202. Letter From An Unknown Woman (1948)

Directed By Max Ophüls

Synopsis

A guy is trying to escape a difficult duel in early 20th century Vienna when he gets a letter from an unknown woman... He reads how her life intersected his and what a bastard he was. In the end he decides to fight the duel.

Review

Ahhh we haven't had melodrama in a while here and this is a mother of a melodrama. I have always been a little girly for melodramas, I love the stuff, I love suffering with the characters, even though more often than not melodramas are a bit shitty.

This is actually not at all the case with this film, it is a smartly done melodrama with an interesting perspective from the point of view of someone who loves form afar someone who doesn't really deserve that love.

The acting is great and I am a particular lover of Louis Jourdan who is great in his part of what is a well intentioned fuck-up of a guy.That very rare thing, a good melodrama.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

The whole film is on youtube, here's the first part look for the other ones: