“Letter from an Unknown Woman” is an operatic opus to love that resounds through all the ages and souls of the amorous. 

Joan Fontaine stars in the second American feature by German director Max Ophüls. The film was devised as vehicle for Fontaine by her husband, who had stood up an entire studio just to churn out movies to feature his wife. 

This offscreen context adds some reasoning to the fact that Fontaine must play her “Woman” progressing between the ages of 13 to 30. While not for a second is it possible to believe the graceful 31-year-old Fontaine as a fumbling teenager, the illusion is hardly necessary in Ophüls’ transcendent film. 

In depicting the story of an unrequited love…

So marvelously complex, proposing a link between spectacle and romantic delusions. It's the only of Ophuls' American films to capture the dialecticalisms of his 1950's work, yet like those prior, remain true to its narrative constructs. Lisa doesn't just live in her fantasy world, she believes it to exist in the world - her first set of outings with Stefan: candle-lit dinners, horse-drawn carriage rides, Viennese waltzes. We see this all through memory, but its Ophuls' genius to have them resemble something out of a elaborate costume drama. This dialectialism is clear once we get to the fake train ride, at the fair. But Stefan is just as much a lost soul - at least in this memory, during their…

Film #3 of Gustav's Recommendations

” I know now that nothing happens by chance. Every moment is measured; every step is counted.”

With a sad and heartbreaking story which addressees issues like destiny, love, dignity, pride and regret, Max Ophuls’ unappreciated little masterpiece, Letter From An Unknown Woman, is more like a story written by Leo Tolstoy, like the works of the Russian writer it takes place in dimly lit noble houses and chooses its characters from the upper-class society, it takes lonely characters and follows them across years as they go from happiness into misery and despair. What Ophuls does is that he turns his camera away from all the glamour of houses, clothes and concerts and instead focuses…

feels like a film that was tailor-made for me, in that the last film i directed involved using decontextualized lines from films about missed opportunities and regret as subtitles, and if i had seen this before making that film this would have joined the texts included. the whole thing feels like a beautiful and painful dream, or like a cycle of memories that stefan is going to replay in his mind for the rest of his life, including the scenes for which he wasn't even present. the vienna of this film looks nothing like the vienna i visited briefly two years ago, but while i was there i also went to prater at night during the "off-season" and now after…

As someone that normally hates melodrama, Letter from an Unknown Woman is a great piece of romantic tragedy. Ophüls depicts a love that is somehow even less than unrequited - it is returned only superficially and for brief moments of passing fancy rather than outright rejected, whereas the passion of Fontaine's Lisa is intense, long-lasting, and durable to the point of self-harm. The relationship between Lisa and Jourdan's Stefan is ill-starred, and doomed from the start, but Lisa cannot help to be drawn to the artistic romanticism that Stefan provides, even if his interest is little more than a veneered lust. Seeing Lisa suffer at the hand of Stefan's casual indifference (coupled with her reluctance to inconvenience him with the…

Fantastic movie! Max Ophuls doesn't let a second go to waste as he weaves a taut narrative.The transition is so smooth that you don't even realise when the timelines changed.Joan Fontaine stars as Lisa,a teenager living with her mother who soon becomes enchanted with Stefan,a new tenant next door who happens to be a musician(a pianist) Enchantment blossoms into love even as Lisa grows up & keeps turning down promising prospects in hope for Stefan.She maintains her distance while still yearning for him.Stefan is at the height of his career,travelling a lot,gaining fame and being a casanova.It's this stark contrast between Lisa's emotions & Stefan's emotions that make the movie a tragedy.

Buoyed by an excellent performance from Joan Fontaine and stunning…

Fell in love with Joan Fontaine in Rebecca so i decided to watch her 2nd highest rated film which is this. A wonderfully portrayed reality in obsession, love and remembering moments, glimpse and feelings. A sad tale of admiration, falling in love, sacrifice for closeness then, realization of being someone who's just a memory, worse, a forgotten one.

Pretty cute but heartbreaking story of a simple minded young woman and a busy, talented and complex minded man. Knowing too many people, being known by too many people. A seperate world of two characters, complex and simple, befriending for life and befriending for a quick time, being admired and admiring someone, being known by many and not knowing many.

I love…