I imagine this is exactly the sort of film that if you saw it at an impressionable age in your youth, it would make a lasting impression on you for the rest of your life. As I am not old enough to have been young when the film came out I cannot vouch for this. Nevertheless, I have possessed this film for several years on VHS and generally view it every 24 months or so. Picture and sound quality are below par as to be expected for a film of this age. I see that a DVD is now available but only as part of a boxed set and I don't fancy the idea of having to purchase a whose set, just to obtain one DVD !! With repeated viewings I have grown to like the film more. I originally only liked the first half and thought the second half to be a little boring but now I find that it is more watcheable. The thing is, there are unfortunately very few of this type of film made, the one that immediately comes to mind is of course Portrait of Jennie which had much better picture and sound quality and moved me emotionally far more than Peter Ibbetson. That said, the film has good points but I find the "grown-up" passion to be not as strong as I would have hoped, given the fusion and complicity between the kids during the first half hour. The separation of the children is an extremely painful moment to watch .. we then jump forward in time and when they meet up again and find out who they are and what they mean to each other, I just couldn't feel as much emotion as I would have liked. This may due to the actors involved .. I did not know the lady actress and have appreciated Gary Cooper in cowboy rôles but not in the role of an architect though I seem to remember having seen him in a similar rôle in a film called the Fountainhead. I also found that his person was well suited to the role of Mr Deeds but here something seemed to be missing, without my being able to put a finger on precisely what. Still the film has good moments with the dream meetings in paradisiac places and the end of course is satisfying. The music score is also very emotional and I hope that in the future both sound and picture quality can be cleaned up. I hope this film is not remade as any remake today is bound to overdo the special FX side and all the charm will be lost. The film is therefore quite original in its style and is bound to appeal to those who like a dose of surrealism and escapism without necessarily being completely removed from reality.
Review of Peter Ibbetson
