Rent Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)

"Honour is a luxury I can't afford" - Letter from an Unknown Woman review by WS

A truly majestic viewing experience - especially if you're lucky enough, as I was, enough to catch a one-off big screen showing - thanks to gorgeous set design, expert use of light and shade, and the ingenious tracking shots giving the viewer a sense of involvement in the story.

Often labelled a "weepie", this hardly sums it up for me. Lisa's infatuation with the dissolute, womanising Stefan may be reprehensible but there's nothing maudlin about it. She is completely ruthless and single-minded about pursuing the object of her desire, at the expense of scandalising her mother and father in law, and later, catastrophically affecting the lives of other people around her.

During Lisa and Stefan's night together, we sense a growing intimacy between them and a feeling that perhaps they are meant to be together - but is it all an illusion? Stefan disappears from Lisa's life with no explanation. At a chance meeting 10 years on, he seems dejected, vulnerable and needy. Is Stefan really just a heartless Lothario who feigns affection when it suits him? Is he confused about what he wants from life? Does he even hate himself?

A few things have changed since the Fin de Siecle epoch that the film brings to life - typhus has been vanquished for a start - but I felt there was something oddly contemporary about the depiction of a rootless, ephemeral world in which trust and genuineness have gone out of the window.

You could fault it on plot development - in particular, it skates over how Lisa coped in the early years of being a single parent with no family support and before the Welfare State - and it might lose some of its impact on the small screen, but with these caveats I'm awarding it 5 stars.

Classic melodrama - Letter from an Unknown Woman review by CP Customer

One of the most famous and critically acclaimed melodramas. A real weepie. OK, if you like that kind of thing I suppose... I had to watch it for a film studies course and was glad when it was over.

Period Drama (spoiler). - Letter from an Unknown Woman review by Steve

This is one of the best American dramas of the forties. It bears the signature of its German director Max Ophüls, who mostly made films in France. And it feels like the poetic realism that was popular there either side of WWII. It is set in turn of the century Vienna. Of course it's filmed in a Hollywood studio, but it does leave a persuasive impression of place.

Lisa (Joan Fontaine) is an unremarkable, lower middle class child who falls in love with the handsome, talented concert pianist who lives in an adjacent building. Unknown to him. The man (Louis Jourdan) isn't a rogue but he is frivolous. Lisa lives her life as a kind of religious homage to the musician but only meets him once aged about 20. He leaves the girl with a child, and soon forgets about her.

The film isn't concerned with narrative realism; Lisa stands outside his house for years waiting for an occasion when they may meet. When they do, they share a perfect day together, which for her is a kind of communion, but meaningless to him. It's a psychologically fascinating story framed in the masochism of Lisa's obsession. She's the narrator, and it's not certain how much truth she tells.

The film confirms Joan Fontaine's status among the great Hollywood film actors. Jourdan is exceptional too. Their initial meeting is a moment of cinema magic. It's such a beautiful looking film. Ophüls tells his story with a personal style and finesse; it feels more like a classic of world cinema than a Hollywood drama.