Letter from an Unknown Woman

Plot synopsis:
A rich and well-known writer, returning home to Vienna from one of many holidays, finds a long letter from an unknown woman. As a teenager she had lived with her poor widowed mother in the same building and had fallen totally in love with both the opulent cultured lifestyle of her neighbour and the handsome charming man himself. This passion was not lessened by the flow of attractive women spending the night with him or by her being removed to Innsbruck when her mother remarried. At age 18 she returned to Vienna, took a job and tried to meet the writer. He did not recognise her and, without revealing her name, she succeeded in spending three nights with him before he disappeared on a holiday. Pregnant, she lost her job and had to give birth in a refuge for the indigent. Resolved that their child should have a good life, she spent nights with or became mistress of various rich men but would never marry because her heart belonged always to the writer. Out with a current lover, she saw the writer in a night club and went home with him instead. To him, she was just an agreeable companion for that night, as he again did not recognise her. In the 1918 flu pandemic, the child died and she, ill herself, wrote this letter to be posted after her death.

Tags: melodrama, flashback

Review:
In the real world ,trains are ominous messengers of death and despair:it's a train which takes Stefan away after their affair,a train which takes the young boy to his death.Stefan (Jourdan)lives his selfish life without seeing anything.Ophuls(spelled Opuls in the cast and credits) shows him as a handsome nice young man,but if you look with care,you'll notice it's always Liza(Fontaine)who's looking at him with love.Jourdan seems to care but actually he knows so many women that he acts as if he's in a play:Liza's admiration means nothing to him who is a ladykiller-see the scene when Liza comes back from the station- and a celebrated musician adulated by the crowds.Liza is the romantic woman,with a zest of touch of Madame Bovary thrown in -it's not a coincidence if Minnelli chose Jourdan as Madame Bovary's lover in his eponymous movie the very same year-For her,there must be only one love ,and she's prepared to give it all.Joan Fontaine had perhaps never been so good as here.Her whole life ,as she writes her letter (the movie is a flashback ) could have been written in the past conditional.Main influence is certainly that of John Stahl and his "only yesterday" (1933)in which Margaret Sullavan wrote John Boles such a letter.Even the young boy is present in both movies.The last page of the letter,ink-stained (or tear-stained?)takes the audience to a peak of emotion.The final predates the ending of Ophuls's "Madame de" (1953),and the scene on the "train" ,an imitation of life ,the big circus of "Lola Montes" (1955)This is probably Louis Jourdan's best part as well.A French actor,he was never that much popular in his native country ,and he found his best parts in the US ,be it artistically (Ophuls ,Hitchcock and Minnelli) or commercially (Octopussy) speaking..
It is the intoxicatingly bittersweet tale of the obsessive love a young girl (Joan Fontaine) develops for a rougish pianist (Louis Jordan) that remains throughout each charcters life, long after most school-girl crushes have faded away.
From the (strangely neglected) master of romantic period confections- Max Ophuls-, an exquisitely beautiful and poignant tale of a teenage girl (played by Joan Fontaine) in late 19th century Vienna who falls in unrequited love with a concert pianist (Louis Jourdain)...The sets, lighting, smooth gliding camera, costumes, subtly matched musical accompaniment and delicate but aching emotion make for something quite wonderful; it's a film of supreme elegance and extraordinary luminous fragility, a tiny hidden jewel box filled with moonlight..
This movie is really great in how it conjures up so much tasteful melodrama through its structure and the unique way in that the main characters spend less time on screen together interacting than they do just being painfully tragic.I really enjoy the structure of the piece, through the title letter which gives a sense of dated urgency if that makes any sense.
The very handsome Louis Jourdan, and the Vienna setting are turned into props by the director to exaggerate Lisa's vulnerability.It is within Lisa's vulnerability that the audience can see how the concept of romantic love has been used to make women emotionally needy, which can then be taken advantage of by the likes of Jourdan's character Stefan.
1919) is Stefan Brand, a concert pianist, who's leaving Vienna to avoid a duel.Before he leaves his servant gives him a letter from an unknown woman.The letter is from Lisa Berndl, played by Joan Fontaine (b.
