Cebalord Very best movie i ever watch

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

MisterWhiplash Sometimes you watch a film dealing with the story of a romance and the filmmaker will be content enough to reside in the realm of melodrama, of heightened emotions serving a tale of doomed romance - or maybe it won't turn 'doomed' per-say, but the stakes are always so monumental, incredible and just downright heightened that some in the audience may need handkerchiefs for their un-dry eyes and noses. For Max Ophuls, going past melodrama was a key thing. The ingredients in Letter from an Unknown Woman certainly make up melodrama, and as I watched the film I thought it would just comfortably rest there. But it was in the last reel - and especially in the minutes after the end, where I could let my mind catch up with what I was feeling - that this is closer to grand opera, and it's by nature of how determined, how passionate and versatile Ophuls camera is. He is such an active participant, but by making us the audience as well, that it raises the stakes even higher. This is a fabulous but painfully sad movie.It concerns the (mostly) unrequited romance between Lisa (Fontaine) and Stefan (Jourdan), the latter being a concert pianist who comes to take a room with her family when she's younger. She sees him play, and see him with his swagger and confidence, and is smitten right away. Does she know really that much about him? Who cares? The piano seems to express how soulful, how achingly beautiful he is - but more than that how he is not quite happy with how far he's gotten (when he stumbles playing at one point, it seems like maybe he breaks something in disgust with himself - and later she comments on this to him, that he hasn't found what he's looking for). But she leaves with her family and she never gets to tell him who she is or how she feels. Until...But no, the letter that Stefan is reading from is not at this point, which he comes across in his room as he is plotting to run away from a duel with a man who is after him for such and such a reason (and suffice to say you'll figure it out after a while, perhaps). They do meet some time later, when she returns to Vienna and they share one of those perfect romantic evenings that people may have in real life as well as in the movies. Unlike earlier in the story when she's shy and reserved, here she does open up a little more (though in this first real date she won't say she was there during the time they shared living quarters), and he is about the most charming guy on the planet in that moment. It's the kind of date where, I suppose this was a thing in the early 20th century, they go for a buggy ride... with the backdrop being changed by operators.It's interesting to note that at first I didn't really notice that the backdrop was fake until the buggy first stopped. And for a split moment I wondered, 'hey, come on, can it be that cheap a production to... oh, wait, no, it's supposed to be fake.' Thinking about it more, this is kind of like a good metaphor for their relationship - it has the veneer of gorgeous scope and splendor, but when you look closer it's not real. Jourdan has to go away after their very brief whirlwind romance, and she is left with a baby. She gets married, and the story goes ahead to years later, when the child is older and Lisa is now married to a well-off man.Again, you can see many parts of this story I've just described have the air of melodrama: a woman pining for a man she may (or may not) be able to have, and that her passions take on another light when seen through the framing - the framing is the essential thing, what sets it up as being all about the 'hindsight-is-always-20/20' aspect - that you don't know what you got until it's gone. And of course Fontaine and Jourdan are so terrific in their roles, with the former beaming with young love in the early scenes (I almost didn't recognize her in the slightly 'lower-class' get-up), and on through the middle section with her and Stefan's date, and Jourdan is... well, kind of a matinée idol, almost too good looking, if that makes sense, like deceptively the perfect guy.A lot of the brilliance of the film comes down to its economy of storytelling - it's a brisk 83 minutes, though it doesn't feel too short while watching it - and that Ophuls is not one to ever keep things static. Even that buggy scene where they share a magical moment of connection in conversation and perhaps more, because of that backdrop we're not feeling as if this is something stagey or stolid. And yet I don't feel like the technique is there just to please Ophuls demands for a crane shot here or there or most places; the high style is there for the high emotions, that this is a woman expressing how she felt through much of her adult life, and the fact that this guy seemed to be caring for her but on a totally superficial level, and never for very long.Letter from an Unknown Woman is a tragedy of taking things for granted, of believing love at a certain level will be reciprocated, and the fluidity of style matches the fluidity of intense emotions that, when broken, become all the more gut-wrenching.

Sergeant_Tibbs Max Olphus is a director who influenced many of my favourites including Stanley Kubrick, Wes Anderson and Paul Thomas Anderson. I like his personal manifesto on filmmaking in how it's an artform that has the unique aspect of a moving camera so he uses it frequently. As such, my first Ophuls film, Letter From An Unknown Woman is beautiful for its sweeping camera-work. It's so wonderfully rich and textured that it adds such bittersweet heartache to its tragedy. It's such bliss to just let it roll over you. Unfortunately, the characters it utilises are painfully bland. The only interesting thing about them is their interest in each other, otherwise they seem too picturesque and idyllic that they're difficult to believe as authentic people. The story is efficient but not particularly remarkable, excusable if the characters were strong enough. It's the one thing letting the film down because otherwise it would've easily been one of my favourites. Hopefully other Ophuls has more interesting character work.8/10

