Post by Capo on Aug 4, 2007 23:22:09 GMT
Letter from an Unknown Woman
Max Ophüls 1948 USA
Vienna, 1900: a young girl falls in love with a musician, and, years later, writes to him informing that they had a son together.
Outstandingly clever melodrama which predates the woman's pictures of Sirk and also the self-reflexivity of Godard: here we have a woman who invests her entire life to a man who, in the end, does not recognise her from an earlier encounter, and the narrative as a result is destined for doom and tears. Recurring motifs throughout: the sense of complexity in the female protagonist, seen throughout behind some sort of veil or transparent layer; the score being mostly diegetic, with bands or solo pianists playing the actual music in the background of a scene; and the best visual gag of the film, which shatters all sense of illusion, a train ride which turns out to be a fairground ride, with the passing scenery going by only because somebody is pedalling the reel along.
Max Ophüls 1948 USA
Vienna, 1900: a young girl falls in love with a musician, and, years later, writes to him informing that they had a son together.
Outstandingly clever melodrama which predates the woman's pictures of Sirk and also the self-reflexivity of Godard: here we have a woman who invests her entire life to a man who, in the end, does not recognise her from an earlier encounter, and the narrative as a result is destined for doom and tears. Recurring motifs throughout: the sense of complexity in the female protagonist, seen throughout behind some sort of veil or transparent layer; the score being mostly diegetic, with bands or solo pianists playing the actual music in the background of a scene; and the best visual gag of the film, which shatters all sense of illusion, a train ride which turns out to be a fairground ride, with the passing scenery going by only because somebody is pedalling the reel along.