1917).In that letter Lisa tells how deeply in love she's been with Stefan for many years.It all started when she was living as his neighbor as a schoolgirl.Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) is a movie that Max Ophüls directed.I started watching the movie after about five minutes and I was too captivated by it so I couldn't stop watching it.It's a different kind of love story.Fontaine and Jourdan are perfect people for their parts.Joan Fontaine is amazing going from a teenager to a mature woman.The whole movie has a great casting.This movie is a true classic.A movie that will make you shed a few tears..
Under Ophüls' impeccable aesthetics, the film evinces great melancholy from its fin-de-siècle setting and punctilious guidelines, the swooning camera-work at hand swirls with its own propulsive vitality and takes no side-on glance at the periphery, homing in on its subjects, crystallizing every emotional pulsating to the fore of plenary niceties.Joan Fontaine, scarcely credible to pass off as a teenager in the start (she was roughly 30 at that time), bides her time when her Lisa reaches adulthood, and buckles down henceforth, no matter what, she never loses her glamour and moderation, even in those pulverizing scenes of that twice- happened "two weeks curses", she is Hollywood Golden Age's screen goddess of profound implosion, an effort none-too elemental but totally falls in with Ophüls' soft-centred temperament.
Deeply moving story from one of cinema's great stylists, Max Ophuls (Le Ronde, Earrings of Madam De, Lola Montes), stars Jane Fonatain as Lisa, a young woman hopelessly in love with dashing but callous piano player Stefan (Louis Jordan).
Max Ophuls' who had worked in many European countries and "gave camera movement its finest hours in the history of the cinema" made romantic and elegant "The Letter from an Unknown Woman" in Hollywood and it is regarded as his best American movie..
There is a famous scene in an amusement park where Stefan and Lisa have a conversation on a virtual train ride which pretty much succinctly summarises the theme of the film which is how love can be an illusion just like the illusion of visiting different cities and countries that they were enjoying with the ride.Joan Fontaine is brilliant.
Although she plays a simple woman who pretty much thinks about nothing but catching the attention of Stefan, but she is so sweet, that one can't help but like her in spite of the thin nature of character at the beginning of the film.
He reads the letter written by his former neighbor Lisa Berndle (Joan Fontaine) where she tells that she was a teenager when she develops a platonic love for Stefan, who is a promising pianist compared to Mozart.
She leaves her husband to stay with Stefan, but her doomed love has a tragic end."Letter from an Unknown Woman" is one of the most beautiful romances ever.
Lisa (Joan Fontaine) recounts her life story in a letter to Stefan (Louis Jordan) who is scheduled to fight a duel in a few hours as a result of their acquaintance.
Stefan Brand, a concert pianist played by Louis Jourdan in a role that perfectly suits his smooth good looks, receives a letter from a dying woman, Lisa Berndle, played by Joan Fontaine in a remarkable performance.In the letter, she pours out her love for him, which started when she was a young girl living in the same apartment building.
Shot in black and white on mostly studio sets, it has a dreamlike quality that location shooting could never have achieved.The screenplay was by Howard Koch, and he deserves credit on two counts - he not only wrote the brilliant script, but also suggested Max Ophuls (spelt Opuls in the film's titles) for director.This may seem like sacrilege to some, but I think the movie has improved on Zweig's work.
Taken from Stefan Zweig's story, LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN tells the sad tale of Lisa Berndle's (Joan Fontaine's) unrequited love for concert pianist Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdain), that begins during her teenage years and continues right up to her death, when she writes him a letter about her life.
The story of course will come across with immense force, thanks to the brilliant performances from Louis Jourdan (never better), Joan Fontaine (likewise), Mady Christians (likewise again), Art Smith (again) and an absolutely first-class character cast.
Letter From an Unknown Woman is the story of Lisa Berndle (Joan Fontaine) who, as an adolescent, becomes enthralled with suave up-and-coming concert pianist Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan) when he moves into the building where she lives with her parents.
