night fishing ( original korean title : 파란만장 ; paranmanjang , lit . " ups and downs . " or " a checkered past " ) is a 2011 south korean fantasy-horror short film directed , produced , written by parking chance ( brand name of the brothers , park chan-wook and park chan-kyong ) .

the lead role is played by k-pop star , lee jung-hyun .

it was shot entirely on the apple iphone 4 , and was financially supported by kt ( south korea 's exclusive distributor of the iphone at the time ) , which supplied the duo with 150 million korean won ( us$ 133,447 ) .

it was screened to over 100 reporters on january 11 , 2011 , and opened for public release on january 27 .

the film won the golden bear for best short film at the 61st berlin international film festival .

night fishing ( film )

as park’s night fishing and the iphone film festival have proven , making a feature film today no longer requires millions of dollars and fancy equipments .
the movie is paranmanjang or night fishing , made with a super - modest budget of under $ 135 , 000 .
back again : the international fly fishing film festival . one night only , friday , january 4 at 6 : 30pm . $ 15 ; $ 10 in advance .
back again : the international fly fishing film festival . one night only , saturday , february 16 at 6 : 00pm . $ 15 ; $ 10 in advance .
the international fly fishing film festival . one night only , friday , january 4 at 6 : 30 . tickets are $ 15 at the door or $ 10 in advance or with a paid fly fishing show admission for that day .
the first known film shot entirely on an iphone was night fishing ( 2011 ) . the director attached a 35mm lens to the iphone’s camera in order to achieve a cinematic look . night fishing draws on the framing and grammar of traditional film , eschewing the characteristics traditionally associated with portable recording such as unstable imagery , shaky camera moves , distorted audio , and sickness - invoking motion .
as park’s night fishing has shown us , almost the entire filmmaking process can now be done on an iphone , “from hunting for a film location , shooting auditions , to doing a documentary on the filming process . ”
a note from the director : thanks for a great 2018 . we will see you at 2019 denver fly fishing show . - ben furimsky and the fly fishing show family .
a note from the director : thanks for a great 2018 . we will see you at 2019 lynnwood fly fishing show . – ben furimsky and the fly fishing show family .
—the same night carl died . the radioman , attempting to guide the freighter back on course , advised its crew to steer the huge ship directly through the channel where carl was fishing that night . according to the logbook , the freighter passed through carl’s area at
this review of night fishing comes following a screening of the film at the london korean film festival 2011 , as part of the mise en scène shorts section . i ' d sincerely like to thank everyone involved in the organisation of the festival for allowing me to see this astounding film , as well as many others throughout the lkff .
. world premier of the if4 film festival held here at the fly fishing show in denver ! one night only , friday , january 5 at 6 : 30 . tickets are $ 15 at the door or $ 10 in advance .
we are pleased to announce that production is gearing up for our short film “the fishing club” based on an award winning short story by catherine tarleton . the fishing club will showcase an ensemble cast of all - star hawaii talent featuring robert kekaula and kealii reichel . it’s about a group of fishing buddies who devise a plan to save their favorite fishing spot from development , and what happens when their plan spins out of control .
one night only , saturday , february 16 at 6 : 30 . tickets are $ 15 at the door or $ 10 in advance or with a paid fly fishing show admission for that day .
gunwalloe on the lizard relived its smugglings past when aidan turner and a hoard of other cast members and extras descended to film night - time ship wrecking scenes .
park promotes night fishing in an ad that’s also made on the iphone . in it , he asks himself , “is there anything i can do that greatest directors haven’t done yet ? ” he then strokes his chin and answers , “ah ! making a film with the iphone ! ”
deep in the woods , cutting through the fog , a man walks in carrying a fishing bag . he arrives at the edge of a river . the man leisurely goes about setting up his fishing rods and starts fishing . hours later , night has fallen on the quiet riverside . the man hasn ' t caught mush fish and just sits , waiting . just then , somthing big is caught on the fishing rod . it ' s not something he can put on his dinner plate , but the body of a mysterious young woman in white funeral dress !
deep in the woods , cutting through the fog , a man walks in carrying a fishing bag . he arrives at the edge of a river . the man leisurely goes about setting up his fishing rods and starts fishing . hours later , night has fallen on the quiet riverside . the man hasn’t caught much fish and just sits , waiting . just then , something big is caught on the fishing rod . it’s not something he can put on his dinner plate , but a mysterious young woman in white funeral dress crying in a little girl’s voice , call him “daddy” …
night fishing , co - directed by park’s younger brother , media artist park chan - kyong , took ten days to shoot with a crew of only 80 people . it’s a 30 - minute fantasy - horror film about a “surreal encounter between a fisherman and a female shaman ( medium ) . ” it tells the story of a middle - aged man who one night catches the body of a woman while fishing . as he was trying to untangle her from the fishing line , he finds himself becoming more entangled in the process . he faints and wakes up in the outfit the woman was wearing . the film’s viewpoint then switches to that of the woman and the movie becomes a traditional korean tale of life and death .
not many films that clock in at 33 minutes generate the press coverage and hype that surrounds night fishing ( paranmanjang ) , a surprisingly polished work shot by oldboy director park chan - wook and his brother park chan - kyong ( they made the film under the acronym of parking chance ) on the iphone 4 .
parking chance is a team of directors formed by park chan - wook and park chan - kyong . parking chance won the golden bear award in the berilnale shorts category at the berlin international film festival 2011 with the movie night fishing , which was the first iphone filmed short movie in the world to be released in the theaters .
fly fishers international ( ffi ) is pleased to offer free fly fishing instruction at the ffi learning center located at the ffi booth . basic fly casting - fly tying - knot tying will be taught throughout the day - every day of the fly fishing show .
for the lowly protagonist , david mann , spielberg hand - picked character actor dennis weaver because he loved his performance as the jittery and feeble hotel night manager in orson welles’s 1958 film touch of evil .
paranmanjang / night fishing will have its theatrical premiere in seoul on january 27 . hopefully , it will be released for u . s . audiences soon thereafter . just out of curiosity alone , there’s no doubt the line for tickets will be a long one .
gunter offers to watch all of rosita ' s 25 piglets for the night , trying to prove he ' s the best babysitter ever .
we think the making of night fishing on an iphone is an amazing accomplishment . in addition to the fresh creativity inspired by making a film on a smaller camera with limited capabilities , the biggest advantage to shooting on the iphone 4 is that it’s inexpensive . this reason alone will open doors to many other filmmakers who have been held back because of financial reasons .
14 . the film enjoyed one of the longest theatrical runs in movie history .
from the outset , it was the director who tantalized film lovers : park chan - wook , the man behind such acclaimed works as sympathy for mr . vengeance and oldboy , teamed up with his brother chan - kyong in an attempt to create a frightening , fantastical film using only an iphone 4 . the finished product , night fishing , was first screened for a handful of reporters back in january , before going on to win the award for best short film at the berlin international film festival in february . it arrived in america not long after at south by southwest . this past weekend , it made a splash in new york city as part of this year’s creators project film sidebar .
so here are a few of pictures from our recently wrapped short film “the fishing club” . this was a passion project for us and was only possible with the help and support of everyone who worked on it . many thanks to the cast and crew who spent late nights making the short film come to life .
15 . kesey refused to see the film ( but may have by accident ) .
one night only , saturday , february 16 , at 6 : 00 pm . tickets are $ 15 at the door or $ 10 in advance .
given the economics at play , this represents yet another profound step forward , towards a world where amateurs with a minuscule budget can shoot ( and distribute ) like professionals . here is a compilation of night fishing highlights , which spotlights many of the key camera techniques and visual aesthetics i have written about :
a fantasy film , the iphone short’s english title is night fishing . it follows fisherman by a river when he encounters a female shaman and goes from this life to the next . ( its original title is paranmanjang , which translates roughly to “checkered” as in “a checkered past” . ) the film stars actor oh kwang - rok , who played one of the avenging parents in park chan - wook’s sympathy for lady vengeance , and lee jung hyun , an actress and pop singer .
about 300 curious onlookers packed into brooklyn’s powerhouse arena bookstore to watch night fishing . and from the first sequence , it becomes clear that the parks viewed this project as the chance to push the iphone camera to its limits . a finished portion of the film is already up on youtube ( though there appears to be a slight decline in resolution , versus what i saw projected in brooklyn ) :
the behind - the - scenes for night fishing is fascinating even if i can’t understand a word spoken ( it’s in korean without subtitles ) . we get glimpses of the actual filming locations of the movie , the intricate storyboard , and all the different lenses used on the iphone 4 during filming . it’s mind - bending how much preparation goes into making a short film with a small camera .
paranmanjang , which means
a life full of ups and downs
in korean , is about a man transcending his current and former lives . he catches a woman while fishing in a river in the middle of the night . they both end up entangled in the line and he thinks she is dead .
fishing naked is a film about four young adults being bad in the woods . they pull bigfoot hoaxes , scare tourists , disrespect their elders , hook up and smoke dope . it is told from the small . . . see full summary »
once a thriving fishing cove , the beautiful porthgwarra sits at the heart of st aubyn estates and boasts a peaceful existence with its days surrounded by wildflowers and birdlife .
summary : take the fact that night fishing was made using the iphone4 and completely set it aside , for even if you took all the best elements from park chan - wook ' s previous films , wrapped them up within a gripping narrative and added the beyond exemplary cast performances seen here , you still wouldn ' t come even close to creating a film as astounding as this , regardless of what technology was used .
even though it was filmed using the iphone , night fishing has the same image resolution as any other feature films shot with standard industry cameras . park chan - wook , a hitchcock devotee , originally approached this film with a for fun attitude . “new technology always offers wonders and useful features . testing them is part of the amusement , ” he said . but then he discovered how exciting the ride turned out to be .
night fishing takes an unexpected turn from that horror film set - up into ghostly spirituality , as park and brother / co - director park chan - kyong explore korean death rituals and employ actress lee jung hyun in a dual performance as both the ghostly corpse and a living shaman tasked with contacting the world of the dead . lee , a pop idol in asia , mesmerizes in the role , embodying multiple souls in quick succession .
the film strikes a more sober and difficult tone than many of park’s genre - influenced films .
the short running time will obviously limit the work’s distribution options , nonetheless finecut will be angling for interested buyers at the upcoming efm . the film will also screen in berlin’s short film competition .
a haunting ghost story from the director of stoker and oldboy . a man gets tangled in his fishing line and an eerie mystery when he catches more than he bargained for .
be sure to ask for request the special fly fishing show® rates ! for special rates rooms must be booked by december 19 , 2018 , or before the hotel sells out .
night fishing ( the literal translation of the korean title being “ups and downs” ) begins with a fairly off - the - wall ( complete ) music track by contemporary korean band ' uhuhboo project ' , and while the predominant featuring of what is essentially a music video may , at first glance , seem somewhat out of place in a cinematic narrative work , its appearance instantly allows an early referencing of the idea that events and situations in night fishing ( including the film itself ) are often far from what they initially appear to be - subsequently also shown to be the case in the appearance of the seemingly dead body ; the music that we assume is simply the radio playing random songs ; as well as in gi - suk ' s place in the overall scheme of things ; and even in the reality behind his fishing by the lake . not only that , but this avant - garde musical piece ( when considered alongside the music of a shamanic ritual that takes place in the latter stages of the film ) also serves as a contrast between contemporary and traditional korea as a whole , just as the ritual itself bridges the gap between the old and the new , the living and the dead , and though it isn ' t apparent until much later in proceedings , the relevance of the lyrics of both the major musical elements in night fishing having references to love , life and death bring those worlds ever closer from the very outset of the film - long before we are consciously aware that that is the case .
fans of park chan - wook probably remember that the master korean filmmaker shot a short film entirely on an iphone 4 a few years back ( that is , two iphones ago ) . the short , “ night fishing ” aka “ paramanjang , ” was made with some help from his brother , park chan - kyong and was released theatrically in south korea back in january of 2011 , hitting the festival circuit shortly after . for those who haven’t had a chance to catch the film can rejoice as the short is available on youtube in its entirety .
south korean film - maker park chan - wook is wielding a new cinematic tool : the iphone .
the camera floats ethereally through the world of night fishing like a disembodied specter , the picture alternately grainy and clear , with a compactness and freedom you can feel . close - ups on oh ' s face are captured with stunning clarity so clear and sharp that it ' s difficult to imagine park and his crew were merely using an iphone to capture the scene .
when harmony korine ' s short film umshini wam screened alongside the latest from korean filmmaker park chan - wook ( oldboy , sympathy for mr . vengeance , thirst ) at sxsw , both efforts had an unproven element to unveil . for korine , the wild cards were his stars , the south african hip - hop act die antwoord . but for park , it was something even more groundbreaking : he filmed the mystical , spiritual ghost story night fishing entirely using the iphone 4 .
in typical daylight fishing , anglers are accustomed to seeing what they’re doing and watching the line or the lure , but this is seldom possible at night . you can use black lights that make it easy to watch fluorescent lines , but although this was a popular monofilament line several decades ago , few anglers use this type of line , today . for the most part , intuition and a feel for your tackle become more important at night than during the day . this makes it advantageous to use a sensitive rod and line , and to forgo using ultralight tackle .
by now , you’ve probably heard all the buzz about the first feature film made entirely on an iphone 4 .
of course , it did cost $ 130 , 000 , much of which park credited to paying his crew of 80 and buying food . any old smartphone video won ' t look this good without proper cinematography , lighting , and a mind for tweaking the in - phone camera for optimal use . but night fishing proves that it can be done , and well . could 3d iphone filmmaking be next ?
smartphone technologies are increasingly playing a major part in film production , distribution and reception . this month sees the launch of what is being billed as the “ world’s first selfie movie ” . and next a series is to air on instagram . last year , tangerine became the first film shot on an iphone to feature at the sundance film festival .
is a weekend program devoted to women - centered discussions , presentations , learning opportunities and networking . the showcase is free with your entry to the fly fishing show and will feature a diverse schedule of presentations .
we will be shooting from may 30th – june 4 at various locations throughout oahu . the fishing club will be directed by david rosen with dana hankins and claire tong as executive producers and darrin kaneshiro as producer
park ' s story jumps around with little warning and explanation , leaving the viewer to piece together what ' s happening on their own . for a few sxswers in attendance that was asking too much , but those with patience and the fortitude to follow the events onscreen , night fishing can be a transcendent experience - - even more so if you ' re also conscious of how park is using his camera .
the second stop , rodanthe pier , was the scene of the party the villagers threw themselves after the storm passed . the scene was shot with about 400 extras and most of the principal cast . the wind speed on the night of the filming was between 25 and 30 miles per hour , and filming lasted until 4 a . m . it was a night that won’t soon be forgotten by locals .
filmed with an appropriately cold naturalism , night fishing ( paranmanjang ) is evidence that cell phone movies can transcend their gimmicky trappings . the 33 - minute narrative short , shot entirely on the iphone 4 and financed by korean iphone provider kt for $ 130k , is a hauntingly evocative tale alighting on a fisherman ( oh kwang - rok ) who treks deep into the wilderness for a weekend trip , unaware of a coming storm . he catches a woman ' s drowned body in and , in a comically tense sequence of events , panics and becomes entangled in fishing line with the corpse . and then things get really strange .
a criminally underrated gem of ’70s cinema , night moves stars gene hackman as a retired football player - turned - private investigator who is hired by an aging starlet to track down her wayward daughter . naturally , this seemingly simple assignment leads our hero down a convoluted path littered with illicit relationships and rampant corruption . released a year after francis ford coppola’s much celebrated the conversation , night moves very much serves as that film’s spiritual sibling—a complex , somewhat opaque treatise on american cynicism in a post - watergate world . — m . r .
and rutger hauer , as well as some of the most emotionally intense action set pieces ever put to film . moreover , a good portion of the film’s appeal lies in its incorporation of film noir aesthetics—shadow - filled , rainy metropolitan exteriors , a brooding yet resourceful investigator hero , retro ’40s fashion—into its dreary , dystopian setting . at one point , the film even boasted a philip marlowe - esque voiceover narration that was thankfully excised from future cuts . once regarded as a failed experiment ,
night fishing centres around a fisherman ( park regular oh gwang - rok ) who reels in a fish that transforms into a young woman once touching land ( actor / pop star lee jung - hyun , in a great performance ) . she begins talking to him of his long - lost daughter , and it only gradually becomes apparent that she is a shaman acting as a medium between the land of the living and the dead .
