portrait of Jennie , a film by William Dieterle , producer David Selznick , cast ;Jennifer jones ,joseph cotten , This is possibly the most memorable and different movie ever made on a theme that is beyond human comprehension, just as is life and death and creation and Time , even for a forties film , an era when a number of great movies were made ,this is still outstanding and ground breaking , it is shot in surreal light and magical photography which uses nature and its various phenomena to enhance the cinematic atmosphere , the movie is almost a haunting , romantic , mysterious, fantasy adventure .which questions the mystery of life and death and time itself ,yet the narrative is so simple and superb and natural you feel you are watching the story between two characters who are in love though they never mention the word or touch each other sexually . there is no other love story ever like this one , its romanticism is ethereal and celestial and tragic , a young girl starts to appear and meet a struggling painter in central park in new york , by a specific bench and a gaslight , she comes and goes like a surge of magical mysterious appearance, and she has the most charming innocent demeanour and an other worldly quality that distinguishes her from rest of the crowd , the girl is played in an extremely unforgettable and endearing manner by Jennifer jones , the painter who is struggling to sell a painting is joseph cotten , he is a perfect tranquil foil for the ebullient child like effervescent character miss jones plays as Jennie , the girl meets the painter unexpectedly but always in the same spot and she does not leave any trace of who she is except some tell tale past paraphernalia. every time she comes has grown older visibly for the time elapsed and the way the movie makes jenny grow older in a matter of weeks is a miracle of technique ,Cotten develops a much deeper relation with this weird creature and he starts to ask her about her life and he invites her to be painted as well as she transforms from a mere girl to a very pretty elegant young lady .jenny agrees and the painting is initiated. A sub plot deals wth Ethel Barrymore who is a art curator and possible admirer of the painter and buys one of his paintings for charity , jenny tells him she comes from nowhere and goes everywhere ,she has no address , she mentions a convent and a lighthouse which are quite remote from where she meets him in central park , as she suddenly disappears , COTTEN decides to investigate her whereabouts and work on the few details he has , it will be unfair to discuss this great artistic treatise any further and the mystery or the puzzle needs to be discovered by viewers , the movie gives you open hints that time as it exists for others is not the same for Jennie. she is from another world but she is real ,and she poses for the painting ,and sge leaves a souvenir too , the painter decides to go to the convent and it is there that he is told by the mother superior who Jennie is , he by now is in true love with jenny and he goes to every length to trace and find and somehow bar jenny from coming to any harm , but he prays for her in the convent so he is doubtful , jenny is in a time warp and it is a very simple yet complex mystery , somehow nature erroneously has put jenny in a profound trap from where there is no escape , the movie does not try to explain or justify any thing in what we call logic or science ,it is based on belief and faith , life it self is a mystery that we dont understand , the complex cycle of time is an invincible extension of the abstract nature of life itself , and where people who no longer inhabit our physical world are placed in time , these are some of the crucial questions this extremely intelligent artistic movie asks . jenniffer jones is absolutely divine here , cotton is equally good in his role , though its jenny who is the heart and soul of the movie , DIETERLE has shot this in a manner that it will always be unique , there is nothing here that is familiar or reminds you of any other movie ever made , Selznick has spared no expense or any provision that the movie demanded as the producer , he uses light in every profusion ,he has a marvellous sense of how to angle jenny and how to attire her in her accelerated aging to adulthood . this is a huge tribute to the substance and spiritual endurance of movie art and its a triumph for everyone involved , its astonishing technically and yet its extremely inspiring and romantic , despite very tragic overtones as it lets nature follow its own mysteries rather than human resources intervene and try to change the course which would have made this lose its noble superiority which teaches mankind to accept the invincible reality of death however unpleasant it might be but is totally inevitable , and it gives that message in the form of a painting which is a reality and is a portrait of jennie , painted by her true love ,