Appassionata

When this 1944 Swedish film was released in the USA in 1946, actress Viveca Lindfors was working in Hollywood under contract to Warner Brothers. Parts of Beethoven's "Appassionata" sonata, as well as passages from his fifth and seventh symphonies recur frequently in the film, both as part of the music performed within the story, and as background music: In a jealous rage, a famous concert pianist attacks one of his wife's admirers, and is sent to prison. After serving his sentence he tells one of his pupils, in flashback, the story of he and his wife's love and marriage. He then learns that the pupil is in love with his wife. He makes a concert comeback and, then, does a very strange thing.

Direction

Olof Molander

Screenplay

Olof Molander

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Paul Baudisch

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Adolf Schütz