, flopped at the box office only to be revived later as a beloved cult classic . the film casts rufus swell as an amnesiac who wakes up one night to discover that his city is ( quite literally ) being manipulated by a band of mysteriously pale men in jet - black trench coats and fedoras . along for the ride is
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13 . one flew over the cuckoo’s nest was the first film to win all “big five” academy awards in 41 years .
all things considered , night fishing is so subtly hypnotic that there’s no denying its effectiveness . by the end of the opening sequence , i forgot all about the devices being used on the set . and i emerged convinced : we have arrived at the crossroads where an iphone video camera can be used to achieve a professional - grade cinematic experience . in fact , we cannot be far away from the first full - length iphone studio feature .
cast : oh kwang - rok ( as gi - suk ) gives an accomplished and note - worthy performance in night fishing , easily equalling those of his previous films , but lee jeong - hyeon ' s portrayal of the seemingly dead girl / shaman is so utterly astonishing that she , time and again , puts him firmly in the shade . both an actress and a korean pop singer ( better known for the latter ) , lee jeong - hyeon ' s casting in night fishing simply couldn ' t be bettered - single - handedly raising the level of proceedings at every single turn . she ( seemingly almost effortlessly ) owns every frame of every scene in which she appears , regularly succeeding in utterly changing the overall feeling of proceedings with just a glance , a move of her head or a sung musical note . all of the above comes even before i even properly mention her utterly haunting vocals during the shamanic ritual itself - in short , her singing and accompanying acting performance simply cannot fail to stay with viewers long after the film credits roll . i could use any and every superlative i could possibly think of ( and virtually already have ) to try to convey just how jaw - droppingly mesmerizing she is to watch in night fishing , but in doing so i still wouldn ' t have gone anywhere near far enough , and , at the end of the day , the only way to truly appreciate what she brings to the film is to see her performance for yourself . incredible ! the rest of the main cast play largely supporting roles , but each performs admirably throughout .
initially , forman was vocally opposed to including a scene that took place beyond the grounds of the hospital out of concerns that a temporary liberation would undercut the dramatic force of the film’s ending . in the end , zaentz convinced forman to shoot the fishing trip sequence . it was the final scene filmed and the only piece shot out of chronological order .
obviously , your vision is better on nights with moonlight than it is on dark or overcast nights , although there is some debate over whether bright nights are better for fishing than dark nights . keeping the use of external - source lights to a minimum is a good idea for some types of fishing , though it is unnecessary for others . it is also well known that locations prone to receiving light ( docks , piers , bridges , etc . ) may attract small fish and thus larger predators , although this is more likely the case in saltwater than in freshwater . even if you have great intuition and a natural feel for your tackle , a small headlamp is a proper accessory for night fishing , since it frees both hands and issues only a small amount of light . better ones are those with red and / or green color options , which are not as alarming to fish if you happen to turn toward the water .
korean auteur park chan - wook has co - directed a 30 - minute film with his brother park chan - kyong which korea telecom ( kt ) says will be the first short film in the world shot entirely on apple’s iphone 4 to be screened in theatres .
in both quality of filmmaking and cynicism of spirit . this film not only announced hanson as a filmmaker well beyond his previous work (
we all know the iphone single - handedly changed the way people shoot photos , but surprisingly , it’s also beginning to impact the world of professional filmmaking . apple’s flagship smartphone recently made headlines at the 2015 sundance film festival for the critically praised feature - length film ,
don brown did a wonderful job putting together the episode on the fishing club for his show , hawaii’s reel stories on oc16 . it includes several scenes from our shoot and give a pretty good feel for the movie . check it out !
film noir or horror—which category does charles laughton’s night of the hunter belong in ? frankly , all such quibbles are needless . the film fits snugly beneath either appellation , for one thing : it’s a hybridized version of both . ( let’s call it “film noirror . ” ) for another , it’s a masterwork , so fie upon labels . night of the hunter lurks in shadows and revels in misogyny . whether you’ve seen it or not , you probably have the image of robert mitchum’s tattooed knuckles imprinted upon your brain thanks to pop culture osmosis . reverend harry powell is quite the villain , a man as quick to distort the truth with honey - coated lies as laughton is to distort reality through oblique perspective , unnerving use of shadows and light , and a dizzying array of camera compositions that make small - town west virginia feel altogether otherworldly . — a . c .
“from hunting for a film location , shooting auditions , to doing a documentary on the filming process , everything was shot with the iphone 4 , ” said mr . park . “we went through all the same film - making processes except that the camera was small . ”
the short is a whimsical tale of life and death , about a man who goes fishing into the night and winds up catching the body of a woman with his hook , entangling himself with her in the process and she comes alive . the film then abruptly changes to a funeral ritual where the woman is a shaman priestess , and the fisherman speaks through her to his relatives , asking for forgiveness . it’s all delightfully weird stuff and , all things considered , the iphone experiment worked out fairly well , adding a demented look to an already strange and moving tale . what do you think ? check it out below . [ via
touted as the first film shot entirely with an iphone 6 , filmmaker tristan pope’s pov film romance in nyc depicts two lovers’ everyday lives in new york city . the film expertly captures the subtleties of relationships – even the usual humdrum – rendering it as romantic as it is gripping . the crew accomplished the feat with just an iphone 6 , an hd2000 glidecam , a blackwing grip , and several tripods and shoulder rigs . edits were made using the moviepro app , which pope further expanded upon recently alongside his inspirations and ideas for the sensational film with indiewire .
a short film about psychics , floating corpses and the afterlife proves that riveting major - league cinema can be created on the tiniest of devices .
like a fast - paced burner . it’s not fincher’s most famous film , but it’s absolutely one of the most underrated thrillers since 2000 . —
aestheticizes violence without fetishizing it . bullet holes and knife wounds help color the film in dark brushstrokes—such is the coens’ wont—and careful attention to shot composition ratchets the film’s morbid elements to almost intoxicating heights . you’ll want to look away , but the coens keep your eyes glued to their somber fatalism . —
treats redemption as a cruel joke , a spell of relief that lasts only long enough for us to view its obsolescence . the film takes jabs at
spielberg got his start directing for tv at the age of 21 , helming episodes of such shows as night gallery and marcus welby , m . d . but the aspiring filmmaker was desperately searching for a property he could turn into a feature film . it was spielberg ' s secretary , nona tyson , who found matheson’s story in playboy and first sent it to her boss to potentially adapt into a movie .
patrick is comforted by his girlfriend , silvie , and his two guy friends . that night , patrick asks lee if silvie can spend the night because his dad always let her . lee asks patrick why he is asking him . patrick tells lee that her parents thinks she sleeps downstairs and if they ask , can he tell them she isn’t staying in his room ? lee becomes very silent and then asks if he’s supposed to tell patrick to use a condom . patrick tells him that his dad already had that conversation with him .
directed by park chan - wook , the man behind the south korean iteration of oldboy , this 33 - minute film featured a “big” budget of $ 130 , 000 despite utilizing an iphone 4 for filming purposes . however , it should also go without saying a hefty chunk of the budget went into working some post - production magic , which allowed the filmmakers to drastically spruce up the film’s visual qualities . the fantasy - horror flick features k - pop star lee jung - hyun as a man who encounters more than just sturgeon during what’s intended to be a mellow fishing trip .
one thing to look for in the fishing scene : a very subtle anjelica huston cameo . huston , who was dating nicholson during production , has a nonspeaking role as one of the spectators on the dock as mcmurphy and his fellow patients steer the stolen boat back to shore .
park , director of oldboy , lady vengeance and thirst , said his new fantasy - horror film paranmanjang was shot entirely on apple ' s ubiquitous smartphone .
although you might be tempted to organize a last - minute fishing trip to an unknown destination , don ' t . instead , take the time to familiarize yourself with the place that you’re fishing while it ' s still daylight . make a note of the obstacles that might get in your way , maybe even sketch out a map . it ' s much easier to fish a place that you know well than one that is unfamiliar to you . when casting , it’s also best to slow down and work an area well rather than try to hustle all over .
forty years before the blair witch project popularized the idea of a film being told from the camera’s perspective , actor / director robert montgomery gave this radical idea a spin with lady in the lake , his adaptation of one of raymond chandler’s philip marlowe detective stories . ultimately , the case proves to be minor marlowe and the first - person gimmick does eventually wear thin over the course of the film’s runtime . putting aside these reservations , however , the film is most certainly worth a watch if just to witness montgomery’s sheer audacity and inventiveness . it’s the textbook example of a film being ahead of its time . — m . r .
and los angeles , thus necessitating some creative uses of lighting . this commitment to realism would help perfect the film noir style we all know and love . —
was a rarity in its heyday , though if you didn’t know lupino held the reins , you might not guess the film was directed with a feminine touch .
some pepper with your iron patriot ? − ' iron man 3 ' character poster… these iron man 3 posters are a lot more interesting to look at than that bizarre oscars telecast bit with robert downey… - frank digiacomo 2013 oscars red carpet photos − the big night in pictures for my money , the pre - oscars red - carpet pageantry is the best part of hollywood ' s biggest night . the envelopes haven ' t been opened… - frank digiacomo dave grohl & the foo fighters turn sundance into ' sound city ' dave grohl and his foo fighters rocked sundance friday night with a star - studded group of rockers that included stevie nicks , john… - frank digiacomo first images from ' the hunger games : catching fire ' jennifer lawrence , josh hutcherson , and liam hemsworth are back hungering for more action in catching fire , the francis… - jen yamato
gi - suk ( oh kwang - rok ) heads out to the countryside to spend some time fishing alone and , after setting up his various reels , settles down to wait for a fish to bite . as night begins to fall , he finally hears the tingle of the bite alarm signaling that he has snared something , but on struggling to land his ' catch ' he finds not a fish on his hook but , instead , the limp and seemingly lifeless body of a young woman ( lee jeong - hyeon ) , dressed in funeral attire , tangled up in his line…
park chan - wook , whose oldboy and thirst both won awards at cannes , co - directed this short film with his younger brother park chan - kyong . the younger park is a visual artist whose anyang , paradise city has been selected to the upcoming rotterdam film festival’s bright future section for first - and second - time directors .
