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Romantic drama

Letter from an Unknown Woman

Year
1948
Director
Max Ophuls
Length
87 minBFI 87-minute presentation Version sources ↓

Before a duel, a concert pianist receives a letter recounting a woman’s lifelong devotion to him—an attachment he repeatedly failed to recognise.

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Language
English
RomanticBleak Great first watch · Easy Romantic drama
Original illustration: A sealed letter and roses rest on a grand piano beside a window overlooking Vienna at dusk beneath the title.

Image: Monocurator · source · Original Monocurator artwork

What to expect

Ophuls turns memory into movement through staircases, doorways, music, and repeated encounters whose meaning is unequal for the two people involved. Romance and erasure occupy the same elegant frame.

How to ease in

The letter supplies the structure. Notice which moments Stefan experiences as passing pleasure and Lisa preserves as the organising events of a life.

Heads-up

A quick, non-exhaustive note Includes bereavement, child death, illness, abandonment, unequal power in relationships, and obsessive romantic attachment.
Momo's Note May contain spoilers Who is Momo? →
Open the note ↓ Close the note ↑

The same meeting can be a lifetime for one person and an evening for another. I keep returning to that imbalance, because the beauty never cancels the cost of not being remembered.

— Momo

Momo thinking about this film

Credits & versions

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