The romance drama is about a
young girl who falls in love with a playboy pianist who does not even know she
exists. Giving up other opportunities at love, she desperately wants to be with
him. But, this is not a happy love story.
Letter from an Unknown Woman is
maybe German (though, he spent most of his career in France – fleeing the Nazis)
director Max Ophuls’s
greatest film. He also made some of the best films in French cinema: The Earrings of Madame de…, Le Plaisire, and La Ronde.
Working with Ophuls on the film
are composer Daniele Amfitheatrof
(whose score is fantastic), cinematographer Franz Planer (one of the era’s
best Hollywood D.P.s), and art director Alexander Golitzen.
The film stars Joan Fotaine and
co-stars Louis
Jourdan. It is one of Fontaine’s best films (along with her Hitchcock
collaborations), and is her personal favorite among her own work.
Letter from an Unknown Woman is a
forgotten gem. And while most have not seen or even heard of this film, it made
Sight & Sound’s
2012 Top 250 Greatest Films list (complied by polling critics and
directors). Hollywood just does not make films like this anymore – films that
are utterly emotionally devastating. Fontaine is brilliant at playing naïve and
innocent characters that are also strong-willed and stubborn. Though tragic, it
is also a beautiful film and well worth checking out.
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