kt plans to release the film jan 27 on about 10 screens in south korea . tickets will be made available in a kt lottery draw . the leading south korean telecommunications company put up $ 133 , 000 ( kw150m ) for the film , which was shot entirely with the iphone 4 using extra lenses and otherwise regular filmmaking equipment .
as seen during the creators project screening , the one major drawback to the iphone shoot appears to be a slight degradation in image quality . that is to be expected , and there are indeed a couple of issues to be found with depth of vision , and crispness of image . but here’s the caveat to that observation : with something like night fishing , where stylized framing and points of view are par for the type of surreal story being told , i stopped noticing the blurred edges almost immediately . i was far more captivated by the editing rhythm , the camera movements and the supernatural juxtapositions .
not since 1934 ' s it happened one night swept the oscars had a film walked away with awards for best picture , best director , best actor , best actress , and best screenplay . one flew over the cuckoo’s nest took home the lot , with nicholson and fletcher winning the top acting awards . the feat would not be matched again for another 16 years , with silence of the lambs becoming the next ( and last to date ) movie to earn the distinction .
the director is park chan - wook , one of south korea’s most commercially successful young filmmakers . a few of his well - known movies are sympathy for mr . vengeance , oldboy ( which won the grand prix award at the 2004 cannes film festival ) , and thirst ( which won the jury prize at the 2009 cannes film festival ) .
the film begins on 5 september 2006 near the kajaki dam in helmand province . one of the men of 3 para is addressing two afghan boys who have just nearly killed him while indulging in the adorable childhood pastime of grenade - fishing . “i’m here trying to bring peace and love to your fucking stone - age country , ” he explains . “don’t pick a fight with an armed midget , ” his buddy warns him . the unspoken question behind the film is set up : what are british soldiers doing in afghanistan , anyway ? some critics have felt this film lacks engagement with the local population or the wider scope of the war , but surely that’s exactly the point : these soldiers are just ordinary blokes ( they’re all blokes ) , a long way from home , doing an incredibly dangerous job without much sense of why .
fly fishers international ( ffi ) hosts the fly fishing show learning center with fly tying , casting instruction and other fly fishing information and is free to show attendees . fly tying focuses on young attendees , but all ages are welcome . tying sessions begin every 30 minutes during periods of high demand ; “when you get there” during periods of lighter attendance . there are usually three casting classes per day taught by ffi certified casting instructors , 11am , 1 and 3pm . sign - up for each casting class at the ffi booth . these classes are limited to 10 students and are about 1 hour long . fly rods provided .
the launch of the ipad in april 2010 opened up further possibilities for cinematic - style storytelling . the silver goat ( 2012 ) was the first feature film to be created exclusively for the ipad , the first to be released as an app in the uk and several other countries , and the first in the world to have an ipad - only premiere . this took place on a london route master bus which traversed many of the film’s locations throughout the city while the audience members watched the film on their individual ipads .
plays with noir tropes more than he plays to them , deflating film noir’s inherent machismo by revealing the chief heavies of his cast as scrabbling cowards . depending on your mood ,
when producers were shopping the picture to studios , 20th century fox was interested , but with a catch . fox would distribute the film , but only if the filmmakers would agree to rewrite the ending ; the studio wanted mcmurphy to live . producers saul zaentz and michael douglas wisely considered this a deal breaker , and united artists eventually distributed the film .
prior to reinventing filmic language with their playful genre experiments , the members of france’s new wave movement got their start as film critics . in fact , it was through their writings and discussions that the term “film noir” was first christened as a means of describing a certain breed of brooding postwar films . it’s not surprising then that louis malle—though not an official new wave member—would settle on a film noir - influenced project as his first feature film . acting both as an homage to noir as well as a subversion of its structure , elevator to the gallows stars jeanne moreau and maurice ronet as a pair of criminals whose plan to kill moreau’s husband quickly falls apart when the ronet character gets stuck in an elevator . this already absurd concept becomes all the more confounding when paired with the film’s unorthodox , experimental editing and somber , miles davis - performed jazz score . — m . r .
shocked , the man trips up on his fishing rods , and gets tangled together with the woman by the fishing lines . he struggles to untangle himself free , but the more he tries , the more he gets tangled . suddenly , the woman ' s arm wraps around the man ' s neck . the man screams and faints . later , the woman , now wearing the man ' s clothes , wakes up the man , who is now wearing her white funeral dress . the man completely confused . to make matters worse , the woman starts to cry in a little girl ' s voice , calling him
daddy
. . .
lee sits up in the guest bedroom , thinking . we flashback to six years earlier , when patrick , joe , and lee returned home to find elsie passed out on the couch after drinking all night  with no pants or underwear on . lee has to usher the 8 - year - old patrick upstairs .
nicholas ray’s first picture boasts perhaps the dumbest wronged protagonist in film noir’s history . what kind of nitwit plots to clear his name in a wrongful conviction by committing a crime ? sure , fine , maybe knocking over a bank is less heinous than killing a man , but farley granger’s doomed hero , bowie , doesn’t really connect the dots and realize that robbery is still a jailable offense . the intellectual merits of bowie’s bright idea are irrelevant , though : they live by night cares deeply about the inescapable grasp of the law and the people who wind up caught in it . some of them are genuinely scummy people , like bowie’s fellow fugitives , one - eye and t - dub . some of them are victims of the system , who lack the means to prove their uprightness . they live by night is a superlative example of an atypical noir domain—the film takes place largely on the road instead of in the city—but most of all , it’s a heartbreaking stunner about the decay of human innocence . — a . c .
is the coolest melville film of them all ; odds are , it’ll land upright , because that’s an impossible distinction to make . melville films pulse with ineffable cool . in the case of
as with all filmmaking cameras , using just the iphone by itself wasn’t quite enough to create a complete film . rather , the crew relied on extra equipment to beef up the film quality , including a prototype anamorphic lens adapter from moondog labs , the filmic pro video app , and a steadicam . the film crew also received a healthy dose of help on the audio front , utilizing an sd 664 production mixer , boom mics , and even a lavalier during the filmmaking process . baker specifically pointed to the anamorphic lens as the essential part of tangerine’s production , though . “to tell you the truth , i wouldn’t have even made the movie without it , ” baker told the verge , further emphasizing how it “elevated” the film to a more “cinematic level . ”
rage ( 2009 ) was the first feature film to be designed for mobile phone viewing , and one which embedded the mobile phone symbiotically into the processes of production , distribution and consumption . although the film itself was shot using a conventional video camera held by the director , it clearly considers the mobile phone in its creation : each of the protagonists addresses a fictional camera operator who is filming each of their private exchanges using his mobile phone . rage was distributed simultaneously as a theatrical release and as a downloadable film via babelgum ( for free ) to be watched on a mobile phone .
there remains no incontrovertible proof of kabuo’s innocence until ishmael chambers stumbles across a logbook from a local lighthouse on the evening of the second day of the trial . the logbook , kept by a radioman’s assistant who is no longer stationed on san piedro , records that a large freighter got lost in dense fog off the island on the night of september
farther down highway 12 , enjoy a dinner at captain’s table or diamond shoals restaurants located in the heart of buxton village , and as you decide where to stay for the night , check around with locals to see if the band coyote is playing music anywhere nearby . they appeared in nights in rodanthe and regularly perform on hatteras and ocracoke islands .
uh had a great game last night beating colorado in their season opener . our new spot for straub debuted in the game . the spot is about scott harding , uh’s all - american punter from last year . scott is an amazing talent . he not only punted , but he was also their punt returner and one of their leading receivers .
now we flashback to seven years earlier , like in the first scene of the film . lee is on the boat with an 8 - year - old patrick . he teases him about a shark that is going to eat him but patrick is unfazed , a tough massachusetts kid . he gets a bite on his fishing pole and begins to reel it in . we cut to the present . lee rushes up to manchester to inform patrick about his father . he drives through the town and has a flashback  of seven years earlier , returning home to his wife , randi ( michelle williams ) who is sick in bed . he says hello to his seven - year - old daughter , playfully teases his five - year - old daughter , and picks up his eight - month - old son . he then kisses randi despite her being bedridden . he tells her about his day , fishing with patrick .
then there’s the film app ( 2013 ) , for which audiences were required to download the accompanying app – iris - prior to entering the cinema and then encouraged to interact with it in the auditorium . a horror film in which an app takes over the main protagonists ( and the audiences phones ) – alludes to the consequences of our new reliance on smartphone devices and its subversion of our privacy .
