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Letter from an Unknown Woman

1948

Max Ophüls

Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan, Mady Christians, Marcel Journet ...

8.0

9,173

Romance. Drama 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 ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Bosley Crowther The New York Times	"[It's right] if all you are after is an hour and a half of wistfulness, of lingering love-lorn expressions and pseudo-Viennese 'schmaltz' (...) But if you are looking for sensibility and reasonable emotion in a film, beware of this over-written 'Letter'."	NEU
United States	Eric Henderson Slant	"Ophüls’s direction is, as ever, florid and extravagant (...) Ophüls’s truest moment comes the moment Lisa and Stefan’s second date reveals itself to be something crushingly disappointing (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Richard Brody The New Yorker	"Ophüls’s bravura camerawork and decorative sense conjure an exquisitely calibrated romanticism."	POS
United States	Don Druker Chicago Reader	"A breathtaking, bitter, exquisitely orchestrated exploration of love and selfishness (...) A graceful and ironic film that never once falls captive to its own cliches."	POS
United Kingdom	Marc Lee Telegraph	"Heartbreaking and uplifting (...) Swift, swooping, dizzying, Ophüls's shooting style matches brilliantly the vertiginous melodrama of his story. The lighting, too, intensifies the agonies of a doomed romance"	POS
United Kingdom	Philip French The Guardian	"ts flimsy, not entirely plausible story of a young girl's pure love for an egocentric, womanising pianist (Louis Jourdan) is given depth and visual texture by the performances and by Ophüls's delicate direction"	NEU
United Kingdom	Tom Huddleston Time Out	"For all its florid melodramatic trappings, this grand, heartbreaking masterpiece resonates with sad, simple truths (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	David Parkinson Empire	"Does the job of the perfect melodrama and moves the audience to tears."	POS
United Kingdom	Tony Sloman Radio Times	"After one of the most tragic romantic openings in all movie history (...) this develops into a marvellously bittersweet tale (...) It's very Viennese and very wonderful (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Variety	"Joan Fontaine and Louis Jourdan (...) prove to be a solid combination (...) The taste with which the film has been put together in all departments under John Houseman’s production supervision makes it a valid and interest-holding drama"	POS

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