself from his own emotions in films by intellectualizing an experience, only to give in finally--for better and worse--to the overwhelming longing for human contact and the possibility of love. Madame de..., Back Street, Break of Hearts, Hold Back the Dawn. Is there another actor who does this as well?

Fantastic stuff! I need to watch it again, maybe tonight, and I can take a couple of screencaps if anyone's interested.

INTERESTED! Heck, yes. Please, screencaps would be great. Please include Louis Calhern too if you can.

Thanks to everyone for posting about this movie--which should be part of the Charles Boyer month that needs to be done on TCM. Or at least a night of Erich Maria Remarque stories to film, eh?


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P.S. Having once seen the Anthony Hopkins-Lesley Anne Down made for tv 1984 version of this story, I would not recommend it over the original black and white beauty, but Hopkins is excellent in the Boyer role. Trouble is, maybe most viewers first caught Hopkins in some gory stuff like Silence of the Lambs and don't know what a quietly powerful, nuanced, non-sinister actor he can really be, alas. This '84 version shows up on cable once in awhile, I believe.