Letter from a Stranger (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | the letter of an unknown |
| Original title | Letter from an Unknown Woman |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1948 |
| length | 86 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Max Ophüls |
| script | Howard Cook |
| production |
John Houseman for Rampant Productions and Universal Pictures |
| music | Daniele Amfitheatrof |
| camera | Franz Planner |
| cut | Ted J. Kent |
| occupation | |
| |
Letter from a Stranger is an American film directed by Max Ophüls in 1948 . It is based on the novel of the same name by Stefan Zweig . The film premiered in the United States on April 28, 1948.
content
The general plot of the film begins with the concert pianist Stefan Brand returning to his apartment in Vienna late in the evening . The jealous husband of one of his numerous lovers has challenged Brand to a duel the next morning . However, the pianist does not want to accept the duel, but instead flees, and instructs his silent servant John to pack the suitcases. Brand finds a long letter in which an unknown woman describes her life, which was determined by her unrequited love for him. Flashback : At the age of fifteen, the writer named Lisa Berndle falls madly in love with the pianist who lives with her in the same apartment building. While she regularly listens to Brand's music, he only notices her at the door once. Meanwhile, Lisa's mother marries a new, wealthy man; she wants to move from Vienna to Linz with her daughter . On the day of departure, Lisa tries to talk to Brand about her secret love, but she sees him walking into his apartment accompanied by another woman.
Lisa now belongs to the better society in Linz, but she refuses the marriage proposal of a young lieutenant from a good family and tells him and her astonished family that she is already engaged. In fact, her love for Brand continues. At the age of 18 she returned to Vienna, where she worked as a saleswoman and model in a posh clothing store. Lisa visits Brand's house every day to be close to him until he finally speaks to her. He can't remember her, but shows interest in her and invites her to dinner. When he asks the girl to come home afterwards, they spend the night together. Soon afterwards, however, Brand went on a concert tour to Milan . He makes a promise to his new lover that he will be back in two weeks, but does not keep it. Some time later Lisa had a child from Brand, but tried not to contact him because - as she says herself - she wants to be the only woman who has never asked him for anything.
A leap of ten years: Lisa entered into a marriage of convenience with the much older Baron Stauffer in order to be able to offer her son Stefan a good life. One day she happened to run into Brand at an opera performance. His success as a pianist has waned, he hardly appears anymore, instead he indulges in a dissolute life. Lisa doesn't feel well, leaves the performance and meets Brand outside the opera, of all people. He can't remember her, but he feels drawn to her again. The baron watches their conversation and is later very annoyed on the way back from the opera.
A short time later, Lisa visits Brand in his apartment against her husband's wishes. The pianist is pleased about their visit, but cannot remember their past together. He uses the same phrases and compliments as he did on their first relationship. She leaves the apartment feeling that he never really loved her and that she was just one of many women. John, Brand's silent butler, on the other hand, recognizes Lisa. Soon after the encounter, Lisa's son dies of typhus and she also falls ill shortly afterwards. Already terminally ill, she writes the letter. An enclosed note from the hospital reports that Lisa has died and that her last words were meant for Brand.
After reading the letter, Brand is deeply moved and can finally remember their various encounters. The mute servant, who could remember Lisa all along , writes her name Lisa Berndle on a sheet of paper. As Brand leaves the house, he sees the young Lisa in front of him by the apartment building door, at the point where he first met her many years ago. Outside, the coach is waiting for a duel that he has completely forgotten. Baron Stauffer turns out to be a duelist. Almost in shock, Brand takes responsibility and agrees to the duel.
background
The film is based on the novel of the same name by Stefan Zweig from 1922, which brought Zweig's international breakthrough. The screenwriter Howard Koch largely stuck to the template, but changed a few points:
- The main characters in Zweig's novel remain nameless; names are used in Ophüls' film.
- In Zweig's original, the main male character is not a pianist but a writer.
- In the original, the family does not move from Vienna to Linz, but to Innsbruck .
- Because of the requirements of the Hays Code , Lisa and Stefan only spend one night of love in the film, in the novel there are several.
- The woman sends the man in Zweig's original white roses for his birthday every year, which does not appear in the film.
- The character of the baron and the duel at the end of the film are invented. Several admirers assume the position of baron in the submission.
- In the film, the main male character can clearly remember the woman at the end, but in Zweig's original it is only blurred at the end.
