Movie Night: Letter From An Unknown Woman
I was interested in seeing this movie by Max Ophüls, because I received a copy of his movie, The Earrings of Madame de.... and I really liked that movie although it is the antithesis of movies that I purport to like. The Madame and her earrings are just status symbols of her society. They have no purpose in life but to glitter and sparkle on great occasions and cause envy to others. And when you consider them closely, there is nothing there to envy except for the money that they both cost. I look at those people and things and think can't they do better with themselves? Can't they find a worthwhile purpose in their life? I know that the Hope Diamond is very happy these days at the Smithsonian, shining and sparkling and causing its admirers to recite the scandalous facts of its life to each other as they stare at its freakish wonder.
The Hope Diamond
And now that I look at the Hope Diamond, I realize that it also, much like Madame de..., had a movie made about it, Titanic. Only to avoid incriminating the innocent (who?) and to avoid paying for its life story, the Hope Diamond was named Le Coeur de la Mer and wore a fake heart shaped nose.
Mr. Ophüls is supposedly known for his movies about women who supposedly give all for love. These movies are called "Romantic". Well, "MAN" is the word in "Romantic". I think that there is much more to a woman's life and her purpose in it; so I am a scoffer of these movies, although I will watch them for critical purposes. There is much more to my critical purpose than Romances.
Many years ago, when I was procrastinating about completing some School work, I turned on the TV and started watching some movie called Caught. It was about some goofy woman who read a lot of Romance novels and thought that she would end up as Romance Heroine, innocent and trusting, who would have a very rich and powerful man fall madly in love with her and carry her off. She would live in a castle with her madly in love husband and drink champagne all day. She might not drink champagne all day, she might do other things, but she, like me, really didn't think that far ahead about her life and she had no other goals to accomplish once she attracted the madly in love guy.
Well dang! Goofy Woman did attract the Madly in love and rich and powerful husband and he did carry her off and marry her and lock her in the castle and never let her out and had his MAD wicked way with her along with his MAD Attacks. Goofy Woman had enough of his MADNESS and ran away and had to support herself and make her own decisions and her own money and spend it on herself. See what a little independence and fiscal responsibility will do for a woman? It will make her less Goofy.
There was also a cute and dedicated and sensible doctor in this other life who expected her to take care of herself and have opinions about things. Well, the Goofy wasn't vanquished for long, because the MAD as a Mercury Imbibing syphilitic MAD husband showed up and forcefully took her back and had his MAD (and maybe syphilitic) way with her and really confined her, this time, in the castle with a child in her belly in his Evil castle. Things looked bad for our not so Goofy Heroine. But all that MADNESS (and probably the syphilis) affected the MAD husband's heart and he keeled over one night in one of his MAD ravings with a heart attack. His wife forgot the number to call the ambulance for about an hour or two until the MAD husband was quite dead. Then she had a convenient miscarriage and called up her doctor friend and asked him out to dinner.
It was a good movie and gave me something to think about other than my Due Paper. It was also a wicked and witty attack on Women's Romance Novels. Jane Austen would have been proud to compliment it. Later, I would find out that it was one of Mr. Ophüls' Hollywood movies.
A man who can make Caught and The Earrings of Madame de ..., and Lola Montes is not a gushing Woman's Sentimentalist. There is some bite and some feminist inclined commentary in even his Woman as a Man Goofy Creature films. There is a strong streak of Renoir there in him.
Even the credits give the viewer a sense of the unease of the common run of things. Everything that is neat and tidy is close to the ground and almost buried, but then there is that vast expanse of sky and possibility that takes over two thirds of the screen. This is a movie about dreams. (And spelling---Opuls or Ophüls?)
And our dreamer is a young lady named Lisa who is first seen on the screen with a harp.
That harp will be a comment on her soaring hopes and desires and it will also foreshadow what will happen to all those dreams and Lisa herself. Who ever has the desire and is selfless about it will end up as an angel that forgoes the desire and the ability to fulfill it. Selfless may get some one into Heaven, but it won't get some one what they want.
The harp belongs to a talented musician named Stefan who is moving into young Lisa's building.
He is like a Rock Star, only it is 1890, so Stefan is more like a Waltz Star or a Polka Meister. Stefan is also Hot.
Here is one of Stefan's album covers, or it is 1890, so this is one of Stefan's Concert Programs.
