Letter from an Unknown Woman
Just wow. The truth is that I watched this film right after the 2004 version of “Letter from an Unknown Woman” and I am still fascinated by the story itself, no matter which version it is. In fact, I have a backlog of 8 films, plus another 4 that I have started but not finished yet (which are Ponyo*, Le petit soldat, Close-up and Inland Empire). Not to mention that I have a bunch of films available like Antichrist, and they are just waiting to be watched.
To make things easy for myself, I will start by blogging chronologically. Even though it’s been 2 months since I saw this film, I think my opinion and my memory of it are still very clear. I cannot help but comparing it both to the other adaptation and the book itself. While the 2004 version preserved the storyline of the book very closely, even the majority of the dialogue and included a lot of the unknown woman’s monologue, this film gave the characters names and changed a large part of the story.
The names are actually very important. Not giving the characters any names makes them immortal and universal, but also detached and far away from ourselves at the same time. On the one hand, any girl could be the unknown woman, and deep down, many girls probably love like the unknown woman has loved, and many others would probably yearn for it. On the other hand, this kind of love is an ideal (that I find very chinese by the way) that we would never reach, and no sane person would experience such a love. I think I already said way too much about the Letter from an Unknown woman subject itself, so I’ll try to reduce myself with a few comments on this particular adaptation.
I absolutely disliked the main actress. I don’t think she is beautiful at all, and I thoroughly disliked her mimics and especially the way her mouth moved. This might be a very superficial opinion of mine, but I must admit that it contributed quite a bit to my negative views of this adaptation. Apart from this and the major deterioration in terms of the content, the adaptation is quite well done. Max Ophüls is indeed an amazingly skilled director, and he turned the story and the actors he had to work with into quite a pleasant view. I especially liked the “Viennese” atmosphere that seemed quite truthful to me. Especially the music is quite delightful. Obviously Ophüls’ past helped, and I like how he was friends with Schnitzler, hahaha. I am sure he must have done better directing work though, and I am eager to see Liebelei.
Some review I have read mentioned how the changes to the original story gives this adaptation psychological depth, as the obsession of the woman is shown in a more negative way. Unlike in the book, she actually marries after all, and she is scolded by her husband for wanting to be with the man she has always loved. Personally I was not moved by the movie at all, and I am not sure if I like the idea of the Unknown Woman to have taken “revenge” on the man by forcing him into a duel, or at least indirectly led him into it. It kind of defies the whole purpose of her unconditional love that asks for nothing.
All in all, this film has achieved an acclaim that I cannot quite understand personally. I honestly wish there would be more essays about other interesting films out there, like Godard’s “Alphaville” or Tanovi?’s “No Man’s Land”. For someone who loves Stefan Zweig’s Letter from an Unknown Woman so much, this film was a must-watch of course.
PS. I don’t think I am ever going to finish Ponyo. Honestly it is quite a ridiculous film in my book, and I am not all that eager to see the end, even though I actually have seen about 2/3 of the film. There also is no reason to blog about it really.