LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN

US, 1948, 86 minutes, Black and white.
Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan.
Directed by Max Ophuls.

Letter From An Unknown Woman is regarded as a classic Hollywood film. It was put on the National Register for Preservation in 1992.

The film is based on a novel by Stefan Zweig whose books provided stories for many films in Germany during the 1920s and 1930s. He committed suicide during the war in 1942. However, films based on his novels continue to be made frequently in France and Germany. This novel was adapted by Howard Koch.

Director is celebrated Frenchman Max Ophuls, who directed many films in France in the 1930s and 1940s. He made four Hollywood films: Letter From An Unknown Woman, The Exile, The Reckless Moment and Caught, the latter two with James Mason. He then returned to France and made the controversial La Ronde. He died in 1957.

The setting is Vienna, 1900. Louis Jourdan plays a cavalier concert pianist who reads a letter from an unknown woman. In flashback, we see that the unknown woman has had an infatuation for him from being a teenager, having his child of which he was unaware, abandoning husband and child to follow him. Joan Fontaine gives a tour-de-force performance as the woman, from teenager to mature middle age. She was only thirty-one when she made the film. It is a reminder of her talent, Oscar-winning in Suspicion as well as Oscar-nominated in the classic Hitchcock film, Rebecca.

The film creates the atmosphere of Europe in 1900, its codes of behaviour, duels, manners – and the frustration for women like Lisa Berndle with her infatuation and love and remaining an unknown woman.

1. How was atmosphere created for this film? Black and white photography, the recreation of the Viennese atmosphere, the use of music and costumes, lighting? How important was atmosphere for this film? Would the film have been so effective without it?

2. Comment on the structure of the film and its success. The suspense of having a story in the present, with the use of flashbacks? Were the flashbacks neatly inserted? Was the letter too contrived for flashbacks? Or did this matter in this film? Why?

3. How romantic was the film? In itself? In its presentation of its hero and heroine? Or was it an ironic film, comment on the romanticism of its characters? Why?

4. What kind of man was Stefan Brand? initial impressions? His wanting to escape and his being pursued? His arrogant and irresponsible attitude? The loyalty of his servant? Why was he so impressed by the letter that he to read it?

5. Comment on the presentation of Lisa throughout the film. The fact that we first hear her reading the letter? The fact that Joan Fontaine had to portray the character from being a young girl to a middle-aged woman? How successful was this? Comment on Lisa as she was presented through the stages of her life, as a young schoolgirl with a crush, her not wanting to go away with her mother, her staying in Vienna, her idolising of Stefan, her work in the dress shop, her watching for Stefan and her encounter with him, the consummation of their love, his departure, the birth of her child, her later marriage and coping with life, the accident of her meeting Stefan again, the nature of her decisions, her giving up everything for him, the accident of her illness and death? How romantic a girl was she? Did she ever change her romantic attitudes? Her romanticising of him? Was he worth it? Her romanticising of her child? How tragic was her death? How tragic was the fact that he did not remember her and that she had to decide to leave him? How important was it that she was an unknown woman to him?

6. How was Stefan revealed in his initial relationship with Lisa? In the romantic evening that they had together? Comment on the places that they went to, the fair, the dancing, the return home (parallel with a previous encounter that she had watched)? How casual was he in leaving her and going to Milan? Did he intend to return? Why did she believe that he loved her? Did Stefan believe that he loved anyone? What kind of person was Stefan revealed as 10 years later? His giving up his music? His aged and dissipated look? His renewed fascination with Lisa? His attempt to seduce her again? The hypocrisy of his proposal to her? And her seeing through this?

7. Comment on the irony that his servant had recognised her but had not communicated with Stefan? his being mute, lack of communication.

8. Why had John married Lisa? Did he love her? Did she love him? Could the marriage have been happy? How well did Lisa love her son? Did she love Stefan through her son? Comment on the visual presentation of Lisa's married life. Her love for the boy and the scenes at home, her wanting the boy to call John "Father", the irony of John's knowing the reality of the situation? Comment on the visual presentation of John's observing Lisa going to Stefan? The impact of her death? Was this too contrived? Or was it handled well by the sequence of the train and the quarantine? How much was Lisa's death and her dramatic writing of the letter to Stefan part of her romanticism and the atmosphere of the 19th century?

9. Comment on some of the photographic techniques that made the film succeed: especially the use of parallels in people travelling on the same streets, of shots from the same angles on stairways, of parallels between different times.

10. The film is considered something of a classic of post-war Hollywood. Why is this?