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Post by topbilled on Sept 10, 2023 20:25:12 GMT
And now to the duel.
For Lisa's honor.
***
In the book, she doesn't have a name.
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Post by Fading Fast on Sept 10, 2023 20:25:22 GMT
Like Charles Foster Kane on his deathbed, so too does her life pass before us.
Instead of "Rosebud," she mumbled "Stephan" (or maybe "candy apple" ).
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Post by Fading Fast on Sept 10, 2023 20:26:00 GMT
And now to the duel.
For Lisa's honor.
***
In the book, she doesn't have a name. Have you read it? I think I'd like to now. What did you think of it?
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Post by topbilled on Sept 10, 2023 20:29:06 GMT
And now to the duel.
For Lisa's honor.
***
In the book, she doesn't have a name. Have you read it? I think I'd like to now. What did you think of it? In the book she spends three nights with him, and the descriptions of their sexual encounters are rather explicit.
Also when he sees her again later, not recognizing her, he think she is a prostitute. She has no husband in the book, but she does have a son by him.
I think you will find the book interesting.
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Post by topbilled on Sept 10, 2023 20:29:59 GMT
To Whom It Concerns
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Post by Fading Fast on Sept 10, 2023 20:32:56 GMT
I really enjoyed this movie. Great choice Andrea. I might watch it again this week as it's hard to watch a movie for the first time and take it all in, especially while typing (and trying to type softly so the Fawn doesn't give me disparaging looks - it's a lot of pressure).
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Post by Andrea Doria on Sept 10, 2023 20:33:52 GMT
I think it would have made more sense if the meeting at the opera had been in the semi-darkness, it would have explained her going to see him the next day with the hope that when he saw her in the light he would recognize her.
Was that Lisa's husband in the carriage waiting for the duel?
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Post by topbilled on Sept 10, 2023 20:34:58 GMT
This is a good example of a film that told the story effectively without stretching it out.
Other producers and directors would have padded the material to turn it into a two hour feature. But this one moves right along and hits every note perfectly at just under 90 minutes.
Excellent production values. Max Ophuls is a fantastic director, and all the performers are wonderful.
Thank you Andrea. I really enjoyed it.
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Post by Fading Fast on Sept 10, 2023 20:35:53 GMT
I think it would have made more sense if the meeting at the opera had been in the semi-darkness, it would have explained her going to see him the next day with the hope that when he saw her in the light he would recognize her.
Was that Lisa's husband in the carriage waiting for the duel? Good point, I think the director tried to do that with distance in the opera house because it was dark when they met out front, but I agree with you.
Yes, I believe it was the husband going to reclaim his honor in the carriage.
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Post by topbilled on Sept 10, 2023 20:37:02 GMT
I think it would have made more sense if the meeting at the opera had been in the semi-darkness, it would have explained her going to see him the next day with the hope that when he saw her in the light he would recognize her.
Was that Lisa's husband in the carriage waiting for the duel? Since there's no husband in the book, there is no duel in the book. That was all added for the film. To the filmmakers' credit, they end on an ambiguous note...it would seem he's gone off to duel the husband.
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Post by topbilled on Sept 10, 2023 20:42:09 GMT
It is also on YouTube:
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Post by topbilled on Sept 10, 2023 20:45:02 GMT
Like Fading Fast, I think I am going to re-watch it later...because there is probably some stuff I missed while typing my replies for this thread. Since I already know the story, I am going to study it the second time to see what Ophuls is doing with the camera and the staging of the actors...because he is usually a very visually-oriented director.
Incidentally, there is another really good Hollywood melodrama from Max Ophuls that I hope we cover at some point one Sunday...called THE RECKLESS MOMENT (1949) starring Joan Bennett.
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Post by Fading Fast on Sept 10, 2023 21:12:43 GMT
Amazon says my copy of the book will be here Wednesday.
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Post by Fading Fast on Sept 11, 2023 4:29:34 GMT
Letter from an Unknown Woman from 1948 with Joan Fontaine and Louis Jourdan
In the Romantic Era, love was a transcendental experience, a force beyond reason and logic. While a few embers of that idea burn today, as most people still marry for love, love now is rationalized. We use apps to align likes and, at all costs, we keep our own identities.
This makes movies like Letter from an Unknown Woman, a Romantic Era throwback picture, much like Wuthering Heights or Peter Ibbetson, a bit foreign to modern audiences that expect a different type of love and a different type of female character.
If you can put that modern viewpoint aside and let yourself be absorbed in the spirit of the Romantic Era, then you can enjoy Letter from an Unknown Woman as a beautiful and poignant tale of love, hope and loss.
Joan Fontaine plays a girl growing up in early 1900s Vienna who is smittened by her neighbor, a handsome, brilliant young pianist. He doesn't notice the shy girl, though, as he's a successful musician and, more importantly, a playboy who has women coming and going.
Several years later, after her family moved to Linz (home of the much-beloved linzer tart), Fontaine refuses an advantageous proposal, which angers her parents. She then moves back on her own to Vienna to, in modern terms, stalk her former neighbor played by Louis Jourdan.
They meet and share a long and wonderful romantic evening; this is the coin of the realm in Romantic Era stories. The evening ends with a long and (one assumes) wonderful tumble in the hay, with a little pianist on the way as a result.
Jourdan, unaware of the baby on the way, goes on a trip with a promise to return, but he doesn't keep it. Fontaine never tells him about the baby. She raises the boy on her own until she marries a kind and wealthy general who gives her and the boy a beautiful home.
Today's rational world would say things worked out well for Fontaine, but the Romantic Era wasn't rational. So students of that period know what is coming next: Jourdan returns and Fontaine swoons.
To tell more is to give the story away, but of course, there will be much angst, passion and a surprisingly emotionally cold reveal, followed by an equally surprising act of symbolic sacrifice. It's a Romantic ending worthy of Anna Karenina.
Like in Anna Karenina, the woman is the story here, making this Fontaine's movie. From a girl with a crush, to a young woman giving herself to the man she loves, to a mature woman facing a life-altering decision, beautiful and reserved Fontaine owns every one of her scenes.
The camera loves her and she understands that less is often more in acting. Her performance is quietly captivating, so much so, you forget she is acting. In her long career, this is one of Ms. Fontaine's finest performances.
Jourdan is very good playing the male lead as his job is to look handsome, check, and to be unawarely selfish, check. The trick he pulls off successfully is being selfish, but not mean or unappealing.
Director Max Ophuls is in his comfort zone with Romantic Era stories. He moves the pace along, something not all directors of this style of material master. With beautifully detailed sets, he also creates a wonderfully warm and magical atmosphere for fin-de-siècle Austria.
Letter from an Unknown Woman is a moving and sensitive homage to a bygone era; to a time when poetry and novels, not movies, capture the Romantic Era's unabashed belief in transcendental love.
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Post by Andrea Doria on Sept 11, 2023 12:30:37 GMT
Great review, Fading Fast. One reason I picked this "letter" movie is that I hoped you would review it.
The first time I watched it, several years ago, I was completely caught up by Fontaine's acting and the deeply enveloping atmosphere. Then surprised by the ending and wondering what I had just seen.
I watched the Ken Burns documentary about The Blues a few years ago and someone said true romance (and the Blues) was unrequited love, it was about yearning. That was what I felt from Joan in this story and found it very moving.
It's something I'll watch again and again, but I'm afraid a re-make today would cause an uproar in the audience from people shouting, "He's just not that into you!"
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