Max Ophüls

Letter to an Unknown Woman

Credits

Country :

USA

Year :

1948

Director :

Max Ophüls

Version :

vostFR

Duration :

86 minutes

Format :

digital

Actors :

Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan

📚 Based on the novel by Stefan Zweig

synopsis

Turn-of-the-century Vienna. After receiving a letter from Lisa, pianist Stefan Brand recalls their relationship. In it, Lisa recounts her youthful love for him and her despair when he vanished from her life after spending a single night with her…

Avec sa mise en scène d'une élégance et d'une précision extrêmes, Ophuls filme alors un grand amour malade, totalement fantasmé, peut-être même rêvé par l'héroïne. De nombreuses scènes évoquent ses films ultérieurs, notamment l'orchestre, furieux de voir les héros danser sans fin. Joan Fontaine, jamais mièvre, toujours ardente, est, avec Danielle Darrieux de "Madame de...", la plus belle héroïne du grand Max.

Télérama

The subject of "Letter from an Unknown Woman" is the essence of character as it can be discerned from appearances, and Ophüls’s bravura camerawork and decorative sense conjure an exquisitely calibrated romanticism. Like Zweig, Ophüls knew the virtues of the world of yesterday; perhaps even more than Zweig, he also saw the vices that kept him from unmitigated nostalgia.

The New Yorker