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transformed. We are shown that Lisa could be seen as just one in thesuccession of Stefan's women. We are not told whether Stefan seesher in that way. As a result we are given no hint about what Stefan'sresponse might have been if Lisa had been able to seek him out withthe news of her pregnancy after his return from Milan.Stefan's leaving is able to be read by Lisa as a confirmation of herprophecy (in the Prater ballroom, when Stefan had asked for herpromise) "I won't be the one to vanish." This terrible form of wordspredicted betrayal while recognising itself only as a loving vow offidelity. Unacknowledged in the letter, but confirmed by what we see asclearly as the repetition in Staircase Two, is that Lisa is each time theone who vanishes - to Linz, into the charity hospital, and away in flightfrom the final sad encounter. Stefan's reaction to the lastdisappearance is withheld from us, and is something to which Lisagives no apparent thought, but it is an issue brought to mind by thereaction that we do see - the servant John's witnessing her departureas she crosses him on the stairs.The patterns of revelation and masking enabled by the film's structureallow Lisa to speak as if her actions and inactions are perfectlyexplained by her love for Stefan and his son. Other possibilities arebuilt into the picture's fabric but not enforced, for instance an element ofrevenge in Lisa's presentation of the photographs of young Stefan andher reflections on the happiness he brought her. It becomes apossibility too, but not a dogmatic assertion, that Lisa's Ideal was by herdefinition a man who would disappoint her, and that Stefan's Ideal wasby his definition a woman he would never find. Ophuls and Kochdiscovered a form that avoided sentimentality while negotiating thedanger of a merely cynical denial of romance - one that would onlyhave sneered at yearnings for love and transcendence. The film'sunique blending of strength of pattern with openness results in ourbeing shown the failures of Lisa's vision and of Stefan's without beingmade complacent about the perfection our own.* * *Reprinted from CineAction! no. 52 by permission of V.F. Perkins andSusan Morrison of CineAction!Notes1] There's also, more elliptically, "We'll revisit the scenes of ouryouth".2] In the course of this sequence there occurs an image which doesseem to be taken up by Ophuls in the parallel passage after themarried Lisa's flight from Stefan's apartment. An overhead shot thatsees Laura walking to a park bench beneath the statuary of a warmemorial finds an echo (minus some grotesquely phallic elements) inOphuls' high-angle on Lisa as she walks across a deserted squarebeneath a fountain. The prominence of railway scenes in Letter froman Unknown Woman might also be thought to owe something toLean's film. The shooting script envisaged a scene in that crucial BriefEncounter setting, the station buffet, when Lisa has seen her sononto the train but has not yet made the move to set out in search ofStefan (Wexman and Hollinger, ed., 'Letter from an UnknownWoman' Max Ophuls, director, Rutgers U.P., 1986, p 148.)3] Wrongly, but understandably - since it is so easy to underestimatethe inventiveness of filmmakers.4] It is not used in the same way at the start of the final flashback. Bythen, Lisa has become Frau Stauffer; she has that name because"you know who my husband is".