Letter from an Unknown Woman

Year of Release:  1948

Director:  Max Ophuls

Screenplay:  Howard Koch, based on the novella Letter from an Unknown Woman by Stefan Zweig

Starring:  Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan

Running Time:  86 minutes

Genre:  Romance, drama 

Vienna at the turn of the 20th century:  Teenage Lisa (Fontaine) becomes smitten by her new neighbour, charismatic musician Stefan Brandt (Jourdan).  When her mother remarries, Lisa is forced to leave Vienna, but, still madly in love with Stefan, she returns some years later to find him.  Stefan is now a celebrated concert pianist. They finally meet and spend one romantic evening together, which proves to have devastating consequences.

This is one of those films where it seems like you could take any given frame, blow it up, and have something impressive to hang on the wall.  Shot in shimmering monochrome, it is incredibly beautiful, the period detail of Vienna is sumptuous, and every frame is carefully composed.  The acting is impressive, particularly from Joan Fontaine as the heartbreaking Lisa, from the wide-eyed lovestruck teenager to the devastated woman who sees her world crumble around her.  Louis Jourdan is charming and dashing as the roguish pianist, and it's easy to see her attraction to him.  Jourdan is slightly affectless in the role, but then Stefan is something of a hollow man.  The film is constructed in flashback, opening with Stefan planning to run away from a duel he is due to fight, declaring "honour is a luxury only gentlemen can afford", but is interrupted by his mute butler bringing him a letter from Lisa, which narrates the events of the film.  Everything in the film is shown from her perspective, aside from the sequences which bookend the flashback, so Stefan is seen only from her point of view, we never find out what he does when he disappears from the tale for long periods of time, although it's fair to say we can make an educated guess.  The centrepiece of the film is the long evening they spend together which must rank as one of the most dizzyingly romantic passages in all of cinema.  Despite a brief running time, however, and the story taking place over a long period of time in which a lot a happens to the characters, it's paced very sedately and the pacing feels slightly off at times.  That being said it is a powerful and tragic film, in which the intricate, polished surface, hides ultimately tragic passions.

Louis Jourdan and Joan Fontaine in Letter from an Unknown Woman