, alex proyas’ 1998 magnum opus serves up a cerebral sci - fi extravaganza as filtered through the visual tropes of film noir and german expressionism . the result is a staggering achievement in imagination that , like
screen international is the essential resource for the international film industry . subscribe now for monthly editions , awards season weeklies , access to the screen international archive and supplements including stars of tomorrow and world of locations .
hollywood is really out of ideas which is proven by this movie . gone fishin is a classic 90s movie how could they remake it with dwayne johnson ! first dwayne remakes jumanji , another classic 90s movie , and now he remakes gone fishin ! ? if you haven ' t seen the original gone fishing do yourself a favour and watch it , not this remake trash !
is a masterpiece . funny to think that american critics looked down their noses at the film at the time of its release . maybe they took offense at the inescapable scent of welles’ passion for rita hayworth , his wife at the time and his ex shortly after production wrapped . he captures her in close - up with a hungry , enraptured eye , the most coherent image in a film that’s built on logical incoherence .


letter from an unknown woman is a 1948 american drama romance film directed by max ophüls .

it was based on the novella of the same name by stefan zweig .

the film stars joan fontaine , louis jourdan , mady christians and marcel journet .

in 1992 , letter from an unknown woman was selected for preservation in the united states national film registry by the library of congress as being " culturally , historically , or aesthetically significant " .

letter from an unknown woman is showing at bfi southbank , london , from 12 - 28 february .
joan fontaine and louis jourdan in letter from an unknown woman . photograph : ronald grant archive
letter from an unknown woman ( 1948 film ) was directed by max ophüls . starring joan fontaine , louis jourdan , mady christians and marcel journet .
looking for movie tickets ? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing letter from an unknown woman near you .
it is most unfortunate that the three films you have reviewed for us are not ( yet ? ) available on dvd . i ' ve wanted to see letter from an unknown woman ( 1948 ) for some time now .
i feel that joan fontaine has been overlooked and underrated all these years . a letter from an unknown woman , has sadly been overlooked , even for tcm . i . . .
5 . letter from an unknown woman ( 1948 ) maybe the director ' s most delirious film , a bittersweet and exemplary melodrama about both the allure and the danger of fantasy . structured like an opera , the episodic story illustrates a doomed and delusional love affair with equal parts grace , humor , distemper , and cynicism .
a pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember , who may hold the key to his downfall .
joel6 - fontaine has an odd star trajectory , that ' s for sure . some of her roles i absolutely adore like born to be bad and letter from an unknown woman . she can be amazing which is why her choices overall are so baffling !
tags : max ophuls , letter from an unknown woman , liebelei , la ronde , don druke , lola montes , the reckless moment , dave kehr , the earrings of madame de . . . , kent jones , image
the same could be said to any viewers who , like most critics of the film’s day , find the film overly sentimental . like douglas sirk’s written on the wind ( 1956 ) and other hollywood soaps of the period , letter from an unknown woman has climbed in stature after a closer look .
letter from an unknown woman ( 1948 ) is the classic romantic film - a lush tearjerker par excellence - of the bittersweet theme of unrequited , lost love ( it ' s considered a quintessential
woman ' s picture
) . legendary european director max ophuls ' deeply - moving , timeless film , considered his greatest and most successful american film but a film unlike most hollywood films . [ note : the director ' s name was given an alternate american spelling , opuls , in the credits , as in his other american films of the 40s . ]
today , and you’ll most likely evoke an extreme reaction from classic movie spectators .
carla marcantonio is an assistant professor of film and media studies at george mason university .
excellent essay on one of my favorite actresses and which discusses flawlessly two of my top 5 favorite films :
the constant nymph
and
letter from an unknown woman
. very well done moira ! your style is flawless and exquisite . you should write a book !
an excellent film about obsession , disappointment , lost opportunities and depression , all wrapped up with a big costume drama bow . it tells the story of a man who just before he is running away from a duel gets a letter from someone he seems to not know . after that , the film is all told in a flashback from the perspective of the letter writer .
( 1948 ) . only the last film is readily available on dvd , and i have not seen it on broadcast cable in some time .
a pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember . as she tells the story of her lifelong love for him , he is forced to reinterpret his own past .
so begins max ophuls’ masterpiece letter from an unknown woman , instantly gripping audiences , but not by setting up a mystery thriller as some might guess . the letter’s recipient is not some private eye who must keep reading to find clues to a potential murder . instead , it’s a suave playboy who must keep reading to see how his own selfish actions have led to the heartache of a woman he does not even remember .
jason fraley holds an m . f . a in film & electronic media from american university and a b . a . in journalism from the university of maryland . he has contributed to
on the subject of stefan’s conversion by the end of the film and its representation of a man’s journey into symbolic order , and thus into history , see tania modleski , “time and desire in the woman’s film” , letter from an unknown woman , ed . virginia wright - wexman and karen hollinger , rutgers university press , new brunswick , 1986 , pp . 249 - 262 . her reading begins from the observation that what is at stake in this film is a man’s word ( 249 ) and a woman’s silence ( 250 ) . i do not take issue with modleski’s reading which focuses on the representation of gender through the tropes of temporality , stasis and action .
in may 1948 , koch was fleetingly rumored to be collaborating with max ophüls on a stage play starring paul draper .
james mason , who appeared in two of max ophüls ' s films , once wrote a short poem about the director that begins :
a shot that does not call for tracks / is agony for poor dear max / who separated from his dolly / is wrapped in deepest melancholy .
the luscious visual audacity of letter from an unknown woman makes mason ' s case perfectly .
in lesser hands this film would be pathetic , masochistic melodrama . but ophuls and screenwriter howard koch never look down upon the lead character . there is no disdain toward her actions . instead , they treat the story with tender sympathy . but , that doesn’t fully erase the underlying darkness of this story in my mind . the film makes love both decadent and horrific . even with the moving score and romantic cinematography letter from an unknown woman feels truly haunting .
[ . . . ] of the hollywood films , one was a bright entertainment , the unjustly neglected the exile with douglas fairbanks , jr . in 1947 . two were flawed but engaging attempts at film noirs , caught ( 1949 ) with robert ryan , and the reckless moment ( 1949 ) both starred james mason at the start of his u . s . career . in the latter film ophüls also evoked a fine performance as a desperate , respectable housewife from one of the most interesting actresses of the ’40s , joan bennett . the director also made one possible masterpiece , letter from an unknown woman in 1948 with joan fontaine . [ . . . ]
the view blurs and fades , signifying a flashback ( for virtually the remainder of the film ) from the unknown woman ' s written deathbed confession , as she tells of her lifelong , almost 20 year obsession with a pianist and actually relives the feelings and thoughts of her life . the reading of the letter is represented by the narrating voice of the woman herself - now dead , although her voice doesn ' t sound labored or deathly sick .
a woman ' s lifelong love for a callous concert pianist leads to tragedy .
the shot from the top of a stairway is one of the dominant motifs in the film . for an excellent analysis of this visual motif refer to wright - wexman’s essay .
there have been dozens of films about unrequited love , about heartbreak , about the lives of two individuals taking different paths and there will continue to be , but letter from an unknown woman stands above pretty much all of them . this forgotten 1948 romantic melodrama is an intensely engrossing piece of cinema well worth seeing for acclaimed german filmmaker max ophuls ' stylistic direction . he was apparently known for his lyrical camera movements , the use of long tracking shots , and his atmospheric evocation of romantic melancholy—all of which are on full display here . it ' s a beautifully roasted chestnut well worth seeking out .
serving as a delivery intermediary in the hallway , john touches stefan ' s arm to interrupt his departure and get his attention . he then shows him an envelope [ a
letter from an unknown woman
] - un - noticed and forgotten in the rush , but placed and served on a silver tray - it came during the night . he tosses the thick envelope onto his desk , pinches the corners of his tired eyes , picks up the envelope , walks to the bathroom , opens the envelope and unfolds the many pages of the letter , and splashes water on his face from a small washbowl .
all the films from all the editions , including those subsequently removed , presently totalling 1199 . an easy way of seeing how…
this guy is stefan brand ( louis jourdan ) , a former concert pianist in 1900 vienna , who has developed a reputation for romancing more women than he can count . the unknown woman , and writer of the letter , is lisa berndle ( joan fontaine ) , an ailing woman wanting to get a few important things off her chest . just as intrigued as viewers , stefan dives into the letter over some coffee and cognac , and the narrative shifts to lisa’s story , signaled by a blurry flashback and fontaine’s narration .
