MODERN LOVERS

Superbly adapted from Stefan Zweig’s 1922 novella by Howard Koch, Letter from an Unknown Woman is the apotheosis of “doomed love” fiction. Flashing back to trace the hopeless infatuation of young Lisa (Joan Fontaine) for Stefan (Louis Jourdan), Max Ophüls gives us a vivid, heartbreaking portrait of a love that should never have been: her naive romanticization of artistic men mismatched with his indifferent objectification of available women adds up to tragedy. Ophüls’s intuitive grasp of the inequity of gender roles in 20th-century Western society is still breathtaking in its insight. —Adrian Martin 

In this discussion, renowned film critic, teacher and DVD-commentary connoisseur Adrian Martin will revisit this classic but often overlooked romantic melodrama from 1948 to explore the timeless qualities that make this story of unrequited love all too familiar.