Actress Anna (Ingrid Bergman) is between relationships and just wants to take a break from life. Her sister and brother-in-law try to coax her into going to a lecture on economics (I know, right?) but she isn’t interested. Crazy. That is, until the head speaker arrives and it’s the dreamy Philip (dreamy Cary Grant). They have a flirtatious evening until he reveals that he is married! They continue to see each other anyhow. How Indiscreet!
There is a lot of subtext going on here. Ingrid was banished from Hollywood for her indecent affair with Roberto Rossellini, having his child while still married to her first husband! She hid in shame in Europe, shunned by the town she loved so not really the story. It’s just how it was always framed. It was more complicated than that. Here, watch this.
Anyhow, Bergman returned a wiser person who better knew herself. Grant, on his third marriage, older, wiser, and evolving as a leading man. Bergman in her early forties and Grant his early fifties, there is no hiding that this is a relationship between older adults.
What follows is a very believable relationship between two adults. Not by far the most interesting film either actor has appeared in but among their best acting performances, and included some moving scenes. And real life friends, they have excellent screen chemistry. It is a shame they only did two pictures together. AMRU 3.5.
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