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Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
Director: Max Ophüls
Writers: Howard Koch(screenplay), Stefan Zweig (story)
Cast: Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan
Genre: Drama Romance
A school girl falls in love from afar with an older man who's a wealthy renowned pianist. She studies his every move, she molds herself into the kind of woman that she images he could one day love. But she keeps her love hidden from him as she matures from a schoolgirl to a young woman.
Letter from an Unknown Woman is a poignant, serious film about unrequited love. It can be very touching at times and yet somber and down trodden too.
Joan Fontaine is Lisa, a school age girl living in Vienna in 1900. Joan was 31 years old when making this film but looks and plays a school girl realistically. If you've never seen her in a film this is a good one to watch, she's a fine actress.
Louis Jordan plays Stefan the older, worldly man. A pianist who's music is renowned in Austria. He's a suave man whom women admire and Lisa loves from afar. Louis Jordan is suave on the screen too, he fits this role like a glove.
After a second watch, I still liked the film but my view of Lisa and even Stefan changed. I had previously thought of Lisa as this sweet, enduring young woman who found the love of her life but could never win him. The movie felt like a testament to unrequited love.
This time around I viewed Lisa as a sadly pathetic creature, someone with no self respect and no will power. She literally waste her entire life with her obsession for a man she doesn't even know. Lisa is even willing to destroy her husband's and son's happiness just to chase her pipe dream. In some ways she's even more pathetic than Stefan. Stefan has a one night stand with her and then moves on. But he doesn't know she's pregnant and so forgets her. When he meets her at the opera and wants her, he doesn't know she's a married woman...So he didn't deserve to be called out in a duel to most likely die. That wreck of humanity is on Lisa's head.
I now see the film as a monument to the folly of dedicating one's self to overindulges. With Stefan it's women and booze, which causes him to throw away his brilliant music career.
Lisa's downfall is her own obsession with an unhealthy dream. I believe people like her do exist.
Director: Max Ophüls
Writers: Howard Koch(screenplay), Stefan Zweig (story)
Cast: Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan
Genre: Drama Romance
A school girl falls in love from afar with an older man who's a wealthy renowned pianist. She studies his every move, she molds herself into the kind of woman that she images he could one day love. But she keeps her love hidden from him as she matures from a schoolgirl to a young woman.
Letter from an Unknown Woman is a poignant, serious film about unrequited love. It can be very touching at times and yet somber and down trodden too.
Joan Fontaine is Lisa, a school age girl living in Vienna in 1900. Joan was 31 years old when making this film but looks and plays a school girl realistically. If you've never seen her in a film this is a good one to watch, she's a fine actress.
Louis Jordan plays Stefan the older, worldly man. A pianist who's music is renowned in Austria. He's a suave man whom women admire and Lisa loves from afar. Louis Jordan is suave on the screen too, he fits this role like a glove.
After a second watch, I still liked the film but my view of Lisa and even Stefan changed. I had previously thought of Lisa as this sweet, enduring young woman who found the love of her life but could never win him. The movie felt like a testament to unrequited love.
This time around I viewed Lisa as a sadly pathetic creature, someone with no self respect and no will power. She literally waste her entire life with her obsession for a man she doesn't even know. Lisa is even willing to destroy her husband's and son's happiness just to chase her pipe dream. In some ways she's even more pathetic than Stefan. Stefan has a one night stand with her and then moves on. But he doesn't know she's pregnant and so forgets her. When he meets her at the opera and wants her, he doesn't know she's a married woman...So he didn't deserve to be called out in a duel to most likely die. That wreck of humanity is on Lisa's head.
I now see the film as a monument to the folly of dedicating one's self to overindulges. With Stefan it's women and booze, which causes him to throw away his brilliant music career.
Lisa's downfall is her own obsession with an unhealthy dream. I believe people like her do exist.