I was sorely disappointed with this weepie, claimed by many to be one of the most romantic films ever made.
I had trouble getting over the sheer implausibility of the premise. Joan Fontaine plays a young girl who grows up in an apartment next to a successful pianist who doesn't know she exists. Later, after she's grown a bit, they meet and strike up a romance; she gets pregnant by him but disappears from his life, unable to face him with her burden. Much later they meet again, and.....he has no memory of her!! Only a vague idea that he's seen her somewhere before.
If he truly can't remember her, how meaningful was their romance in the first place, and how tragic can the ending be? (I won't spoil it here). On the other hand, I suppose that might be the point -- the tragedy lies in the fact that one person can mean so much to another without reciprocation. But I can't really stomach that reading of the film either. I just want to strangle characters like Fontaine's who spend their lives moping about what they can't have.
Clearly I'm not romantically-minded enough to appreciate a film like this. I still say David Lean's "Brief Encounter" is the most romantic film ever made, and blows this one out of the water.
Grade: B
I had trouble getting over the sheer implausibility of the premise. Joan Fontaine plays a young girl who grows up in an apartment next to a successful pianist who doesn't know she exists. Later, after she's grown a bit, they meet and strike up a romance; she gets pregnant by him but disappears from his life, unable to face him with her burden. Much later they meet again, and.....he has no memory of her!! Only a vague idea that he's seen her somewhere before.
If he truly can't remember her, how meaningful was their romance in the first place, and how tragic can the ending be? (I won't spoil it here). On the other hand, I suppose that might be the point -- the tragedy lies in the fact that one person can mean so much to another without reciprocation. But I can't really stomach that reading of the film either. I just want to strangle characters like Fontaine's who spend their lives moping about what they can't have.
Clearly I'm not romantically-minded enough to appreciate a film like this. I still say David Lean's "Brief Encounter" is the most romantic film ever made, and blows this one out of the water.
Grade: B