Réalisation:
Frank LloydPhotographie:
Ernest PalmerMusique:
J.S. ZamecnikActeurs·trices:
Leslie Howard, Heather Angel, Valerie Taylor, Irene Browne, Beryl Mercer, Alan Mowbray, Betty Lawford, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Samuel S. Hinds (plus)Résumés(1)
Adapted from John Balderston's successful stage fantasy (itself based on a story by Henry James), Berkeley Square is the story of a modern-day London scientist (Leslie Howard), who is romantically fascinated by the 18th century. A freak accident propels Howard back to 1784, where he assumes the identity of one of his own ancestors. Howard falls in love with his distant cousin Helen (Heather Angel), while his other relatives regard the time-traveller as a "sorcerer" due to his disturbing knowledge of future events. Gradually, Howard is disillusioned by the squalor and bigotry of the 18th century. He bids farewell to Helen, explaining that he will actually be born years after her death but that they will be reunited "in God's time". Returning to the present, Howard discovers that Helen died young without ever marrying. He renounces his own fiancee and determines to live out his life as a bachelor, to be united with his true love in death. Long considered a lost film, Berkeley Square was rediscovered in the mid 1970s. The film had already been remade in 1951 as the Tyrone Power vehicle I'll Never Forget You. (texte officiel du distributeur)
(plus)Critiques (1)
The genesis of the Berkeley Square theme is very interesting. At the beginning was Henry James' last unfinished novel "The Sense of the Past" (1917). In the Anglo-Saxon milieu, the theme of time travel to the 18th century resonated, and John L. Balderston's play was subsequently written (1926). The play made its way from London to Broadway in the late 1920s and from there it was just a step to Hollywood. It went from the Broadway production to the Leslie Howard film and an Oscar nomination was in the cards. The whole thing is such a wonderfully old-world romantic, attractive theme that originally made you forget the horrors of the Great War. Today, the Outlander phenomenon draws on a similar theme.
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