Picture of the movie Letter from an Unknown Woman © DR
Letter from an Unknown Woman, the quest for an impossible love
A free adaptation of the eponymous short story by Stefan Zweig, Letter from an Unknown Woman by Max Ophüls narrates the story of an impossible love between a woman who is passionately in love with a man who hardly notices her. A perfect melodramatic masterpiece, not to be missed (or to be seen again) in its restored version in Cannes Classics.
“When you read this, I will be dead …”, such are the words written by a stranger who reveals herself in the opening scene of the film to a famous pianist, who is also a social dandy. In her letter, the young woman makes her confession, that she has loved him from first sight, and this love is at the very core of her existence. She believes he is the love of her life. For him, she is no more than a faceless name, one of many.
Directed with great restraint, the film is composed of flashbacks around the character Lisa, and it immerses us in her childhood memories, in the origins of her earliest feelings, to gradually reveal the whirlwind of her amorous passion. Set in Imperial Vienna of the 1900s, painstakingly recreated and magnified by black and white photography tinted with nostalgia, the protagonists gradually become familiar with each other and open themselves up to the point where, for one brief moment, they surrender to each other. Joan Fontaine is heart-wrenching in the role of Lisa, which she inhabits with great delicacy, restraint and melancholy, delivering one of the best performances of her career.
With Letter from an Unknown Woman, Max Ophüls brilliantly masters the codes of romantic melodrama to tell a heart-wrenching story without artifice that hearkens back to a universal emotion: unrequited love.
4K restoration from the original image negative as well as a 35mm positive. Sound restoration from the original negative.
Restoration work done by the Technicolor laboratory for the image and by Chace Audio by Deluxe for the sound, under the supervision of Paramount Pictures Preservation. Release in movie theatres by La Rabbia in February 2022.
Restoration work done by the Technicolor laboratory for the image and by Chace Audio by Deluxe for the sound, under the supervision of Paramount Pictures Preservation. Release in movie theatres by La Rabbia in February 2022.
