Indiscretions in “Indiscreet”
Indiscreet
1958 Director: Stanley Donen
Starring: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Cecil Parker, Phyllis Calvert
Anna Kalman (Bergman), a famous London actress, returns home early from a trip one evening. Her sister and brother-in-law (Parker, Calvert) realize she is sad and lonely and invite her to a banquet. She meets Philip Adams (Grant), a handsome financier and becomes interested in him immediately. Anna invites him to the ballet but he declines, abruptly telling her that he is separated from his wife and can’t get a divorce.
Unlike most women in the 1950s, Anna vigorously pursues her love interest. Not only does she invite him to the ballet but also out to dine. Her boldness and unconventionality might be due to her maturity; she is a woman in her 40s who has been disappointed in her relationships. Nevertheless, Anna and Philip begin dating and fall in love. Philip takes a NATO job to be near her, but soon finds that he will be transferred to New York for several months. Anna is distressed by this development; she requests he divorce his wife and proposes to him but quickly asks that he forgive and forget this, embarrassed by having taken a typically masculine step. In actuality, Philip is a bachelor who refuses to be tied down. When Anna discovers this fact, she has a hefty surprise for him.
Anna is a successful, single woman. She is an accomplished actress residing in an elegant London flat with a live-in chauffeur and maid (David Kossoff, Megs Jenkins). She inhabits the upper echelons of society, is well-connected and, apparently, travels extensively. Evidence of her prosperity is reflected her art collection, which graces the walls of her apartment, where much of the story takes place. A variety of prints or drawings (which are difficult to see) are framed in bright colors and hung in her living room. Other works of art are recognizable.
Two French artists are featured on one of Anna’s walls, Georges Rouault and Henri Matisse; both were associated with Fauvism in the early twentieth century. The Fauves (wild beasts)—some of the earliest exponents of Modern art—were criticized when they first emerged for their crude drawing techniques, flattened forms, and bold color schemes.1 Near Anna’s foyer, we see Rouault’s War, Hated by Mothers and Matisse’s Still Life with Oysters together, almost as if grouped categorically, as we might find them in a museum. Modern art had only been around for a few decades when “Indiscreet” was filmed and collecting it, particularly by a woman, would have been rare. It’s also unclear if her collection is composed of originals, but I suggest that we are meant to see them as such, because of her prominence and wealth.
Anna’s taste is not restricted to European art; on one wall hangs what appears to be an Ancestor Portrait from the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912), quite likely ink and colors on silk. Here, an elderly man in red courtly robes sits facing the viewer. Male ancestors were venerated in China since at least the Shang Dynasty (1600–1050 BCE) and portraits were created to commemorated them. The images were placed on altars and became part of religious ceremonies.2 Chinese art reached a wide audience in England for the first time in 1935 after an important exhibit at the Royal Academy that year.3 At one point, Anna mentions to Philip that she visits museums daily, where she perhaps came to appreciate Asian art.
One of the most prominent images in Anna’s collection is a Picasso, which can be seen near Anna’s foyer: his Woman with a Hat (Dora Maar) lithograph. Picasso painted numerous similar images, each with bold colors and geometric, distorted imagery. And although some of his paintings of Maar show her weeping, she is resolute here. Maar, a Surrealist photographer, influenced Picasso’s Communist politics and his work (including his famous painting, Guernica).4 This lithograph might even be symbolic of Anna herself: daring, solid, colorful, misunderstood, and controversial. Like Modern art, Anna challenges conventional ideas and practices.5 She pushes the boundaries of a woman’s role in society at a time when most were simply encouraged toward marriage.
Ingrid Bergman, like Anna Kalman, was also unconventional. Although she made great films in the 1940s, she was banished from Hollywood when news of her extramarital affair with Italian director Roberto Rossellini became public. Up to this point, she took on the roles of innocent characters and the public now felt betrayed. Cary Grant, who costarred with Bergman in “Notorious” (1946), wanted her as his leading lady for “Indiscreet”; he was one of the few celebrities who stood up for her during her exile.6 It seems fitting, therefore, that Bergman’s comeback should occur in the role of an unorthodox woman who values innovative art.
Copyright © 2025 by Rosi Prieto, Ph.D.
All Rights Reserved
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauvism
https://www.apollo-magazine.com/how-the-british-fell-for-chinese-art/