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Lettre d'une inconnue

Original title: Letter from an Unknown Woman
  • 1948
  • Tous publics
  • 1h 27m
IMDb RATING
7.8/10
14K
YOUR RATING
Joan Fontaine and Louis Jourdan in Lettre d'une inconnue (1948)
Trailer for this love story
Play trailer1:37
1 Video
97 Photos
TragedyDramaRomance

A pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember, who may hold the key to his downfall.A pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember, who may hold the key to his downfall.A pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember, who may hold the key to his downfall.

  • Director
    • Max Ophüls
  • Writers
    • Howard Koch
    • Stefan Zweig
    • Max Ophüls
  • Stars
    • Joan Fontaine
    • Louis Jourdan
    • Mady Christians
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.8/10
    14K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Max Ophüls
    • Writers
      • Howard Koch
      • Stefan Zweig
      • Max Ophüls
    • Stars
      • Joan Fontaine
      • Louis Jourdan
      • Mady Christians
    • 90User reviews
    • 53Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win total

    Videos1

    Letter From An Unknown Woman
    Trailer 1:37
    Letter From An Unknown Woman

    Photos97

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    Top cast99+

    Edit
    Joan Fontaine
    Joan Fontaine
    • Lisa Berndle
    Louis Jourdan
    Louis Jourdan
    • Stefan Brand
    Mady Christians
    Mady Christians
    • Frau Berndle
    Marcel Journet
    • Johann Stauffer
    Art Smith
    Art Smith
    • John
    Carol Yorke
    • Marie
    Howard Freeman
    Howard Freeman
    • Herr Kastner
    John Good
    • Lt. Leopold von Kaltnegger
    Leo B. Pessin
    • Stefan Jr.
    Erskine Sanford
    Erskine Sanford
    • Porter
    Otto Waldis
    Otto Waldis
    • Concierge
    Sonja Bryden
    • Frau Spitzer
    Patricia Alphin
    Patricia Alphin
    • Pretty
    • (uncredited)
    Harry Anderson
      Edit Angold
      • Middle-Aged Woman
      • (uncredited)
      Joe Ardao
      • Small man
      • (uncredited)
      Lois Austin
      • Elderly Woman
      • (uncredited)
      Polly Bailey
      • Passenger
      • (uncredited)
      • Director
        • Max Ophüls
      • Writers
        • Howard Koch
        • Stefan Zweig
        • Max Ophüls
      • All cast & crew
      • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

      User reviews90

      7.814.4K
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      Featured reviews

      dbdumonteil

      Vienna at its most romantic.

      An admirable scene sums up the whole movie:Stefan and Liza are aboard a "train" and they "travel".It's actually a fixed train,and some kind of stagehand forwards a chocolate box scenery :Venice ,Switzerland... In the real world ,trains are ominous messengers of death and despair:it's a train which takes Stefan away after their affair,a train which takes the young boy to his death.

      Stefan (Jourdan)lives his selfish life without seeing anything.Ophuls(spelled Opuls in the cast and credits) shows him as a handsome nice young man,but if you look with care,you'll notice it's always Liza(Fontaine)who's looking at him with love.Jourdan seems to care but actually he knows so many women that he acts as if he's in a play:Liza's admiration means nothing to him who is a ladykiller-see the scene when Liza comes back from the station- and a celebrated musician adulated by the crowds.Liza is the romantic woman,with a zest of touch of Madame Bovary thrown in -it's not a coincidence if Minnelli chose Jourdan as Madame Bovary's lover in his eponymous movie the very same year-For her,there must be only one love ,and she's prepared to give it all.

      Joan Fontaine had perhaps never been so good as here.Her whole life ,as she writes her letter (the movie is a flashback ) could have been written in the past conditional.Main influence is certainly that of John Stahl and his "only yesterday" (1933)in which Margaret Sullavan wrote John Boles such a letter.Even the young boy is present in both movies.The last page of the letter,ink-stained (or tear-stained?)takes the audience to a peak of emotion.The final predates the ending of Ophuls's "Madame de" (1953),and the scene on the "train" ,an imitation of life ,the big circus of "Lola Montes" (1955)

      This is probably Louis Jourdan's best part as well.A French actor,he was never that much popular in his native country ,and he found his best parts in the US ,be it artistically (Ophuls ,Hitchcock and Minnelli) or commercially (Octopussy) speaking.
      8FilmCriticLalitRao

      Lettre D'Une Inconnue : Max Ophuls films the tribulations of a woman in love !!!!

      Based on Austrian writer Stefan Zweig's novella 'Brief Einer Unbekannten', Ophuls uses all his creativity at disposal to enable his technicians to capture the cowardice of men and vulnerability of women. It is not only the leading pair who serves as a good example of cowards and vulnerable people. There are also some secondary characters who provide fitting description to words such as coward and vulnerable. The names of the woman's mother and her husband come to mind to provide a suitable description. In 'Letter from an unknown woman', Max Ophuls celebrates the immense power of a letter to convey feelings of disappointment arising out of a failed love affair. The letter in question is quite a long one. It was drafted by a woman to tell her doomed life to her lover. Ophuls depicts all the troubles which a woman is compelled to take in order to get love. It would not be wrong to state that love is out of fashion in current times. It has been replaced by something which resembles love but has a certain amount of physical force. There were times in the past when intense feelings of love were appreciated. 'Letter from an unknown woman" is one such film which has the ability to transport viewers to a time when love mattered a lot.
      dougdoepke

      Exquisitely Done

      Over a period of years, a young woman is gripped by a romantic obsession with tragic results.