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…
although it is angering , one can learn much from this rich film . it is a must see for film lovers and makes you realize how important it is to make the right decision .
[ at the beginning of the letter , stefan would naturally not know that lisa ' s voice should accompany the reading of the letter , because he does not know who sent the letter ! further , some of the events in the film are not witnessed by lisa , as the film frequently mismatches her presence in the narration with various scenes / incidents in the flashbacks . therefore , the film often requires a very non - literal interpretation by the viewer . ]
it is a testament to fontaine as an actress that i don’t utterly revile lisa . often watching fontaine i have the urge to scream , “grow a backbone , woman ! ” which i guess is what many of my female friends think when i put on a fontaine film for a movie night . you may feel sympathy for lisa’s heartbreak and angry at her circumstances in letter from an unknown woman . after all haven’t all of us dealt with unrequited love in some way or another ? but it is hard to forget that lisa continued to choose stefan even when he couldn’t remember her and doing so would could only lead to misery .
then , in october 1959 , koch’s first film job was announced . although it took two years to reach screens , the english film
no direct evidence of an affidavit exists in koch’s papers , but around this time , he went back to work in theater and television . the film industry may not have been so forgiving . a february 1959 letter from civil rights attorney edwin bennet williams suggests that if an affidavit was signed , it alone could not grant koch full reinstatement in the industry :
lisa also wistfully watches his numerous visitors from an upstairs window , noticing that his gatherings are often attended by elegantly - dressed women .
meeting a stranger in a railway station , a woman is tempted to cheat on her husband .
but that ' s asking for a lot . so fontaine has to be taken carefully now . but jourdan ' s lothario has improved beyond belief . jourdan was actually two years younger than fontaine – i wonder if he dared tease her . but both of them had been put under contract by david o selznick ( jourdan had been in the resistance during the war ) – and thus they were loaned out for letter from an unknown woman .
i feel that joan fontaine has been overlooked and underrated all these years . a letter from an unknown woman , has sadly been overlooked , even for tcm . i had looked for years for a copy of it and now finely am able to obtain it . i believe tcm has neglected to show more of miss fontaines ' films especially some of comedic ones . let ' s hope 2012 brings us more of miss fontaine ' s films .
smartly woven by author stefan zweig and poetically adapted to the screen by casablanca co - writer howard koch , letter from an unknown woman is a teary , melodramatic look at societal gender roles , the false hopes of love , and how the two tragically intersect . it may be best articulated in lisa’s sad , written revelation to stefan : “if you could have only recognized what was always yours , you could have found what was never lost . ”
to respond to nick , there ' s an excellent analysis of letters in molly haskell ' s from reverence to rape which brings out the self - sacricial myth at the heart of the woman ' s dream . e . m .
as hollywood changed , fontaine never again had an opportunity to explore the depth of her talent as she did in letter from an unknown woman , and slipped back into playing stock bad girls , pleasant companions , idealized heroines , and dissatisfied women with sharp tongues in such films as born to be bad , september affair , ivanhoe , and tender is the night . this film , which like the other two films discussed here had , according to producer john houseman , a mixed critical reception and was not a financial success at the time of its release . since then , this movie has found an audience and is the widely available on dvd . maybe someday , even those who think they don’t like joan fontaine as an actress will discover these movies . each offers a more complex and varied portrait of a woman in conflict with reality .
hi mdr , actually , letter from an unknown woman , as i mentioned , is the only one of the three that is available on dvd , but it would be great if tcm could eventually include this rko release as part of its programming , allowing a wider audience an introduction to a masterpiece . this above all would be a great addition to tcm , but i realize that not all fox products are readily acquired , ( especially since the fmc provides an outlet on cable for them ) . the real shame is that the constant nymph cannot be seen , though , according to some rather contradictory sources that i ' ve come across , the copyright may become part of the public domain in 2017 or 2018 , freeing the film from litigation .
this is the love every woman lives for . . . the love every man would die for !
in vienna , about 1900 , a dashing man arrives at his flat , instructing his manservant that he will leave before morning : the man is stefan brand , formerly a concert pianist , planning to leave vienna to avoid a duel . his servant gives him a letter from an unknown woman , which he reads . in flashbacks we see the lifelong passion of lisa berndle for him : first as a girl who was his neighbor ; next as a young woman who , in secret , has his child ; then as a mature woman who meets him again and abandons husband and son to be with him . each time he does not remember who she is or that they have ever met . by morning , he has finished the letter , and her husband awaits satisfaction .
letter evokes the turn of the 19 th century to partly avow the bond that psychoanalysis and film share in delivering and shackling us into modern consciousness . it is impossible for me to pursue the implications of this point in this short essay , but one may refer to stanley cavell’s chapter on the film that partly focuses on this problem . see contesting tears : the hollywood melodrama of the unknown woman , university of chicago press , chicago , 1996 , pp . 81 - 113 .
i loved the blog on letter from an unknown woman and stella dallas - i certainly remember loving the first from a long time ago and think i have seen the second too , the plot summary certainly rings a bell - apparently it is unavailable in the uk though according to one of the comments ( probably judy ? ) - i can ' t work out the comments on livejournal - it seems you either have to join or leave one anonymously which i don ' t like doing . anyway all the analysis is brilliant as ever .
it ' s no surprise that these ' endless parades of arrivals and departures ' that make letter from an unknown woman take as much away from these characters as they give . it ' s these actions and the musicality of the performers ' movements matched by the waltz the camera is frequently engaged in that creates ophüls ' tragic world wherein our central woman lisa berndle devotes her life to a man she seems destined not to be with . it ' s always a window or a door blocking lisa from her love - or everything that , to her , represents her love - pertubed by her inability to reach him even through something most brittle . and finally , upon meeting , their attempt to capture missed opportunities and memories can…
continuing the theme of looking back at 1948 ahead of this weekend ' s smackdown . here ' s angelica discussing one of joan fontaine ' s greatest roles . . .
letter from an unknown woman is one of the few films that can be said to be truly beautiful . everything about it is dreamy : the setting , the music , the cast . joan fontaine plays a girl then a woman who is sexually obligated and infatuated to louis jourdan , who is sexually free and only obligated to his music . one of the best parts is when the two main characters meet for the first or second time . they ' re in am amusement park at night on a fake train talking . for the woman it ' s an experience she will treasure forever , but for the man it ' s the beginning of a one night stand . in reality the viewer knows that both of them are on a love train going nowhere . how can a woman be so infatuated with a man ! ? that is what makes this story so sad and heartbreaking . joan fontaine and max opuls should have been nominated for this film .
, max ophüls’s 1948 universal film , joan fontaine falls in love from afar with a concert pianist , played by louis jourdan ; they meet once , make love , then don’t see each other for ten years , during which time she bears and raises their child . he doesn’t remember her when they meet again—at the opera , where
an interview with the chicago native , an artist and activist , about the politics of his sci - fi comedy with radical left and anti - capitalist messages .
, yet tastefully , differentiated himself from the other eighteen , an action that suggested a re - evaluation of the group dynamic might have been in order .
the reason for this reassessment belongs solely to the legendary vision of german director max ophuls . letter from an unknown woman is not only his greatest american contribution , but his greatest contribution , period . rather than transparently following the characters within their fictional world ( like most movies ) , ophuls positions his camera in its own time and space , disconnected from the characters and the reality they know . it gazes at them through a restaurant window . it studies them fatalistically through the bars of a gate . it peers at them through a set of curtains on either side of the frame .
even before the mankiewicz cancellation , though , koch had been contemplating “getting a ‘clearance’” according to the mccall letter .
is usually hailed as his best american film and the clear favorite among many film buffs , both for ophuls ' romanticism and the finely etched performances of fontaine and jourdan .
nevertheless , koch began to distance himself from the political realm in the late 1940s . although he later dated his exit from politics to the early 1950s ,
i won ' t tell you how the story ends – that would be unfair , though i think if you see the film afresh now , you will feel that the melodrama is a little heavy - handed at the end . but we have known all along that stefan ' s perilous thin - ice life has let him be challenged to a duel , and we gather that he is not expected to survive . indeed , he plans to be away before dawn – he has a manservant ( played by art smith ) vital to the whole story . his escape is only prevented because he receives a long letter , a letter from an unknown woman . when he starts to read it , the story it contains dooms him .
his startled attention is turned toward the letter when he sees its letterhead from st . catherine ' s hospital , and its ominous first statement in a female ' s handwriting :
by the time you read this letter , i may be dead .
