Love Hurts: Four by Max Ophüls
In Letter From an Unknown Woman (1949), a young woman spends the better part of her life fantasising about a man who barely knows of her existence. It is difficult to imagine the pleasure-seeking characters from La Ronde (1950) or Le Plaisir (1952) ever adopting such an impractical view of romance. As for the hedonists of The Earrings of Madame De... (1953), their real problems begin when they accidentally fall in love.
More terrifying than it is swoon-worthy, Letter... is a Hollywood melodrama best understood in light of the three following films mentioned above: director Max Ophüls seemed freer to express his (“European”) vision of love and desire when working in France than in the United States. In this episode of Hard Truths, Elena and Manuela explore the German-French filmmaker’s sophisticated and disarmingly generous perspective on passion and the suffering that comes with it. In most of these four films, what’s most heartbreaking isn’t to lose a lover, but to feel that life goes on without them. This fact is also a joyous one, and the gorgeous films are full of stunning long takes and dazzling tracking shots underlining the beauty of simply being alive, in times of joy or pain.
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