Does the job of the perfect melodrama and moves the audience to tears.
Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
Runtime: 87 mins
Synopsis: LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN is set in Vienna at the turn of the century, an era Ophüls loved and had used in LA RONDE and LIEBELEI. Joan Fontaine gives a moving, heartfelt performance as Lisa Berndl, a romantic young woman who falls in love with the handsome concert pianist Stephan Brandt (Louis... LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN is set in Vienna at the turn of the century, an era Ophüls loved and had used in LA RONDE and LIEBELEI. Joan Fontaine gives a moving, heartfelt performance as Lisa Berndl, a romantic young woman who falls in love with the handsome concert pianist Stephan Brandt (Louis Jourdan). After a brief affair, which she takes for love, not seeing that he is just a philanderer, he leaves for a concert in Italy and never returns to the now-pregnant Lisa. She bears the child herself and later enters into a stable marriage, although one lacking the passion and love she still feels for Stephan. Ten years later, when he returns to Vienna, Lisa attempts, at the risk of her marriage, to see if he loves, or even remembers her. Fontaine and Jourdan perfectly project the feelings of a woman in love and a man too selfish to notice or care. Written by Howard Koch, the co-author of CASABLANCA, from a novel by Stephan Zweig, LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN is generally described as a "woman's picture" because of its theme of unrequited love. But this somewhat pejorative description hides what in acting, writing, camera work, atmosphere and emotion is not just one of Max Ophüls' crowning achievements, but one the finest examples of how all elements needed to make a great film are brought together. [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan, Marcel Journet, Mady Christians, Art Smith
DVD Info
Release:
Apr 5, 2007
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- Keep Case - Sensormatic
- Full Frame - 1.33
Audio:
- Dolby Digital Mono - English
Reviews
Of all the cinema's fables of doomed love, none is more piercing than this.
An atmospheric and unsettling mix of European style and Hollywood muscle, this is a beautifully shot and thought-provoking film about lost love.
In the hands of Max Ophuls, the stuff of penultimate melodrama becomes the stuff of exquisite observation and contemplation.
Watching it is like finding a locket you thought you had lost, one which contains the picture of someone who once broke your heart.
A breathtaking, bitter, exquisitely orchestrated exploration of love and selfishness by Max Ophuls.
Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948) is the classic romantic film - a lush tearjerker par excellence - of the bittersweet theme of unrequited, lost love
Beneath the film's beauty lies the type of love that obsessed Ophuls: the unsuccessful kind.


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