Everything That Dies, Some Day Comes Back

This 1948 film is a perfect example of the type of romantic melodrama that was made by Hollywood at its peak: take a fine piece of literature (a novella by Stefan Zweig), make a few alterations here and there to make it more palatable for its target audience and for the censor,  and then hand it over to the likes of  Max Ophüls, a director known for his lyrical visual style and for his affinity to romantic themes. It cannot fail to succeed, and broadly speaking it doesn't, provided one is in the right mood.   It's set in turn-of-the-century Vienna, where Stefan (Louis Jourdan) is about to flee in order to avoid certain death in a duel.  But then he gets side tracked into reading a letter from Lisa (Joan Fontaine), which is a cue for her to narrate the rest of the film in a series of flashbacks. She starts off as a teenager who develops a crush on handsome Stefan, a talented pianist who lives in the next-door apartment.  He of course barely notices her. She ...