Sunday 1 May 2011

Peter Ibbetson


"It is a matter of critical insight that many great movie love stories - in whole or in part - involve separation of the lovers. A final embrace may suffice for standard fare. But the intrinsic nature of the screen (cross-cut close-ups) and of movie-going (us in the dark separated from them in the light) makes yearning and separation the most potent force. Of course, this is somewhat at odds with an audience and a business greedy for embraces, and more. But there is also the Romantic ideal that a love unrealized is eternal. Peter Ibbetson is one of the very few films to address that issue directly.    -- David Thomson, Gary Cooper (pp 45-46)

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