It's one of my favourites. The release of The Artist (dir. Michel Hazanavicius, 2011) has got me thinking about some of the best classics. Letter From an Unknown Woman (dir. Max Ophüls, 1948) is often overlooked, eclipsed by the giant that is Gone With the Wind (dir. Victor Fleming, 1939), which took away the crown as the 20th century's filmic bible of the genre. But Ophüls' romance is a worthy opponent.
The film is the account of Lisa Berndle's (Joan Fontaine) life and the repeated meetings throughout with the womanising man she loves, Stefan Brand, (Louis Jourdan), a successful pianist that never remembers who she is. She continually misunderstands his seduction lines as allusions to their previous meetings and so never loses hope in the love eventually becoming requited.
Letter to the Theorists
One critique of the film, by Tania Modleski in 1986, says 'Lisa's is the classic dilemma of what psychoanalysis calls the hysterical woman...'. She argues that Lisa's silence and 'overwhelming desire' blocks the ability to express the feelings she has for Stefan. However, nothing actually shown in the movie alludes to the filmmakers' desire to portray her as hysterical. As the picture is essentially a filmic delivery of a letter written by Lisa herself, this film is all coming from her point of view. Therefore, we could assume that the steady camera, flowing shots and stillness in each frame instead is implicit of her state of mind - not hysterical, but made calmly melancholic by the unrequited love she has experienced throughout her life.
Theorists and critics often cite this film as a chronicle of obession. I disagree; Lisa Berndle's extreme feelings are more than fixation or fantasy, rather an authentic and unaffected love. It's a naïve assumption to think that Lisa endlessly pursues Stefan because she is unnaturally obsessed. Critics are dubious about the nature of this love - due, in part, to the fact that she first falls in love without ever having even set eyes on the man - but Lisa believes she holds a very real love for him. this then poses the question: is that not genuine love? If not, what is?
Besides, does not all love have an element of obsession within it. For instance, the film is set in the early 1900s and, true, she does physically follow Stefan to a certain degree but, nowadays, one can be found 'following' a crush through modern, and more discreet, mediums. This is no different. To understand Lisa's actions, perhaps it is fitting to consider human nature - and humas are obsessive. There is nothing particularly outrageous Lisa does in the movie that suggests anything more than a woman who is deeply in love. The best way to prove this is by looking at the climax of the film and seeing how its construction holds up.
"I had come to tell you about us, to offer you my whole life..."
At the beginning of the sequence I'm looking at, Lisa is a grown and established women; she paces outside a theatre, having set eyes on Stefan once more. The camera follows her in one fluid movement; this is indicative of the picture as a whole - in fact, a hallmark of Ophüls' work. This fluidity of the camera movements is a reflection of placidity not usually found in obsession. Later, Fontaine's Lisa retains a reservation and dignity in their final meeting that is not indicative of mania, which should lead the viewer to thinking that she were never intended to be presented as a deranged stalker.
Most of this scene is conducted in wide shot or medium long shot, placing her firmly in her surroundings and highlighting that isolation. The length of time the camera holds itself on various moments keeps the film, and this scene, still and soft, uniquely giving an air of calm to what is essentially a melodrama.
Lisa last choked words here, holding back tears and wavering voice, suggest the extremity of her feelings but not to the abnormal or disquieting extent that some may argue. So far, her behaviour is entirely justified and natural. At the end of this scene, Lisa is destroyed by yet another confirmation of Stefan's obliviousness. But it is her ability to walk away that strikes me as atypical of a person obsessed or hysterical.
I think it would be hard to find any concrete evidence in the film, beyond pure interpretation, that suggests Lisa Berndle's love is anything but genuine, even 'normal'. And perhaps Letter From an Unknown Woman is just a testament to the fact that we cannot help who we fall in love with or how we behave when we do.
Sources:
- Modelski, Tania (1986). 'Time and Desire in the Woman's Film'; In Ophüls, Wright, Wexman, Hollinger, 'Letter From an Unknown Woman: Max Ophüls, Director'. USA: Rutgers University Press.
- Wilson, George (1983), 'Max Ophüls' Letter From an Unknown Woman'; MLN, vol.98, No.5 (1983), Comparative Literature; pp.1121-1142; Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Silet, Charles L.P (2008), 'Letter From an Unknown Woman' [online]. Available: http://www.filmreference.com/Films-Fr-Le/Letter-from-an-Unknown-Woman.html
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