Letter From An Unknown Woman

The story of a man who learns of the love of a stranger and regains his lost decent.

I must say that there have been few movies (dramas) which have emotioned me so much as this work of art by master director Max Ophüls (credited as Opuls here)...only films like "Portrait of Jennie" or "Dodsworth"...this was another one-of-a-kind experience for me. I had read so much about it, that I had to SEE it...so I bought this VHS here, at Amazon.com marketplace sellers, where I've always made great transactions & had very good overall experiences, especially when it comes to obtain, these "out of stock/print", kind of elusive gems. Joan Fontaine gives what one can easily be, the most wondrous, poetic, performance, she ever gave, including "Rebecca" and "Suspicion"...Here she simply is at her very best, close to perfection...just as Jennifer Jones, gave (IMHO) THE performance of her career in the aforementioned "Portrait of Jennie". She convicingly grows from an "innocent" adolescent who falls deeply in love with an artist (Louis Jourdan), looking him, following him, listening to him, "in hiding", "in the shadows", quietly, living her life only "for/because of him"... although he's unaware of that. This obsession of hers with this man, reaches to a point where nothing makes sense to her without him. It's platonic love & adoration, taken to extreme limits, almost to the boundaries of insanity, yet so disarmingly naive and true! Louis Jourdan is equally effective, as the debonair, devil-make-care, playboy, man of the world, pianist, who realizes too late, what has been going on. Wonderful art direction, sets, mood, atmosphere, cinematography, narration...excellent "raccontos/flashbacks"...great camera work, gowns, period detail...everything is so right...especially the truth in Lisa's (Fontaine) very deep love for this man, who becomes the only reason of her life, of her "breathing", of her "existence". Max Ophüls really made a work of art, out of this movie...which by the way, I read somewhere, had a similar plot than the 1933 "Only Yesterday", which marked the debut in the american cinema, of that gorgeous actress, Margaret Sullavan; although Ophüls' film, is by far superior...'cos it "trascends" the "Tearjerker" status; it has an ethereal quality all of his own. Not since watching "Shadowlands" in March of this year, I had felt & been so moved by a film. Really, ROMANTIC, unrequited love, at his best. And I tell you, I'm not an "easy" person...in other words, I do not "emote" easily, and at the film's conclussion, I have no shame in admitting that I cried like a baby. It reached my heart & soul. This film ought to be restored and released on dvd format, since it is one of the landmark films of all time. Although I must say the Republic VHS Edition, is decent indeed.

I had a very good DVD but purchased this Criterion Blu-ray primarily for the commentary. Bummer.A masterpiece of a film, a very fine print, includes some very good and insightful bonus features, including a good essay by Molly Haskell, that you can’t really watch on the screen because it skips around all by itself, but fortunately is included in a very tiny print booklet that you need to enlarge on a printer before you can read it.But the Razzie here goes to the film commentary, by “Max Ophuls expert Lutz Bacher.” He is reading from text, very fast, incomprehensible with no interest in what he is saying, slurring words and phrases together, dropping many words all together so you can’t understand what he is saying. And what he is saying is astoundingly boring, rattling off irrelevant dates of production of particular scenes. Who cares?!Utter torture.After five minutes of this gobbilygook, ran ahead to hear more on other parts of the film but it was all the same. Incomprehensible speedily read drivel. Too bad. Criterion should have scrapped it and given us something better. The film deserves better. Lots better.

Directed by the famous french director, Max Ophuls, this classic romantic film is considered a quintessential story of bittersweet unrequited love, through it's tale of imaginary romance, pinning for love, yearning, embodied in doom, delusional and illusory relationship with the self-absorbed, frivolous, concert pianist. Then the seduction that leads to a pregnancy, then to a loveless marriage to another. She would wait for hours to run into him, while he never remembered her. Both missed opportunities over a span of years, ultimately failing to attain true love. Told through flashbacks and the deathbed letter written by the wife of the man the pianist must duel at dawn.Starring Joan Fountain and Louis Jordan, as the pianist. Written by Howard Roch, previous Academy Award winner (Casablanca), adapted from the 1922 novella, by Stefan Zwelg. Joan Fountain's own production company produced the film. John Houseman, Orson Wells' former partner and un-credited co-author of Citizen Kane 1941, was the the film's producer. The DVD has no special features, but the sound is good and the picture is good.

