Letter from and Unknown Woman

1296 Words3 Pages

Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls; 1948 United States) is a melodrama film that revolves around a woman’s love for a man who does not acknowledge her existence. Like the other films Max Ophüls directed in America, Letter from an Unknown Woman focuses on “impossible love” (Danks, n.d. p. 98).
1. The Shot
The particular shot chosen from the film to analyse is the shot after Lisa Berndle (Joan Fontaine) rejected Lieutenant Leopold von Kaltnegger’s (John Good) proposal, and they walk towards Frau Berndle (Mady Christians), Herr Kastner (Howard Freeman) and Lieutenant Leopold’s uncle to break the news.
That shot starts with a band commencing their next song, and Lisa and Lieutenant Leopold enters the frame, where the camera starts tracking them. In the foreground, the band continues to march while Lieutenant Leopold breaks the news to his uncle in the background. At this point, the audience do not get to hear what Lieutenant Leopold said to his uncle. Lieutenant Leopold and his uncle then leave the frame, as the last band member does the same. Only now do the audience hear what the characters say, and as Lisa and her parents are talking, the camera tracks in from a wide shot to a mid close up of the three of them. The shot then ends with a dissolve, back to Stefan Brands (Louis Jourdan) reading the letter.
2. Cinematography
2.1 The Mobile Framing
Director Max Ophüls is known for his distinctive smooth camera movements (Liang, 2011, p. 2). Frame mobility keeps the audience focused on the subject (Bordwell and Thompson, 2008, p. 203), and this can be seen in this shot. Due to the camera tracking Lisa and Lieutenant Leopold after they enter the frame, the audience’s attention stays focused on Lisa and Lieutenant Leopold, even thoug...

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...statela.edu/faculty/abloom/tvf454/5filmmusic.pdf [Accessed: 8 Apr 2014].
Gallagher, T. 2002. Senses of Cinema – Max Ophuls: A New Art – But Who Notices?. [online] Available at: http://sensesofcinema.com/2002/feature-articles/ophuls/ [Accessed: 8 Apr 2014].
Hughes, D. 2002. Long Pauses » Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948). [online] Available at: http://www.longpauses.com/letter-from-an-unknown-woman/ [Accessed: 8 Apr 2014].
Liang, D. 2011. Camera movement in Max Ophuls’s films. [online] Available at: http://www.academia.edu/434990/For_Miriam_Camera_movement_in_Max_Ophulss_films [Accessed: 8 Apr 2014].
Renée, V. 2013. Transitions in Editing: the History and Evolution of the Dissolve « No Film School. [online] Available at: http://nofilmschool.com/2013/08/history-an-evolution-of-the-dissolve/ [Accessed: 8 Apr 2014].
Video Essay. n.d. [video] Hollywood: Tag Gallagher.

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