Interlude (1968 film)

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Interlude
Interlude FilmPoster.jpeg
Directed by Kevin Billington
Screenplay by Lee Langley
Hugh Leonard
Produced byDavid Deutsch
Jack Hanbury
Starring Oskar Werner
Barbara Ferris
Virginia Maskell
Cinematography Gerry Fisher
Edited by Bert Bates
Music by Georges Delerue
Color process Technicolor
Production
company
Domino Films
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release dates
  • May 1968 (1968-05)(UK)
  • 2 July 1968 (1968-07-02)(NYC)
  • 15 July 1968 (1968-07-15)(USA)
Running time
113 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1.6 million (US/Canada) [1]

Interlude is a 1968 British drama film directed by Kevin Billington and starring Oskar Werner, Barbara Ferris and Virginia Maskell. [2] It. was written by Lee Langley and Hugh Leonard.

Contents

The film is a loose remake of the 1957 American film Interlude directed by Douglas Sirk [ citation needed ], set against the backdrop of Swinging London. It was Maskell's final film as she died in January 1968, five months before its release.

Plot

A famous male conductor gives an interview to an attractive young female reporter. He speaks a bit too frankly and ends up being given an unwanted sabbatical from conducting. He begins an affair with the young reporter during his interlude, and the accumulation of differences in their ages and background begins to mount.

Cast

Production

The film was shot at Shepperton Studios and on location around London including the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington, Fountain Court in Temple, Chelsea, and the Royal Festival Hall. [3] The Zelter family home was shot at Binfield Manor in Berkshire, and Bodiam Castle and The Mermaid Inn, Rye in East Sussex were used for filming. [3] The film's sets were designed by art director Tony Woollard. [4]

Singer Timi Yuro performed the title song "Interlude". [5] Another version by Yuro was released commercially.[ citation needed ] The song was covered in 1994 as duet by Morrissey and Siouxsie Sioux.

Reception

Penelope Houston wrote in The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "The attempt, clearly, was to play within romantic conventions, which Billington obviously enjoys (the film is set in a light, leafy, summery, non-swinging London), and at the same time to take the characters out of cliché and into an area of real choices and non-confected attitudes. ... Oskar Werner gives one of his effective, slightly abstracted performances, while Barbara Ferris pushes rather hard at gay or hurt girlishness. The girl reporter role becomes less plausible as the film continues – and in terms of what one feels Interlude is trying to do, if not those of conventional romance, a sense of consistent accuracy about people's jobs and habits is important. Still, the film is always attractive and dexterous (characters read the right books, eat in recognisable and right restaurants): a notably unflurried transition to the larger screen." [6]

Variety wrote: "All the excitement and ecstacy [sic], as well as the bittersweet, foredoomed disenchantment of extra-marital romance are contained in the original screenplay. Strong writing, superior acting and firstrate direction make this a powerful, personal drama." [4]

Time Out said, "Billington mercifully avoids the excesses of 'Swinging London', and his observant delineation of the discrepancy between the characters' would-be sophistication and their actual stock responses is, on the whole, well supported by the performances." [7]

TV Guide wrote the film does not capture the level of films like Intermezzo and Brief Encounter , but praised the chemistry between Werner and Ferris. [8]

Renata Adler of The New York Times criticized Interlude, saying its narrative could not support the film. [9] However, she added, "There are two remarkable supporting performances: one, by Donald Sutherland, as a lisping, bumbling, thoroughly decent family friend; the other by the late Virginia Maskell, as the beautiful, intelligent wife in pain." [9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Big Rental Films of 1968". Variety. 8 January 1969. p. 15. Please note that this is a rental figure accruing to distributors
  2. ↑ "Interlude". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 10 November 2025.
  3. 1 2 "Interlude". www.reelstreets.com. Retrieved 27 July 2024.
  4. 1 2 "Interlude". Variety. 1 January 1968. Retrieved 27 July 2024.
  5. ↑ "Timi Yuro – Interlude". Discogs. Retrieved 27 July 2024.
  6. ↑ "Interlude". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 35 (408): 171. 1 January 1968. ProQuest   1305826520.
  7. ↑ "Interlude". Time Out. Retrieved 27 July 2024.
  8. ↑ "Interlude". TV Guide. Retrieved 27 July 2024.
  9. 1 2 Adler, Renata (3 July 1968). "Screen: 'Interlude,' the Story of Yet Another Affair:Oskar Werner Starred With Barbara Ferris New Movie Arrives at the Cinema I". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 27 July 2024.
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