mcganns2 Max Ophüls' film, Letter from an Unknown Woman, is tragic love story about a woman who becomes completely enchanted by her neighbor. Set in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century, the film encompasses the true culture and spirit going on in the city during this time. Although it ends in tragedy for all parties, one cannot ignore the undertones that speak to love and its consequences. While Ophüls' film may be old, I believe it is a timeless work of art that many people can still relate to their own lives. It begins when a man named Stephan Brand moves into his new house. He is a wonderful concert pianist that has an affinity for women, many different women. Lisa Berndle is his young naive neighbor who, after seeing his furniture being moved in, becomes immediately intrigued. From this point on her character is frequently portrayed making all attempts possible to hear Stephan's beautiful melodies floating from his piano into her apartment. Soon however Lisa's mother finds a man who she decides to marry, and the family is going to move to a new city. While waiting for the train with her family, Lisa's infatuation gets the best of her, and in a moment she is on her way back to her old home. When back in Vienna Lisa finds a job and makes daily attempts to get a glimpse of her secret love. When she finally manages to grab Stephan's attention, he manages to charm her even more, and that night they go out on a date. After a romantic dinner and night in the Vienna amusement park, they return to his apartment together and conceive a son. The following day, Stephan finds her working at the dress shop and asks to speak to her when she finishes work. Lisa soon finds out that he is leaving for a concert, but he promises that he will return to her in two weeks. Because of her blinding love for Stephan she trusts his word, but to her dismay he never returns to her. Eventually she moves on with life, marrying a military officer who loves her, supports her, and even takes her son in treating him as he would his own. Stephan enters the story again when the couple attends a concert one night. Lisa notices Stephan quickly and feels the passion returning, but does not want to recognize it so she pretends to be ill hoping to get home before he sees her. Perhaps she knew that if they meet again she would not be able to control her feelings, but Stephan eyes her leaving and catches her before she does. Once back at home with her husband, she realizes she must go see Stephan one more time. When they are together it seems for a small amount of time that he remembers who she is, but after Stephan uses the same lines he did before, she realizes that he has forgotten her. Knowing that her love was not returned she leaves before he can return with the drink he had promised her. Only when he receives a letter does he realize that she had been carrying his son and had loved him her entire life. Lisa's husband is knocking on the door as the movie comes to a close looking for a duel to defend the honor of his late wife and her dead son. It is only when Stephan realizes the folly of his ways that Stephan chooses to accept his fate and join his family in death.Though terribly sad and ironic, this film shows the true power of love, whether it is reciprocated or not. Lisa lived her whole life for Stephan, and in the end lost everything because of it. Stephan on the other hand never realized what he had in her until it was gone. After learning what he had done, he must have found that there was no reason to live any longer. Finally, the soldier who truly loved Lisa also realized that his love would never be enough, losing his wife to another man and ultimately to a terrible disease. Ophüls' film is a wonderful love story that illuminates the delights and perils that true love often contains.

Dom Gulli Letter from an Unknown Woman has the classic recipe for a romantic drama – the early stages of infatuation, the eventual realization of mutual feelings, and finally, heartbreak. However, the film uses this typical template in an over-the-top fashion to the point of making the film a dramatic clichéd romance flick.The level of Lisa's infatuation with Stefan at her early age is the understandable puppy love, school girl crush – which gives it the effect of being obsessive. Perhaps this is simply the difference between American and Viennese culture. However, her abandonment of her family at the train station simply to stay in Vienna, where Stefan resides, is pretty ridiculous. This was the point of the movie where I began to become restless, with the rest of the film becoming predictable – Lisa and Stefan finally get together, Stefan is a typical man whore and has a one night fling with Lisa, and promptly forgets about her. This plot is borrowed in modern movies left and right, and personally, while this film was created long before today's modern films, it's a cornerstone (and I use this term sardonically) that writers can't seem to shake.The "twist" so to speak, when Lisa and Stefan cross paths at the opera, provides for a break in the stagnancy and predictability in the plot. Lisa, who is married, decides to go home with Stefan, despite that she fears he forgets who she is. This is indeed the case; Stefan uses the same "lines" on Lisa during their tryst as he did during their first encounter. Lisa recognizes this and slips out of his apartment, leaving Stefan confused as to why what seemed to be a sure thing had disappeared in front of him. The cliffhanger ending was somewhat flat, because either outcome wasn't very interesting – either Stefan lived, or he allowed himself to be killed in what was presumably a duel with Lisa's husband. Once again, the film provides a cliché and not a very stimulating one at that.Overall, I found the clichés tiresome and the film, for me, dragged on. Perhaps it is that I have seen modern films that have similar romantic plots, complete with the "unexpected twist" at the end. However, because the film was released in 1948, it was something fresh – at least on the silver screen.If it was unclear, I personally did not enjoy this film, but I can appreciate the culture of Vienna at the time that is portrayed throughout. References to the opera, and especially the music of the time, were some of the components that shined through what I thought to be otherwise a very dull 87 minutes.