'Letter From an Unknown Woman': a surprising choice for Valentine’s Day.

By Joyce Glasser - 08/02/2010

Anyone who remembers Letter from an Unknown Woman from its less than rapturous reception in 1950 will have the opportunity to see it again, for the first time in 30 years, when the BFI re-releases it for Valentine’s Day.  Even with a script by Howard Koch (Casablanca), this romantic weepie about unrequited love from German émigré director Max Ophüls, is a surprising choice for Valentine’s Day.

Curiously, so soon after the war, the story is set in fin de siècle Vienna, where, in a framing device, middle-aged ladies’ man Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan) is reading a letter and trying to recall its sender. The sender’s identify should be a dead giveaway from the letter’s melodramatic, self-pitying opening:  ‘By the time you read this letter, I may be dead…’  

The film then flashes back to show young Lisa Berndle (Fontaine), who lives with her single mother in a modest but comfortable flat, falling in love with the handsome musician who has moved in upstairs. This unrequited love lasts throughout her relatively short life, kept alive by the occasional encounter with Stephan that she can never forget and he can never remember. When a one night stand with Stephan produces an illegitimate son Lisa finally agrees to marry a wealthy, devoted military suitor.  Many years later, the two lovers meet again, but Lisa, ever the martyr, only tells Stephan about their son in the mysterious letter.

Letter from an Unknown Woman is anything but romantic.  It is impossible to imagine a less likely couple than Lisa and Stephan.  The age gap (which seems to narrow as they get older) aside, he is a sophisticated, popular, man of the world while Lisa is a loner who has never left Vienna. Lisa idolizes Stephen for his panache and musical talent, but Stephan knows he is not good enough and succumbs to depression and debt.  The extent to which Lisa puts Stephan on a pedestal, unable to speak in his presence, must be boring for the man who had no shortage of fawning, beautiful women.  What could Lisa and Stephan possibly have in common? What would they talk about all day? In any event, when Stephan returns to Vienna from an extended tour, he can’t even remember the young girl he danced with until dawn, seduced, and claimed was different from all the rest.

Lisa’s anaemic character needs another dimension and, curiously, the script feels unpolished.  When a mature Lisa stops by Stephan’s flat and he proposes they celebrate with champagne, he excuses himself, saying he’s gone to get some ice.  Since when does anyone drink champagne with ice?   The roses she brings are still flourishing days later, after two deaths and funerals have gone by.  When young Lisa decides to race back to Stephan, leaving her mother and step father waiting for a noon train out of the city, she doesn’t return to their building until nightfall, some four (or more) hours later.

For the best of Max Orphüls, try The Reckless Moment or the Earrings if Madame de -- but not on Valentine’s Day.