you've been too close to heaven.haven't read the novel, but what an ambitious love story, that transforms into something closer to fantasy than romance. like something jean cocteau'd be doing in the '40s. gogo and mimsey, inseparable childhood friends, only to be torn apart. their farewell scene, though, didn't leave much impact on me. but it gets better when they're grown up. gary cooper is again not very showy in this, and that's exactly why he works here. he spends most of it carrying sadness of never getting over the childhood he lost. ann harding is equally impressive as mary, now the duchess. dreams have always been such a good part of cinema. i was surprised once the dream element became central. shared dreams? in 1935? it builds an entire romance around two people meeting in their sleep. they aren't overloaded with effects either. they're simple and heavy on lighting. coop's one of the greatest eye actors out there, so easy to skip that he has neither a british nor a french accent for his character.charles lang's photography does wonders. soft lighting, dissolves, and shadows just as i love them... some scenes, especially the ones after imprisonment, are so beautiful. hits all the right sentimentalist spots in me. love can exist beyond physical separation. it never rushes those moments. the characters simply talk, remember and long for one another. it's easy to see why the film puzzled audiences when it first came out. it also doesn't resemble most hollywood productions from the '30s. parts of it feel decades ahead of their time, especially the dreams, reality, and even death stuff. and i'm not surprised that buñuel loved it. the overwhelming romanticism occasionally borders on melodrama. it believes wholeheartedly in its impossible love story, and that confidence makes it so surprisingly and accidentally affecting. look at those last minutes. the ending got me."marry you've forgotten your gloves... you mustn't lose them" crick ~ crack
An Old Hollywood film where its characters can dream themselves into each others' consciousness, Peter Ibbetson becomes quite the unusual love story that does the rare thing of messing with metaphysics back then in a way this pronounced.Essentially boy meets girl becomes childhood soul mates, separated by space and time until they meet once more in their future. But alas, they cannot be together for she is betrothed and in the heat of the moment violence separates them once more (this time forever).As life rips lovers apart just as it joins them together again, it offers them a condolence: their love so strong it creates magical, shared dream space where they can be together finally, free from the constraints of the real world and happy in the one they've made... at least when they sleep."But it isn't real.""Who is to say what is real and what is not real? We're dreaming true, a dream that is more than a dream."And so two live and die this way.
"The desperate love between children, is there anything forgotten so soon?"Peter (Gary Cooper) and Mary (Ann Harding) fall in love as children before Peter is forced to move away from Paris to England following the death of his mother. He never forgets her and that love never dies within him until the two are reunited years later, only to be separated again. The structure really works here. We get to see their relationship in three almost equally divided sections. The first act mostly shows their bond as kids. The second the reunion as adults who don't realize who they were to one another in the past. The third covering the longing and yearning of the second separation. The first sections are fine. It's a charming romance that looks at how sometimes love is for life, even when separations keep it from being realized. Cooper is dashing. Forlorn and reserved in his inability to forget his childhood love while still making the depths of feeling within him evident. But it's really the third act that takes this to the next level. Things get trippy and surreal as the two find they can meet in a common ethereal space in their dreams. They don't age, and can remain in a perfect state for as long as they live. The outside world falls away as their "real" bodies cease to matter for any other reason than to act as a host vessel for the space made by their shared memories and imagination. Charles Lang's cinematography is great in the more grounded parts of the movie, but it is stunning here in this place that doesn't need to adhere to the rules of reality. A gorgeous looking love story with an unconventional twist and magical surrealist atmosphere that really makes the film sing. Combine the punch of the last act with the short run time and this is an easy recommend.
