A note on "Peter Ibbetson"

Ann Harding frees Gary Cooper into the dreamworld, Peter Ibbetson, 1935

A couple of commenters to the post Backlot Benefits, noting Universal's new release of Henry Hathaway's The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, bring up the very unusual 1935 Peter Ibbetson, another Hathaway. My oh my. I remember seeing this as a child, when it aired on WOR Channel 9 one afternoon, and it blowing my little mind. The seemingly glacial pacing, the imagery like some gloomy 19th-century engraving come (barely) to life, the deliriously romantic-with-a-capital-"r" conceit of the story line (that true love could completely transcend time and space via the dream life)—it was all quite heady for a moony poetic little dope such as myself. 

The film made a substantial impact on Surrealism majordomo André Breton back in the day, too. In his 1951 essay "As In A Wood" he writes, "What is most specific of all the means of the camera is obviously the power to make concrete the forces of love which, despite everything, remain deficient in books, simply because nothing in them can render the seduction or distress of a glance or certain feelings of priceless giddiness. The radical powerlessness of the plastic arts in this domain goes without saying (one imagines that it has not been given to the painter to show us the radiant image of a kiss). The cinema is alone in extending its empire there, and this alone would be enough for its consecration. What incomparable, ever scintillating traces have films like Ah! le beau voyage or Peter Ibbetson left behind in the memory, and how are life's supreme moments filtered through that beam!"

Varied internet searches turn up several options for films titled Le beau voyage, but zip for any with an "Ah!" preceding those words. Which adds an interesting note of mystery to Breton's reverie....

UPDATE: The brilliant and ever-resourceful Jonathan Rosenbaum solves the minor mystery of Ah! le beau voyage below, in comments. 

Comments

[Jordan]

That Breton quote is absolutely radiant. What an infectious attitude.

[Randy Byers]

Love it! What was it with surrealists and otherworldly love stories? Wasn't someone here or on Dave Kehr's blog recently saying that Bunuel loved Portrait of Jennie? Both movies have last acts that seem to happen in some kind of dream world, and perhaps that's the connection. Or perhaps it's that both movies sneer at rationality.

[Jonathan Rosenbaum]

Hey Glenn,

I've just managed to track down the mysterious reference. "Ah! le beau voyage" is the French title of a 1927 silent feature directed by Robert Z. Leonard called "A Little Journey". Most of it's set on a train, and Albert E. Lewin, future director of the wonderful Surrealist touchstone "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman," is credited with the "continuity". (For more info, here's one link: http://yo-video.net/fr/film/43639-lefilm.html)

Best,

Jonathan

[Campaspe]

Randy, I think you're right the 2nd time around -- the Surrealists appreciate the way a director such as Dieterle or (as Mr. Rosenbaum points out here) Lewin can anchor a movie in the Hollywood aesthetic and still come up with something that is barely tethered to logic or reality. When I saw The Private Affairs of Bel-Ami recently I was struck by how Lewin would deliberately reinforce the artificiality of what was on screen. (There is a new version of Bel-Ami in the beginning stages with--heaven help us all--Robert Pattinson in the title role once played by George Sanders.)

[Dan]

"Ibbetson" isn't something you forget after you see it, that's for sure. I remember just popping it in and hitting play, not sure what to expect (I mostly knew Hathaway from minor stuff) and having to peel my jaw off the floor about twenty minutes in.

There are moments when Hathaway just takes off sometimes. His best films are actually pretty damn strange when you really think about them. "Niagara" is a noir in Technicolor, which is strange enough, but the script makes things even stranger (especially since an affair between the heroine and Joseph Cotten was obviously written out to please the censors). But you've still got the marriage dissolving, and a comic relief character who might have escaped from a David Lynch movie (seriously, this guy really loves him some oats).

[Randy Byers]

Campaspe, thanks for the pointers on Lewin. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman came up a lot recently when Jack Cardiff died, but now I see that Lewin's first three directorial efforts all star George Sanders. Looks like Lewin is someone I need to check out!