It is a work of precision and beauty by one of the greatest of all filmmakers, Max Ophuls.With Letter From an Unknown Woman, Ophuls' cinematic artistry, highlighted by his signature use of bold, graceful camera movement and extended takes, sweeps the viewer into the sinuous rhythm of a world both enchanting and bittersweet.As the film weaves lyrically from present to past to present again, it becomes clear that both Lisa and Stefan have lived lives steeped in unreality.
Every person out there who wants a beautiful love story should watch "Letter from an Unknown Woman".
Like another classic film from around the same time "Portrait Of Jennie" the mistake is made in initially having the female lead attempt to carry herself off as a much younger version of herself, but once she matures into adult-hood, Fontaine is effective as the quietly enigmatic woman forever drawn to Jourdain's debonair charms.I found it equally hard to believe that Jourdain's character could forget his previous encounters with Fontaine, especially the way that Max Ophuls directs the telling scenes, never mind that she eventually goes on to father his child.
Such a plot could only end in death and tragedy and while I couldn't believe a word of it, still it was wonderfully entertaining along the way.The costumes and sets are excellent and Jourdain and Fontaine are to be commended too for their fine performances, but doyens of film-making will particularly enjoy the skill with which director Ophuls employs his camera-work, so fluidly at times that the action appears to float in front of the viewer's eyes.In a way, this film reminded me of grand opera, a wholly unbelievable story brought to life by the skill of its creator..
This is a fabulous but painfully sad movie.It concerns the (mostly) unrequited romance between Lisa (Fontaine) and Stefan (Jourdan), the latter being a concert pianist who comes to take a room with her family when she's younger.
And yet I don't feel like the technique is there just to please Ophuls demands for a crane shot here or there or most places; the high style is there for the high emotions, that this is a woman expressing how she felt through much of her adult life, and the fact that this guy seemed to be caring for her but on a totally superficial level, and never for very long.Letter from an Unknown Woman is a tragedy of taking things for granted, of believing love at a certain level will be reciprocated, and the fluidity of style matches the fluidity of intense emotions that, when broken, become all the more gut-wrenching..
The legendary baroque romantic tragedian Ophuls, working for Hollywood in his forties phase, doubles back to old Europe for this tale of a truly neurotic young lady (Joan Fontaine) who falls in love at first sight with jaded concert pianist Louis Jourdan, and stays there through endless sufferments and death.
Louis Jourdan is a pianist who receives "A Letter from an Unknown Woman" in this 1948 film also starring Joan Fontaine.
However, he receives a letter that changes everything.Set in Austria in the 19th Century, Fontaine is Lisa, who as a young girl falls madly in love with the brilliant pianist Stefan Brand - so much so, that although she doesn't really know him, when she receives a proposal a marriage, she claims to be spoken for.
As tragedy strikes Lisa's life, she writes a letter to him, revealing everything.This is a beautiful story, well cast and directed by Max Ophuls, but the ending may leave one scratching his or her head.
As such, my first Ophuls film, Letter From An Unknown Woman is beautiful for its sweeping camera-work.
I personally like "Letter From An Unknown Woman" more than "Le Ronde" and "Lola Montez", but I feel that both of the others are certainly worth watching and watching again.The film follows Louis Jourdan's last night alive.
No doubt, when  it was released, and even today, many women (and some men) would  unquestioningly identify with Lisa Berndl (Joan Fontaine), who  maintains a deep love, from girlhood through to early middle age, for  the handsome pianist Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan), who increasingly  shows himself to be a shallow, selfish philanderer; like her, they  would fantasise about how they could change his ways, and help him  return to the concert stage; and they would weep at the tragic end to  Lisa's and their dreams.
But one of the brilliant aspects of this film lies in the way Ophuls  maintains enough distance from his characters and situations to allow  us, if we wish, to view the movie with a more sardonic eye; to see Lisa  - whether due to mental or moral weakness - as failing to grow up; to  have no illusions about Stefan's failings as a man or a pianist; and to  see his impending death in the duel as a joke played on him by Lisa  from her grave - because had her letter not been so long he would have  had time to flee Vienna as he originally intended!.
