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 It has been replaced by something which resembles love but has a certain amount of physical force.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.

Throughout the duration of Letter from an Unknown Woman I found myself scoffing at its characters and the situations they put themselves in, because 90% of the problems in this story are directly the fault of an impulsive, irrational action on the part of one of the main characters. By the time the film ended I was so fed up I had decided it was one of the most horrendous wastes of time I had ever subjected myself to and seemingly would walk away having learned nothing from it. But, after some reflection it began to occur to me that while I did in fact loathe the characters for their wanton displays of impulsivity and immaturity, this does not necessarily mean the film itself is to be loathed. The more I considered the film as a whole, the sum of these parts: characters, handling real-life situations, and the consequences of their actions- it became more clear that just because I found the characters to be "stupid" in a sense, doesn't make the film stupid. In fact, I found quite the opposite to be true- that the film actually serves as a tool to teach us about a certain kind of person or more generally, the moods and affections that can come upon anyone, in theory at least. It acts as a window allowing us a look into the psyche of an infatuated girl and a narcissistic young man, in addition to some of the people who get caught up in their strange affair. An original story, to some degree, prevented me from giving up on the film all together, but something seemed familiar about it and I had originally chalked up this feeling of familiarity to the fact that it was a silly romance film about a stupid girl who became obsessed and ruined her life for it. For example, she throws away a marriage to a young, well-off military officer and insults him and his father in the process because of her "love" for the musician, whom she does not even know in any real sense. To the viewer it is obvious that she is just a young girl infatuated with this brilliant musician, Stefan, a theme that has since been interpreted into various different stories, but she is convinced that what she feels for him is some exceptional thing that she will never be able to have with anyone else. Multiple scenes in this film were met with disdain on my part because of the context I was putting the film in, that context being modern romance films because I could pinpoint certain behaviors I felt were played out, tired, typical, lacking creativity, and just plain frivolous- putting literally everything aside in life just because of the supposed love one has for a person they do not even know. And the it finally occurred to me that while those things may very well be true, it is also true that at the time people may have experienced a similar relationship themselves or felt similar feelings, but this film is one of the first instances of a coherent in-depth look at such an unhealthy relationship and upon some insightful thought we can even begin to build a psychological profile for the main characters. New films may have since touched on similar things, but I realized I should not blame the film just because I found the characters actions and motivations misguided, that is precisely what makes Letter from an Unknown Woman still relevant today. The fact that I could so easily recognize what the characters were subjecting themselves to and why they did so speaks to the importance of the film because we all find ourselves in situations that we sometimes handle with emotion rather than reason and I became so angry with the characters because while the emotions are temporary, the consequences of actions cause change that can never be undone. Stefan takes responsibility for the events that transpired by the end of the film, but this was another point that infuriated me because he never asked for anything from the girl, he was a womanizer and thought she was just another girl, she developed an unhealthy obsession and now he is on his way to duel to the death over a woman he barely could remember and would not have if she had been mature enough to appreciate their romantic involvement for what it was instead of trying to force it to be something it was not and never could be in that time. It also serves to show us how far civilization has come since this time in regards to gender roles, for example, I believe that this story never would have actually happened if not for the gender roles perpetuated at the time. The girl sees her neighbor one day, hears him playing the piano, and falls "in love" with him henceforth devoting her every waking thought to him and developing an extremely unhealthy obsession. Woman at this time were expected to be good home makers and nothing more, as opposed to modern society where women are encouraged to perform in school or sports just as much as men are- so I believe if this girl had any concept of achieving something in her life or having control over what she truly wants and what she could do with her potential, she would never have become so hung up on this one gentleman. So, the most important lesson we can take from this film is that one should never let what another person is doing determine the course of your life and dictate what you do, while I maintain this girl was stupid to waste her life in a state of forlorn turmoil, I blame the society that produced her and celebrate the fact that romances like this are less common because they do nothing but damage to all parties involved.

While Letter from an Unknown Woman by Max Ophüls might have been a revolutionary movie in 1948 now it is a rather generic love story. The movie takes place in Vienna Austro-Hungarian Empire and is actually a story within a story starting with a man, whom is a pianist named Stefan Brand, being sidetracked from fleeing a dual as he reads a letter by a woman who does not give her name. In her letter the woman details how she fell in love with him and essentially stalked him. She then moves on to how he finally noticed her and got her pregnant. Then having forgotten about her she is forced to marry an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army, who does so even knowing the full truth. Then the pianist reappears and the woman is forced to choose between the good man who took her in and the man she loves. She chooses the pianist and while on a train both she and her son are infected with typhus and later die. Before this she meet with Stefan but he has already forgotten who she is and she runs off in despair. She wrote him the letter to inform him of the death of his son and of his failure to live up to himself. As he finishes the letter Stefan realizes the mistakes he makes and goes to fight his dual, which is with the woman's husband. Although the plot is relatively contrite the movie does have some funny moments and worthwhile scenes. In contrast to the story the technical aspects of the film are excellent even compared to modern films. In particular Ophüls make excellent use of light and dark and inventive camera angles. This must have been particularly difficult at the time with the equipment available and is laudatory. In total the film is worth watching but it is no longer as amazing or shocking as it once was.

There have been dozens of films about unrequited love, about heartbreak, about the lives of two individuals taking different paths...and there will continue to be, but "Letter from an Unknown Woman" stands above all of them. Why? What makes this film so special? Its simplicity. It's about a shy, young girl who falls for an older man who'll never be interested in her. It's a simple plot, yet this movie is one the most beautiful I've ever seen, in part, thanks to the beautiful Joan Fontaine, whose angel face and eyes didn't need any single word to express all the emotions a girl who's hopelessly in love could feel. She is the real star of this movie, and it's a pleasure to look at her; so simple, so gracious and so captivating. Louis Jordan is also excellent as the handsome man caught in a downward spiral. This movie is not easily forgotten. The piano and the train scene are among the loveliest I've ever seen in any movie. Every person out there who wants a beautiful love story should watch "Letter from an Unknown Woman". I assure you won't be disappointed. It's movies like these continuously reassert my love for classic cinema.