Stefan practices his piano all day and seduces (or is seduced by) ladies all night. Being a Waltz Star is Good. Stefan barely notices young Lisa.
And that is good, otherwise Stefan would be a pedophile. My viewing companion, brijeana , and I decided that Stefan is a cad and a bounder. My viewing companion thought that that was a good thing for Stefan to be. She kept making excuses for his behavior, although she admitted that he was a cad and a bounder. Like John Mayer who is also a cad and a bounder. My viewing companion did not have any excuses for John Mayer and his behavior, but John Mayer doesn't look like a young Louis Jourdan who was hot and gorgeous. I have no idea what Mr. Jourdan was like in his private life. But I do know that he was beautiful to look at.
Lisa is just a pale reflection of her heart's desire, Stefan, in this picture. She considers herself to be nothing and so she must acquire some accomplishments to be better for him. It never occurs to her to get an education for herself and make something of herself for herself. It does occur to Mr. Ophüls, but he doesn't say anything to Lisa.
Lisa takes up dancing and washing herself and her clothes and spying on Stefan and his ladies, so that Lisa will know what Stefan likes.
Good Lord, Lisa could be doing so many better things. But the heart wants what it wants, or so many people who do the wrong things would have you think.
Lisa's obsession with Stefan is broken when her mother re-marries and they move away from Vienna to some place called Linz. I kept thinking that it was Minsk and I starting singing to myself over the movie music, that Tom Lehrer song about the mathematician from Minsk, Lobachevsky. It has a catchy tune.
Bye Lisa! Hit the Ausgang and get yourself a life.
Lisa grows up (physically) and gets herself a soldier. Only in a twist, Lisa is the girl with a boyfriend at her last station, and she informs the soldier and dumps him. She breaks the soldier's heart, he doesn't break hers.
Lisa is soon back on the old stomping grounds, showing off her beauty as a model, and walking the streets late at night like a hooker, spying on Stefan who is still playing the piano and seducing the ladies.
Happy coincidence! Stefan spots her and he then actually "spots" her. I mean seduces her.
He takes her to his favorite restaurant and feeds her lobster.
My movie companion saw the shell in the restaurant and immediately equated Lisa with The Little Mermaid, and she was right. Like Ariel, Lisa yearns for what she doesn't have and is willing to make herself alone and dedicated to achieving her desire, regardless of whether the desire is worth what she is willing to pay for it. Giving All for Love---what is it worth? Mr. Ophüls is going to show us.
This movie has a lot of arriving and leaving, but none of the characters actually goes anywhere.
Stefan romances seduces Lisa on an amusement park Travel Europe and the World ride that takes them nowhere.
Lisa and Stefan then Ausgang off to the old place and Lisa is one of Stefan's Ladies of the Night and Stairs.
Then Stefan leaves Lisa at the train station and never returns.
And Lisa is left with his memories and his son.
And there are many departures (fake and real)...
one of the departures is that Lisa makes a life for herself. Or it is a sort of life, Lisa becomes the wife of a rich and prominent man in Vienna.
Lisa and the husband go to an opera and find Stefan there. Stefan is seducing ladies, the Waltz Star career didn't really pan out too well. Stefan used his dexterous hands for opening corsets instead of opening concert nights. Stefan sees Lisa and he must have her. He doesn't remember that he has been there and done that. Lisa does.
This will all come to a bad end for Lisa. Remember that harp, the first time that we saw her?
It will be the Big Ausgang---the permanent one---the inescapable one.
Lisa will destroy her life, her marriage, her happiness, and her son for her ONE TRUE and worthless Love, Stefan. This Little Mermaid will be Hans Christian Anderson's mermaid, not the Disney one.
Stefan will have so many Loves or Lusts that he can't remember them, so they are just as sweet and new, the next time around. I can see why my viewing companion admired Stefan. He gets to live his life and his loves many times and savor them as if they are new each day. Lisa must live and die with her Only Love. Who is to be more admired?
I know whom Mr. Ophüls admires. His last movie, Lola Montes, has a showgirl and courtesan, the eponymous heroine, on display in a circus in America, much like the Hope diamond. And the spectators and her admirers are glad to look at her and tell the wondrous stories of her life and her many loves. Miss Montes is a wonder and a marvel and a freak. She never bet everything on Love. She always had herself.
Screen Caps by Me
Letter From An Unknown Woman on U Tube, this could change, copyright travails