Joan Fontaine, a favourite actress of mine, is as delicate as a flower, a quality that Hitchcock notably exploited twice in both 'Rebecca (1940)' and 'Suspicion (1941).' Her love for the dashing French pianist Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan) is so incredibly passive that you already know that she's going to lose him.Throughout the film, Lisa Berndle watches her lover from afar; she listens to his music through the physical barrier of a door; she quickly comes to know him, but only later comes to meet him.
"Letter from an Unknown Woman" is another tragic love story by director Max Ophuls.
Lisa (Joan Fontaine) falls in love with Stefan (Louis Jourdan), a famous concert pianist.
Max Ophuls's classic Letter From An Unknown Woman,is a film experience that cannot easily be described.Every frame is painstakingly detailed,the performances tear at your heart and it's all so deeply beautiful.Based on the story by Stefan Zweig and brought to the screen successfully with a screenplay by Howard Koch.Letter From An Unknown Woman begins with the elegant gentleman musician,Stefan Brand(Louis Jourdan)returning to his apartment in turn of the century Vienna.His endlessly loyal mute manservant John(Art Smith)hands him a letter.The first line of which stuns him "by the time you read this I may be dead".He pours himself a drink and begins to read.As he does so voice-over narration from Joan Fontaine takes us back several years as we experience the intense joy and agony of the secret love for Stefan that is held by the young Lisa Berndle(Joan Fontaine).Over the years the two have many encounters one of which ends in a one night stand which leaves Lisa pregnant and abandoned(Stefan leaves on a concert tour but never seeks her out again when he returns home).Stefan is a ladies man and has had so many women he soon forgets Lisa.She marries the kindly Baron Johann Stauffer(Marcel Journet)who raises her son(also named Stefan)as his own.Incidentally Johann is the the one who demands a duel with Stefan at the pictures beginning-to which he was planning to flee from but forgets about after starting to read the long letter.The duel is also inferred to be about Lisa.Joan Fontaine is just breathtaking as Lisa and convinces as both naive and smitten teenager and wiser society lady and kind hearted mother.Her face becomes a kaleidoscope of emotions as we follow a doomed love story that was always destined to fail.Louis is equally impressive as the outgoing and charming young man who becomes embittered and tired of life in later years never knowing how much he hurt this young woman.Words cannot fully do this film justice you have to see it for yourself and when you do be prepared to experience heartbreak..
At the start of the movie, her lover opens a missive that reveals all  and which begins, "By the time you read this letter, I may be dead." A grand romance  like the operas of which director Max Ophuls was so fond.
Memories of LETTER will forever be burned into your mind after just one viewing.Joan Fontaine gives one of her best performances as the hopelessly romantic young Lisa Berndl, who begins a lifelong passion for a pianist (Louis Jordan, in perhaps his best American role) as 14 year-old girl, when he lives near her quarters.
She is a woman who would sacrifice her own son, and eventually her life, for this man's love, and Fontaine's acting is so powerful and haunting that we believe Lisa all the way, and never once doubt her.Essentiallly Ophuls focuses on the myths and ideals of romantic passion, stripping away the facade of self-sacrifice being the ultimate romantic gesture.
I particularly like how the story is slowly revealed through the letter of a possibly dead woman (you don't find out for sure until the movie's conclusion) as well as the way Louis Jourdan's character is written.
While indubitably romantic and admirable in her persistence as a girl and young woman, Lisa seemed pathetic by the end of the film when she leaves a loving husband and child for a man who has never loved, valued or respected her enough to even remember having met her in the past.
Lastly, the film is a frame story that begins and ends with Stephan reading Lisa's letter in his apartment.
Max Ophüls' film, Letter from an Unknown Woman, is tragic love story about a woman who becomes completely enchanted by her neighbor.
Fontaine is really lovable as the woman who is never able to find true romance that she feels for her secret love, and Jourdan is charming as the man who never truly notices her enough, this is a really good insight into how sometimes love never goes all the way, and even chance meetings can create those kind of feelings, an interesting artistic style romantic melodrama.
In Vienna in 1900, Lisa is a young woman captivated by Stefan, the concert pianist who lives in her building, but is unable to express her love.
While Letter from an Unknown Woman by Max Ophüls might have been a revolutionary movie in 1948 now it is a rather generic love story.