Letter from a Stranger was produced by Rampant Productions, a small film studio founded by leading actress Joan Fontaine and her then-husband William Dozier . Dozier had wanted to film Zweig's novella for years and had discussed the plan with John Houseman while he was a producer at Paramount Pictures . Houseman accepted the task of producer at the request of Fontaine and Dozier and also made the proposal to hire Howard Koch as a screenwriter, who at that time was fired from his home studio Warner Brothers because of an argument with Jack L. Warner . In turn, it was Koch who suggested the European émigré Max Ophüls as a director to Houseman and the Fontaine-Dozier couple . After viewing Ophüls love drama Liebelei , which was based on a work by Arthur Schnitzler , who was a friend of Zweig , they were convinced of the qualities of Ophüls. Koch worked out the script quickly and in a structured manner, with the occasional help of Ophüls, who especially helped him with his knowledge of Austria.
Director Max Ophüls fled Germany after the Nazis came to power in 1933; this literary film was made in his last year in Hollywood. Ophüls had a very international cast, including some Austrians from the film's “location”. The supporting actors Mady Christians and Otto Waldis came from Vienna. Other native Viennese like Willy Trenk-Trebitsch as Fritzl, Ilka Grüning as a ticket teller , Norbert Schiller as Stefan's second , Irene Seidner as Ms. Mombert and Max Willenz as porter also played in small roles and extras . Most of the Austrian actors, like director Ophüls, had fled National Socialism and had to be content with minor supporting roles in the USA because of their accent - despite their previous successes in their home country.
Daniele Amfitheatrof's film music drew on famous composers: Franz Liszt's Etude in D flat major “Un sospiro” is played in the film, as is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser: O you, my lovely evening star .
synchronization
The German dubbed version was created in 1950 by Universal Synchron under the dubbing direction of Josef Wolf , who also wrote the dialogue book. The German version left out a few scenes during the synchronization, so that the film never actually ran in full length on television broadcasts.
| role | actor | German Dubbing voice |
|---|---|---|
| Lisa Berndle | Joan Fontaine | Elfriede Kuzmany |
| Stefan Brand | Louis Jourdan | Hans Nielsen |
| Mother Berndle | Mady Christians | Eva Eras |
| Baron Johann von Staufer | Marcel Journet | Hans Hinrich |
| Leopold von Kaltenegger | John Good | Kurt Heintel |
Awards
The film was entered into the National Film Registry in 1992. This selection list contains films that have been classified as particularly important from a cultural, historical or aesthetic point of view.
criticism
Letter from a stranger when it was published was not a particular success: Howard Koch remembered that Universal marketed the film (probably because of the involvement of Ophüls and Zweig) as a "foreign film" and with little effort, whereupon the viewers stayed away. Most of the contemporary reviews in the US were good, but the film was quickly withdrawn from theaters and initially forgotten. The film was rediscovered a few years later in Great Britain when it was brought to some small-town cinemas by a third-rate distribution film. There he was seen by the critic Simon Harcourt-Smith, who wrote for the film magazine Sight and Sound and who drew attention to the film with articles and screenings. In 1957, shortly before his death, Ophüls concluded that a letter from a stranger was initially a commercial failure, but: “The reception in Europe was very good and now it is one of the most popular films on American television. It's a very interesting phenomenon: some rather intimate films fail when shown in the cinema, but do quite well on television. "
Today, Letter from a Stranger is considered to be the best American film by Max Ophüls. All 21 reviews of the US critic portal Rotten Tomatoes were positive, giving the film a positive rating of 100%. The critics there emphasized, among other things, the emotionally moving plot and the fine style of the film. Filmmakers like Stanley Kubrick and François Truffaut (“Incredibly beautiful”) also commented positively on a letter from a stranger .
"Love tragedy based on a novella by Stefan Zweig - a poetic, atmospheric film that conjures up the morbid charm of old Vienna and makes the fragility of human relationships psychologically clear."
Web links
- Letter from an Unknown in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of release for a letter from a stranger . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , July 2007 (PDF; test number: 12 70V V / DVD / UMD).
- ↑ Wexman, Virginia Wright: Letter from an Unknown Woman. New Brunswick, 1986, pp. 189-190
- ↑ Wexman, Virginia Wright: Letter from an Unknown Woman. New Brunswick, 1986, p. 190
- ↑ Wexman, Virginia Wright: Letter from an Unknown Woman. New Brunswick, 1986, p. 192
- ↑ "Letter from a stranger" in the synchronous database ( memento of the original from November 5, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Wexman, Virginia Wright: Letter from an Unknown Woman. New Brunswick, 1986, pp. 202-203
- ↑ Wexman, Virginia Wright: Letter from an Unknown Woman. New Brunswick, 1986, p. 205
- ^ Letter from a stranger to Allmovie
- ^ "Letter from a Stranger" at Rotten Tomatoes
- ↑ Francois Trauffaut at Second Sight
- ^ Letter from a stranger. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
