Earrings of Madame de...
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Movie Reviews of Earrings of Madame de...
Movie Review: A movie for hopeless romantics
Summary: 5 Stars
This amazing, slippery and sophisticated movie is a meditation on three different and incompatible forms of love -- the light, amusing love of a French general for his beautiful, younger wife (the titular Madame de ...), the playful, slightly sinful love of the Italian diplomat Donati for Madame de ..., and her love of Donati that in time turns to a hopeless reflection on the loss of love due to her flippancy in telling a series of white lies about her earrings.
When Madame de ... tells Donati at first that he must not hope for anything from her, she is playing the game of love, as we see in much of the first part of the film. She has many suitors, as her husband notes, saying he grows tired of them. But they are not important either to her or him. Then Donati starts to have hopes of Madame de ... and, most consequentially, she begins to have hopes that he will be her great love that will take her out of herself. But her earlier habits of playing the game of love make her lose him, and she withdraws into her own world of memories and ruminations, one that is quite literally hopeless.
Hope can also be seen as a boundary keeping the characters within the limits of their social world. When Madame de ... gives up hope and becomes a hopeless romantic, she exceeds those limits and ends up losing a great deal. In the movie, love itself is a retrospective, not a prospective, emotion. Even the general, who is wonderfully played by Charles Boyer, seems to love his wife more once he's lost her to her world of memories. It's a dark view of humanity, but a beautiful movie, beautifully arrayed, staged and acted. Give yourself a treat and watch it.
Movie Review: Max Ophüls' most popular film
Summary: 5 Stars
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film
The Earrings of Madame de... released in France as Madame de..., is the story of a woman whose full name we are never told and all that is revealed is that her surname has the prefix "de" and that her first name is Louise. The film is based on a novel by Louise Leveque de Vilmorin.
The film is about a socialite sells her earrings given to her by her husband to pay off some of her debts. Her husband then buys back the earrings and gives them to his mistress. An Italiam buys them and Louise gets them from him and she has an affair with him.
This film is quite interesting and has some great moments.
The DVD has some great special features too. Paul Thomas Anderson gives an introduction to the film, and there is optional audio commentary by film scholars Susan White and Gaylyn Studlar. There are also interviews with colleagues of Ophüls, Alain Jessua, Marc Frédérix, and Annette Wademant, an interview with Louise de Vilmorin, and a narrated visual essay about the film by Tag Gallagher. Also included is a 75 page booklet with lots of other extras.
This is a DVD that Ophüls fans must buy.
Movie Review: Earrings of Madame de... DVD
Summary: 5 Stars
This 1953 B&W French film (with subtitles, if needed) by the fantastic Max Ophüls is stunning! Charles Boyer is the husband, the Général, and his wife is the beautiful Danielle Darrieux; her eyes alone are mesmerizing. The cinematography is sensational, the pictures crisp and well framed. You almost feel as though you are part of the film. The story, set in Paris of the late 19th century, is of a romantic triangle between the Général, his wife, and her handsome lover -- and the earrings that pass amongst them. It's entertaining on so many levels -- there's romance, and comedy, and tragedy, and the musical score -- so brilliant -- this film is a winner!Movie Review: Don't Waste Time Reading This Review -- Watch the Movie!
Summary: 5 Stars
One of cinema's greatest masters, Max Ophuls. A brilliant screenplay, equal parts romance, humor, cynicism and tragedy. Career performances from Darrieux, de Sica and Boyer. A film that's been a staple of all-time greatest movie lists since its initial release. The usual deluxe Criterion transfer and goodie-stuffed package (thanks, Criterion, for including the novella this movie's based on -- been trying to track it down for years!) For my money, the happiest DVD of the year. Essential.Movie Review: ?
Summary: 5 Stars
The Earrings of Madame de... is virtually a miracle of cinematic balance. The film gracefully moves along its comedic gestures towards a critique of aristocratic life. But like the best of Renoir-Ophuls refuses to reduce his work to a dry analysis of classes. Madame escalates into a divinely written tragedy with moments of transcendentally inspired dialogue. This is an indispensable gem of the cinema, though it will undoubtedly remain overly saturated with sentiment for today's audiences.