Lola Montès1955
Both on Anna Sui’s Top 10, both directed by Max Ophüls, and both with commentary by Susan White
The Earrings of Madame de . . .
Madame de…
France / French / 1953 / 1h 45m
- Criterion Collection
- Spine №445
- Commentary
- 1 track on the Channel player
Synopsis
The most cherished work from French master Max Ophuls, THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE . . . is a profoundly emotional, cinematographically adventurous tale of deceptive opulence and tragic romance. When an aristocratic woman known only as Madame de . . . (Danielle Darrieux) sells a pair of earrings given to her by her husband (Charles Boyer) in order to pay some debts, she sets off a chain reaction of financial and carnal consequences that can end only in despair. Ophuls’s adaptation of Louise de Vilmorin’s incisive fin de siècle novel employs to ravishing effect the elegant and precise camera work for which the director is so justly renowned.