his brow furrows ( with beads of water ) as he picks up the letter , turns , and dabs his face with a towel . he proceeds into his study where he places the letter on a desk , lights a small lamp , and then leans over to read it .
the heart - breaking tale of their relationship is communicated through flashbacks and the night - time reading of the deathbed letter written by the dying woman - she is the wife of the man the pianist must duel at the coming dawn .
for mankiewicz , koch’s name was only fuel for an already raging public relations fire .
over the same period , koch also suffered from rejection on broadway . his play
a double life 1947 ronald colman , edmond o ' brien , signe hasso . film noir
btw , there are an incredible number of typos in the article - - the kind that spellcheck overlooks . it was a distraction from the otherwise v well written analysis .
a blurred dissolve clears on the face of stefan ( fifteen years later ) who is reading the letter at his desk .
bill rothman’s essay on vertigo also notes points of similarity between these two films . see the chapter entitled , “ vertigo : the unknown woman in hitchcock” in his the “i” of the camera , cambridge university press , cambridge , ma , 1988 , pp . 152 - 173 .
fontaine renders lisa with a sensitivity , intelligence , and naïve hope so that it is hard to hate her . instead , you’re whisked away into the fairytale she so desperately wants to become reality . lisa’s life peaked early she’s forever replaying distorted images of stefan . she created a narrative for him in her youth that neither reality nor age could break . ultimately , letter from an unknown isn’t a love story , it is beautifully rendered portrait of obsession .
the writer ceased to appear in the popular press as a political figure late in 1948 . initially , his flirtation with huac hardly seemed to affect koch’s level of political engagement . he sponsored a world peace conference
,
linda williams ,
' something else besides a mother ;
stella dallas and the maternal melodrama ,
tania modleski ,
time and desire in the woman ' s film ,
christine gledhill , edd .
founded in 1999 , senses of cinema is one of the first online film journals of its kind and has set the standard for professional , high quality film - related content on the internet .
thank you for your comment , judy . i must go back to basinger to read the passages . i had forgotten there was some on letters from an unknown woman . curious what ' s available on one or other side of the atlantic , or available or not anywhere . no dvd for _ letters for an unknown woman _ except at very high price . no packages of dvds of ronald colman , none for jean arthur , none for cary grant ; is it the american popular classic audience the dvd makers seek to please ? if so , why not jean arthur ? because she ' s a woman ? then why not cary grant ? ronald colman was popular with american audiences . is it the non - macho content that doesn ' t go over or is instinctively not wanted ? i found there is a dvd i could get which plays any regions , and i ' ve seen a multiregion or purpose videocassette player , but can ' t as yet tell where to buy them : ) a muse , ellen
the staircase of stefan’s home carries deeper sexual symbolism with each girl he brings up , begging the question of how many other heartbroken “unknown women” have come before laura .
based on the novella by stefan zweig , the film begins in vienna 1900 . we meet stefan ( louis jordan ) a rakish pianist planning to run out of town before a scheduled duel . before he can do so his mute servant ( art smith ) gives him the titular letter . it begins ominously , “by the time you read this letter i may be dead . ”
. even so , koch would have to wait until 1964 for screen credit for an american production .
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i have never seen this film before this past week and where has this film been in my life before . it ' s so beautiful and fontaine is so captivating and this film not being fully embraced my oscars back in 1948 is baffling to me . maybe the academy could only go for one of the de havilland sisters and they choose olivia ' s films the snake pit another film i love . i could imagine the two sisters who hated each would not have wanted to be nominated in the same category even though both of them should have been nominated . this film put all modern love stories to shame because these actors in the 40 ' s & 50 ' s really were masters of creating believable love stories no matter how massive in scale they are .
i finally have received a copy of “the constant nymph . ” i’ve read and heard about this film for so long . when that happens , i am usually disappointed but not this time ! i loved the film , especially joan fontaine’s performance . the music is great and i enjoyed boyer’s acting , but it is fontaine’s film . her acting is nuanced and totally believable . she a very underrated and underappreciated film actress in my opinion .
of course , this does not prove that the incident did not take place ; after all , koch’s name is erased from the popular press in the two major cities of the entertainment industry after the release of the 13th letter in february 1951 .
. too european for success in an era of hollywood escapism , the film failed at the box office , but has lived in the hearts of its fans to become one of the most cherished of all ophuls films .
shortly thereafter , a static high - angle shot watches lisa move diagonally from the bottom of screen left to the top of screen right , already almost a shadow ; here she literally exits the film’s frame , never to be recovered again – except as a flash of past images , or as a ghostly superimposition , or in our viewing and re - viewing of this film again through time . in all these cases , all we have access to are scenes from the film itself , scenes we merely revisit – not unlike lisa’s beloved train travel . yet the question arises : what right does lisa have to ask this man for recognition ? must we rebuke him ? stefan has never been anything other than a man predicated on existing in an evanescent present . he is a man who also has a stake in his fantasy of an ideal woman who never arrives . thus , a world conceived with the deliberateness of a stairway , where every step is fatefully arrived at , meets the randomness of one envisioned as an endlessly shuffled deck of cards . fantasy is the inescapable violence we enact upon each other , making the other invisible . the power of melodrama , and certainly of this melodrama , resides precisely in luring us to these realisations through the banal , the sugar - coated , and perhaps the even laughable desire of a certain unknown woman .
koch , it seems , was the only member of the nineteen to emerge unscathed from the reversal .
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with houseman supervising , koch and ophuls worked on the screenplay . from the first , ophuls was demanding , insisting on authentic , creative choices throughout the film . though he did not receive a screenwriting credit , houseman ' s memoirs credit him with some of the film ' s most distinctive touches , including the snow - filled amusement park , the deserted dance - hall in which the stars dance as an all - female orchestra plays strauss and the fake train ride , with an attendant pedaling furiously to roll scenery past a stationary train carriage .
this film is so beautiful it brings tears to my eyes every time i watch it and goose bumps to my skin each time i hear the beautiful score of the film . joan fontaine give what arguably is her best performance as does louis jourdan . it is a bittersweet romance that will leave you wanting to watch it over and over . many film historians have written about this film and some of what they have said can be found on the internet .
shows profound human feeling violated by social status , and while there is exaggeration and crudity in the way the story and circumstances are presented , i know from experience , that such violations occur all the time , and believe ( have known of ) where they can be central and wreak irremediable damage on a psyche and a life . this is not just a woman ' s issue , but it can be more likely for a woman , especially as stella is working class and appears to be a woman with a low class lover , ed . in fact she ' s not interested in ed or any man , only her daughter , and i ' ve seen this : woman who are mothers first , last and foremost .
on the other hand , his non - communist status made an affidavit of non - affiliation a viable possibility .
from the boer war through world war ii , a soldier rises through the ranks in the british military .
i was issued a sort of invitation to return to hollywood for an assignment and reinstatement in ‘the industry’ by an ‘un - named major studio executive . ’ i couldn’t take advantage of this opening at the time because i was doing that picture with joe [ losey ] . however , the letter convinced me that my situation could be cleared up in that painless fashion and that the list was practically non - operative as far as i was concerned . the past six months have proved that an illusion .
. directed by king vidor , screenplay by harry wagstaff gribble and based on a very popular novel by a woman , olive higgins prouty , at the time .
this careful use of camera effects turns the film into a piece of music , which is underlined by ophuls ' painstaking selection of the appropriate classical pieces to reflect action and milieu . jourdan ' s theme is taken from lizst ' s piano etude no . 3 , which his character is shown practicing early in the film when he is still a student . it plays whenever fontaine thinks of him , over their love scenes and as he finishes reading her letter at the end . when fontaine encounters him again at the opera , where he does not remember their previous liaison , the music is from mozart ' s
received only mixed reviews , with critics praising the period art direction but often noting the film ' s slow pacing . it was decidedly not what post - war film audiences wanted . theories about the film ' s box - office failure usually blame the casting of jourdan , whom producer houseman felt lacked the sex appeal necessary to make fontaine ' s lifelong devotion both believable and touching . later critics , however , have pointed out that ophuls ' direction supplies all the sensuality required and that , on re - evaluation , jourdan ' s performance is perhaps his finest . another problem for audiences was the film ' s fatalistic plot . by the final shot fontaine ' s character is dead of typhus while jourdan , now chastened from reading her letter , is going off to certain death in a duel with her husband . although this finale seems tragic to contemporary critics , it may have lacked the obvious sense of ennoblement audiences of the 1940s wanted from what was still basically an escapist medium .