      Despite the heavy romantic overlay, the movie strikes me as a one-of-a-kind noir. In fact, the production contains a number of noirish earmarks. Consider the foreboding nighttime atmosphere of so many scenes; also, the heavy sense of doom surrounding Lisa's obsession; then there's Stefan's seductive charm, a kind of spiderman in reverse. And while there's no crime in the legal sense, Stefan does commit a moral crime that leaves Lisa emotionally destitute. Nothing significant hangs on this classification, but it is a way of likening Lisa's predicament to noir's typically doomed characters and the dark universe they inhabit.

      Noir or not, the movie bears the clear stamp of an artistic sensibility thanks to director Ophuls, along with expert art design, set design, and cinematography. It's these formal qualities that lift the material above conventional soap opera. And though the screenplay seems pretty implausible at times, the device of the letter and Stefan's response to it create a beautifully rounded morality tale. Of course, having a 30-year old Fontaine play a teenager in the opening scenes is a stretch; however, Ophuls manages to finesse, using long and medium shots instead of revealing close-ups. Despite the difficult challenge, Fontaine manages to bring off her evolving role in persuasive fashion.

      All in all, the movie remains an exquisite combination of European sensibility and Hollywood professionalism. Together they produce an unforgettable visual and emotional experience that successfully challenges the condescending label of "a woman's picture".
      dmburdic

      Compare with the source

      This film grows even more extraordinary when compared with its source, Stefan Zweig's novella of the same name. In the story, Stefan is a writer, not a musician. The film transforms him into a pianist, thereby insuring that his seductive art can work on the audience at the same time as it works on the heroine. This movie gets bigger every time it is viewed. It seems to offer new surprises every time, because of the perfection of its structure and the implicative richness of its mise-en-scene. The echo effects ("Two weeks!") take on fresh meanings, and there is even a good deal of religious symbolism to be found.
      7Lejink

      Everlasting love

      Preposterously plotted but stylishly directed and impeccably acted, this is vintage Golden Age Hollywood melodrama. So much of the story-line is improbable, as the young Joan Fontaine's poor young French teenager develops a lifetime crush on the debonair but rakish concert pianist Louis Jourdain, a fascination that has tragic consequences for both. Like another classic film from around the same time "Portrait Of Jennie" the mistake is made in initially having the female lead attempt to carry herself off as a much younger version of herself, but once she matures into adult-hood, Fontaine is effective as the quietly enigmatic woman forever drawn to Jourdain's debonair charms.

      I found it equally hard to believe that Jourdain's character could forget his previous encounters with Fontaine, especially the way that Max Ophuls directs the telling scenes, never mind that she eventually goes on to father his child. Such a plot could only end in death and tragedy and while I couldn't believe a word of it, still it was wonderfully entertaining along the way.

      The costumes and sets are excellent and Jourdain and Fontaine are to be commended too for their fine performances, but doyens of film-making will particularly enjoy the skill with which director Ophuls employs his camera-work, so fluidly at times that the action appears to float in front of the viewer's eyes.

      In a way, this film reminded me of grand opera, a wholly unbelievable story brought to life by the skill of its creator.

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      Storyline

      Edit

      Did you know

      Edit
      • Trivia
        Joan Fontaine's favorite movie.
      • Goofs
        While most signs in the movie are written correctly in German, since the movie is set in Austria, parts of them are in English, e.g. Stefan Brand's concert flyer, which says "Concert Program" instead of "Konzertprogramm".
      • Quotes

        Lisa Berndl: The course of our lives can be changed by such little things. So many passing by, each intent on his own problems. So many faces that one might easily have been lost. I know now that nothing happens by chance. Every moment is measured; every step is counted.

      • Alternate versions
        There is an Italian edition of this film on DVD, distributed by DNA srl, "JANE EYRE (1943) + LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (1948)" (2 Films on a single DVD), re-edited with the contribution of film historian Riccardo Cusin. This version is also available for streaming on some platforms.
      • Connections
        Featured in Le ciné-club de Radio-Canada: Film présenté: Lettre d'une inconnue (1956)
      • Soundtracks
        Un sospiro
        (uncredited)

        Music by Franz Liszt

        Played on piano by Louis Jourdan (dubbed by Jakob Gimpel)

        Also used as main theme in the score

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      FAQ20

      • How long is Letter from an Unknown Woman?Powered by Alexa
      • Where was Lisa sending her son on that train journey and why?
      • If Stefan was so infatuated with Lisa, how is even possible that he didn't recognize her when he saw her again?

      Details

      Edit
      • Release date
        • November 5, 1948 (France)
      • Country of origin
        • United States
      • Official sites
        • Streaming on "AMT2.0 - Remember?" YouTube Chanel
        • Streaming on "Hollywood Classic Movies" YouTube Chanel
      • Language
        • English
      • Also known as
        • Letter from an Unknown Woman
      • Filming locations
        • Republic Studios - 4024 Radford Avenue, North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA(Studio)
      • Production company
        • William Dozier Productions
      • See more company credits at IMDbPro

      Box office

      Edit
      • Gross worldwide
        • $953
      See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

      Tech specs

      Edit
      • Runtime
        • 1h 27m(87 min)
      • Color
        • Black and White
      • Aspect ratio
        • 1.37 : 1

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