Chicago – French films from the ’50s can be a tough sell to a modern audience and Max Ophuls’ “The Earrings of Madame De…” recently upgraded by Criterion to a gorgeous Blu-ray edition and re-released on DVD, hasn’t gotten the critical attention it deserves over the years and so it’s not as instantly recognizable as “something that should be seen” as some of the other films of its era. Trust me. This is “something that should be seen” by everyone.
Don’t believe me? P.T. Anderson (“Boogie Nights,” “There Will Be Blood,” “The Master”), a candidate for the title of best living director offers an “introduction” to the film on the Criterion Blu-ray. It’s more than a mere introduction. It’s a mini-class, a semi-commentary over 15 minutes of the film. Anderson helps illuminate what’s so great about “Madame” and Ophuls’ work in general. However, once you watch the film,...
Don’t believe me? P.T. Anderson (“Boogie Nights,” “There Will Be Blood,” “The Master”), a candidate for the title of best living director offers an “introduction” to the film on the Criterion Blu-ray. It’s more than a mere introduction. It’s a mini-class, a semi-commentary over 15 minutes of the film. Anderson helps illuminate what’s so great about “Madame” and Ophuls’ work in general. However, once you watch the film,...
- 8/13/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Blu-ray Release Date: Aug. 6, 2013
Price: Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Danielle Darrieux in The Earrings of Madame de...
The 1953 drama-romance film The Earrings of Madame de…, a profoundly emotional, cinematographically adventurous tale of deceptive opulence and tragic romance, remains the most cherished work from French master Max Ophuls (Lola Montes).
When an aristocratic woman known only as Madame de (Danielle Darrieux) sells a pair of earrings given to her by her husband (Charles Boyer, Gaslight) in order to pay a debt, 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 1951 novel employs the elegant and precise camera work for which the director is so justly renowned, to ravishing effect.
Criterion issued a splendid DVD version of the classic film (which is presented in French with English subtitles) back in 2008, which is still available. A majority...
Price: Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Danielle Darrieux in The Earrings of Madame de...
The 1953 drama-romance film The Earrings of Madame de…, a profoundly emotional, cinematographically adventurous tale of deceptive opulence and tragic romance, remains the most cherished work from French master Max Ophuls (Lola Montes).
When an aristocratic woman known only as Madame de (Danielle Darrieux) sells a pair of earrings given to her by her husband (Charles Boyer, Gaslight) in order to pay a debt, 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 1951 novel employs the elegant and precise camera work for which the director is so justly renowned, to ravishing effect.
Criterion issued a splendid DVD version of the classic film (which is presented in French with English subtitles) back in 2008, which is still available. A majority...
- 6/7/2013
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Release Date: Feb. 16 Director: Max Ophuls Writers: MaxOphuls, Cécil Saint-Laurent, Annette Wademant Cinematographers: Christian Matras Starring: Martine Carol, Peter Ustinov Studio/Run Time: Criterion, 115 mins. Way back in the early 2000s, the films of German-born, Paris-based director Max Ophuls languished out of print. While the French nouvelle vague and its insouciant modernity, guns, dames and jittery jump cuts remained much feted, discussed and repackaged, Ophuls and his fin de siècle Europe, aristocratic mores, women on the verge of nervous breakdowns and loooooong tracking shots fell out of sight. He might’ve remained in darkness were it not for the...
- 2/16/2010
- Pastemagazine.com
La Ronde
Director: Max Ophüls
Writer: Louis Ducreux
Cinematographer: Christian Matras
Starring: Anton Walbrook, Simone Simon, Simone Signoret
Studio/Run time: Films Sacha Gordine, 97 mins.
82/100
Le Plaisir
Director: Max Ophüls
Writer: Jacques Natanson
Cinematographer: Christian Matras
Starring: Danielle Darrieux, Jean Gabin, Simone Simon
Studio/Run time: Ccfc, 97 mins.
80/100
Earrings of Madame de.
Director: Max Ophüls
Writers: Marcel Achard, Max Ophuls, Annette Wademant
Cinematographer: Christian Matras
Starring: Charles Boyer, Danielle Darrieux, Vittorio De Sica
Studio/Run time: Franco London Films, 105 mins.
84/100
In almost any scene of any of the films made by director Max Ophüls, be it in Berlin (before the ascent of the Nazi party), Paris, Hollywood, and then back in Paris, lie the director’s primary concerns: Men and women, lust, love, theatrical artifice and the illusion of desire. Though a favorite of Stanley Kubrick and perhaps the only peer to Orson Welles with regards to innovative camera shots,...
Director: Max Ophüls
Writer: Louis Ducreux
Cinematographer: Christian Matras
Starring: Anton Walbrook, Simone Simon, Simone Signoret
Studio/Run time: Films Sacha Gordine, 97 mins.
82/100
Le Plaisir
Director: Max Ophüls
Writer: Jacques Natanson
Cinematographer: Christian Matras
Starring: Danielle Darrieux, Jean Gabin, Simone Simon
Studio/Run time: Ccfc, 97 mins.
80/100
Earrings of Madame de.
Director: Max Ophüls
Writers: Marcel Achard, Max Ophuls, Annette Wademant
Cinematographer: Christian Matras
Starring: Charles Boyer, Danielle Darrieux, Vittorio De Sica
Studio/Run time: Franco London Films, 105 mins.
84/100
In almost any scene of any of the films made by director Max Ophüls, be it in Berlin (before the ascent of the Nazi party), Paris, Hollywood, and then back in Paris, lie the director’s primary concerns: Men and women, lust, love, theatrical artifice and the illusion of desire. Though a favorite of Stanley Kubrick and perhaps the only peer to Orson Welles with regards to innovative camera shots,...
- 10/10/2008
- Pastemagazine.com
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