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i received my now playing booklet for the month ofmarch and was interested in seeing the movie
letterfrom an unknown woman .
thinking this soundedlike something i would be interested in , i was pleasedbeyond my expectations . this was a lovely and heartbreaking movie of unrequited love spanningthe lifetime of a young woman . i thoroughly enjoyedthe performances and chemistry between louis jourdan and joan fontaine . the movie left me wanting to seeit again . . . but alas , it is not for sale ! i ' m hoping thiswill not be the case for long . i would love to have itin my classic movie collections . thank you oh so much for playing this and makingmy saturday night !
the film ' s literate screenplay was written by previous academy award winner howard koch ( screenwriter for casablanca ( 1942 ) ) , and adapted from a 1922 short story ( novella ) by stefan zweig . fontaine ' s own production company produced the film . john houseman , orson welles ' former partner and the uncredited co - author of citizen kane ( 1941 ) , was the film ' s producer , through rampart productions ( a company owned by william dozier and his wife , actress joan fontaine ) .
utterly transporting and deeply , complicatedly wistful in its exploration of the interplay between romanticism and reality . what an introduction to ophüls .
, during a dinner party , sung by a puppet in a candlelit diorama ; a short lecture follows . ( “hear the strange and illogical but genial rhythm : ‘pami—na . ’ this is no longer the name of a young woman but an incantation , a sorcerer’s formula . ” ) bergman was particularly fond of
doesn ' t have . ophuls ' film is about a fantasy that doesn ' t exist , and the story is improbable throughout .
, which recounts the story of a hollywood producer who is blackmailed . koch himself is utterly dismissive of the film : he relegates it to a single phrase in his memoir , dismissing it out of hand as a film “of no importance” without even mentioning its title .
( 1944 ) . but this time she allowed the child - woman to grow up into a sophisticated , elegant wife and mother still capable of being ruled by the child within .
in pictures - the story of love and romance : from adam and eve to tinder and chemsex . compiled by martin chilton
in the letter we have a young girl who , at that age when girls get crushes , gets a crush for her handsome pianist neighbor , and stalks him from afar . eventually this leads to a life - long obsession punctuated by a couple of actual meetings , and a big disappointing final meeting .
strangely , in spite of his strong endorsement , the national council of arts , sciences and professions ( the asp , of which koch was chair ) was the only chapter of the pca that remained independent of the wallace party in a merger between the party and the pca in june of 1948 .
significantly , the first spoken words in the film ' s first flashback identify and introduce the ' unknown woman ' s name ' - they are called out as a summons by the young girl ' s mother ( mady christians ) from a second - story window , to get her daughter to stop her dreamy contemplation of the delivery van :
lisa , come in lisa . come in this minute , you hear ? lisa !
[ from the previous voice - over , it is clear that lisa identifies this day as a birthday - the beginning of her conscious life . ] after climbing the stairs , lisa meets the occupant ' s mute assistant john , just as she hears her mother call her name one more time :
lisa , what are you doing out there ? come inside .
3 . la ronde ( 1950 ) a transitional film ( don druker is dead - on when he writes ,
the movement toward ophuls ' s baroque masterpiece lola montes is unmistakable .
the film is both completely joyous and stylistically radical , nearly avant - garde in the way it plays with the boundary between life and theater , facilitated by anton walbrook as the raconteur , maybe the best performance in an ophuls film . the director ' s camera is particularly expressive here , comparing and illuminating the dialogue and the images via his famous tracking shots .
eschewing a hack’s against - all - odds psychoanalytic narrative in favor of a thoughtful portrait , simon callow ' s book being wagner traces the evolution of an angry young man to an angry old man who , along the way , unalterably changed the dramaturgy of opera forever .
as with the case of the “single” flashback , this is perhaps not exactly right . there is one other scene where the camera seems to come in search of lisa , in which , after having said goodbye to stefan at the train station , lisa disappears from the frame close to the top of screen right and walks away from the camera . this shot is followed by a dissolve , cueing a temporal ellipsis , that reveals from the top screen right the image of a nun appearing from the darkness and walking toward the camera ( almost fusing with lisa’s position in the previous shot – cavell calls this lisa’s cinematic transfiguration into a nun [ 184 ] ) . the nun walks among curtained enclosures , until she comes upon the curtain that reveals lisa , who has just given birth to her and stefan’s illegitimate son . this figure is something to keep in mind when noting that lisa’s letter arrives to stefan from a “sister in charge” . furthermore , if we consider this film as a key intertext with vertigo , it gives further depth to the death - precipitating presence of the nun in the latter film .
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the day of the waldorf decision , koch publicly disassociated himself from the communist party . in a 26 november 1947 advertisement in the
ophuls was already disillusioned with hollywood , where he had fled during world war ii . he had been fired after only three days shooting his first film there and had been able to complete only one u . s . film to that time , the douglas fairbanks , jr . adventure
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after discovering the dead body of her teenage daughter ' s lover , a housewife takes desperate measures to protect her family from scandal .
observed :
fraley , a film buff , is known for his savantlike ability to name every best picture winner in history , by year .
thus , koch revisited his 1947 advertisement in his letter to gang , unequivocally distancing himself from the party while making an appeal to first amendment rights . yet , while criticism of the ten was certainly implicit in his 1947 public relations move , he makes it quite explicit in his letter to gang . the gesture was not , however , enough gang’s reply to koch said that the latter would need to provide more “specific” answers . koch met with gang , who advised koch to appear before the committee and to publicize his appearance . first , though , gang thought koch ought to “bone up” on extant committee testimony and to generally avoid acting so “naïve” as he did in his letter . ultimately , koch decided to follow the alternate route suggested by the kohner agency and sign an affidavit for a studio executive ( a strange demand , since he had publicized a similar document a decade before ) . having heard this decision , gang “reversed himself completely , agreeing that this approach was more suitable in my case and ‘less work for both of us . ’”
the diamond earrings of a french aristocrat , a wedding gift from her husband , cause a series of conflicts as they change hands repeatedly .
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with his pseudonym , koch once again began to work . his first major project in england was an adaptation of his own science - fiction work ,
and backed progressive party candidate henry a . wallace in the 1948 presidential race . at a two - day conference of the liberal activist group the political citizens association ( pca ) , koch made the following statement : “there is hardly anyone in the wallace movement who would not rather lose with wallace than win with any other man . ”
a public campaign was no longer desirable to the writer . after 1948 ( or at the latest 1950 ) , he was a resolutely private figure . koch seems to have avoided ever testifying or “naming names” ( although he admitted to considering it in the late 1950s ) , but he hardly broke or even likely damaged the hollywood lists .
a silent nameless woman who gives up her life for this man . pregnancy outside marriage . death . repetition . we first see the man coming in the morning after the duel has been set . then in the flashback with a woman or women in the morning . he returns with lisa the first time in the dawn , the second , and we end there too . a long night of a life . .
the film spectrum began as a labor of love in may 2005 , and after years of obsessive research , launched in october 2011 . two months later ,
was distributed in the united states by rko , but as koch’s indifference to the film indicates , it played as the second half of a double bill .
the demure , old fashioned , almost victorian persona that joan fontaine had honed for a decade on film before this project found full flower in this movie .
the closed set , the attention to detail , the luxury of rehearsal time , a fine cast , as well as her clear affinity for the character that she played blended together to make an intensely felt movie . the constant nymph ( 1943 ) is probably joan fontaine ‘s least known film today , despite the fact that the actress received an oscar nomination for the role . due to the terms of the author margaret kennedy’s will , this warner brothers film has been mired in litigious limbo for decades . the generosity of a friend who lives abroad enabled me to view a dvd - r of this movie recently .
it is one of the most enjoyable love stories ever created . this film has been requested many times in the recent past . you must have searched all over europe to get a copy of it so it can be shared with your viewing public . this film has the finest cast imaginable . it should appeal to all the women who view tcm . after watching this film from beginning to end you will find that it leaves you with something ; a very strong memory of it . after its first showing on your channel you will find numerous requests to show it again and again . when i first saw this movie in 1948 , i was a young boy who went home and told my mother all about it . back in the days when the theaters handed out dishes to their patrons my mother and i went to see it together . we both got a dish that night . this is one film that i can watch over and over again and never get tired of seeing it . my mother thoroughly enjoyed this movie and i remember her recommending it to all of her friends at the time .
an image in a government briefing book helped a state department official see “the forest for the trees” in the west bank—and then was shared with the president .
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in early 20th - century vienna , stefan brand ( louis jourdan ) is about to leave the city because he faces a duel that he wants no part of . however , before he can do so , he gets an anonymous love letter that changes his life . though stefan is moved by what he reads , he doesn ' t realize that it was written by lisa berndle ( joan fontaine ) , a young woman he has known but disregarded for most of his life . when he finally figures out who his admirer is , it may be too late to prevent a tragedy .
i ' ve read the synopsis of this movie and have been trying to locate or view it for years . . . it is not in release i fear . where can i find a copy or who shows it from time to time . it has become an obsession to find and view this movie .