Letter from an Unknown Woman (U)

The most piercingly evocative film about unrequited love ever made.

Director: Max Ophuls
Starring: Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan
US, 1948, 1 hour 27 minutes, B/W

Tue 2 March 2.00pm The Courtyard Hereford

Based on a novella by Stefan Zweig about a young girl who falls in love with the gifted concert pianist in a neighbouring apartment this is perhaps the most piercingly evocative film about unrequited love ever made. Music plays a significant role - this is turn of the century Vienna - but it's the fluidity of Ophuls' direction that achingly invokes the passage of time and the memory of love lost and dissipated talent. Currently unfashionable but widely regarded as one of the great directors, Max Ophuls' (Lola Montes, La Ronde, Madame de) trademark camera work, lavish and flowing, reflects the way the characters in his stories come tragically full circle.