This is a superb production well acted and directed, and it is as romantic as a film gets. However, the utter lack of character definition is an obvious flaw in the story. For the woman, it is an obsession as she never really knew the man she claims to love all her life, and he did not even remember her after a brief, sexual love affair that resulted in her becoming pregnant. Nowhere in this story is her character defined except that she's in love with a handsome, talented ghost of a man, who has a child by him that was cared for and loved, but sadly, died of Typhus at 12. As she's dying of the same disease, she writes a letter to the object of her love and, basically, lets him know what he missed all those years.Joan Fontaine and Louis Jourdan were accomplished actors, and their performances were much enjoyed!

A good movie with handsome Louis Jordan acting very well and Joan Fountain giving a marvelous performance and lucking great.

Item delivered on time.

The film itself is sublime - filled with beautiful imagery and wonderful performances - Ophuls was a master and this is one of his best - in fact it's my favorite of his films. The new transfer is lovely, too - the film has a lot of opticals and that footage, of course, is softer than the other footage, but the contrast is excellent and it's really sharp and lovely. If you don't know the film, take the chance on this - it's much preferable to Olive's former release.

On the face of it the plot is simple. Lisa, a school girl living in Vienna develops a crush on Stefan, the musician living in an upstairs apartment, and spends her life determined to meet him, to be important to him. When she finally does so, circumstances immediately separate them again, and they only meet again with tragic results for everyone involved.As soon as the film started, "Vienna about 1900", a credit for "gowns", a horse and carriage bowling along through pouring rain, I knew this was going to be a great, complex film.The video essay on the DVD confirmed my uneasy feeling that Lisa's melodramatic crush turned her into a manic stalker, possessed by a passion - a passion that prevented her from living her own, real, life. She became a masochist, depicting herself as a powerless victim even when a happy life with another, real man, is hers to choose. Tag Gallagher, film historian, suggests that debasement and denial are essential for passion, and eventually, the other side of the coin to masochism - sadism - emerges, and revenge.Lisa saw herself as heaven sent, a romantic saint destined to help Stefan, to be his angel, his muse. But to him, was she just another of his easy lays? Did he ever really "see" her? Gallagher suggests these two people did not share a love, but a disease - total despair.

I have read the reviews for this film and once again I am puzzled why people record a negative if what the reviewer comments upon does not quite live up to their expectations or view of the film. It is just as valuable, surely, to have one's eyes opened to flaws in a work as it is to find empathy with our fellow viewers.For example, Alex da Silva's review (third paragraph) makes two perfectly valid points for which (I presume) he has earned a score of 0:3 for his pains.It has to be said that Fontaine's portrayal of Lisa is remarkable in her ability to look the appropriate age of the part at a given time.The letter that Fontaine writes in her final hours when suffering from typhus, and which functions as a thread linking the various episodes throughout the film, might well reflect a person's state of mind when exposed to this disease. The irony is that the recipient of the letter, the other main character in the film (Louis Jordan), exhibits symptoms where his memory is concerned, typical of the condition!

It has taken easily a half-century for a film which had no great reception at the time of its release to find its rightful place in the cinema pantheon. Max Ophüls had at best a chequered career in the US and his focus on blighted love was not one audiences wanted to see. But Joan Fontaine was a name to be reckoned with and here gives a tremendously heartfelt performance. She is the film, aided and abetted by Ophüls, producer John Houseman with a graceful script by the much-lamented Howard Koch, a victim of the blacklist.Making matters more problematic, Letter was an independent film and has long been unavailable in any format. It is only its reputation in the UK and later in Europe that has kept it from sliding into oblivion. The BFI has done us all a tremendous service with this release and is to be commended for the effort.A side note. Letter is not Fontaine's favourite film and she chooses the 1943 The Constant Nymph, also unavailable, in its stead. She lives quietly in Carmel, California and has had several medical setbacks in recent years. This film stands the test of time, it is immortal, as few films are.Colin Thurlow

This film has stuck in my mind for many years. I decided to buy it to see if it was as good a I had remembered. It was just as wonderful now as it was then. However, after watching the "video essay" by a film historian" on the same disc, I know see Lisa in a totally different light. Worth watching again if you have not seen this part.

Really enjoyed this film.i remember it from years ago. Issue with the running thought-provoking it goes pink from time to time. The dvd was recieved well before the expected date.