Lola Mont?s (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray], starring Martine Carol, Lise Delamare, Germaine Delbat, Ivan Desny, Friedrich Domin: DVDNear.com

Lola Mont?s (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

List Price: ~~$39.95~~
Our Price: $24.49
You Save: $15.46 (39%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $18.99 (click here)
Category: Blu-ray
See more DVD releases

Compare Prices for Lola Mont?s (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada

DVD Cover Information

Actor: Friedrich Domin, Germaine Delbat, Ivan Desny, Lise Delamare, Martine Carol
Brand: Image Entertainment
Cinematographer: Christian Matras
Blu-ray: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Original Language)
Format: Color, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.55:1
Running Time: 116 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: 2010-02-16
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion

Movie Reviews of Lola Mont?s (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Movie Review: Glorious BluRay - Ravishing
Summary: 5 Stars

This Criterion BluRay is simply ravishing in every detail: image and sound perfectly restored allowing us to experience this film as no other edition ever has. Utterly gorgeous. "Lola Montes" is one of my favorite films - although using the word "favorite" seems a bit reductive for such a beautiful work of art. It is a grand and kaleidoscopic refraction of a life. A note about running times - one of the Amazon reviews again cites the legend of a "director's cut" that had a 140 minute running time. This is just a myth, not supported by any contemporary accounts of the film - apparently just a factual error made once by some critic or author - and now repeated and fostered in error (even Pauline Kael in her writings repeated it!). NYC's Film Forum tried to lay this myth to rest when they screened the restored version - but apparently to no avail as it keeps popping up. As noted on the Turner Classic movie site: "With the director's version unavailable for years a rumor quickly spread that the original was 140 minutes long (it was actually 113 minutes in France and 116 minutes in Germany)". Rest assured that the Criterion Edition is indeed the fully restored version representing the director's intentions.

Write your own review

More Lola Mont?s (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] reviews:
1

Summary of Lola Mont?s (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Lola Montès is a visually ravishing, narratively daring dramatization of the life of the notorious courtesan and showgirl, played by Martine Carol. With his customary cinematographic flourish and, for the first time, vibrant color, Max Ophuls charts Montès?s scandalous past through the bombastic ringmaster (Peter Ustinov) of the American circus where she ends up performing. Ophuls?s final film, Lola Montès is at once a magnificent romantic melodrama, a meditation on the lurid fascination with celebrity, and a meticulous, one-of-a-kind movie spectacle.

Stills from Lola Montes

Max Ophüls explores the scandalous life of dancer and courtesan Lola Montes with a bittersweet empathy that turns melodrama into a tragic melancholy masterpiece. Using the theatrical re-creation of Lola's life in a big-top pageant as a framing device, Ophüls contrasts the outrageous sensationalism of her reputation with poignant, poetic flashbacks that explore her many affairs, most notably with Franz Liszt (Will Quadflieg) and King Ludwig of Bavaria (Anton Walbrook). Lola's greatest tragedy is that she loved well, if not too wisely. If Martine Carol's central performance is lacking passion, as many critics have argued, her quiet, at times seemingly passive demeanor makes her a veritable prisoner of her society and her reputation. Swept along by Ophüls's sweeping camerawork, which glides through the film in a balance of intimacy and contemplative remove as if on the wings of angels, her life becomes like a cinematic ballet with Ophüls the choreographer and conductor. Peter Ustinov costars as the jaded circus ringmaster, who nightly narrates her exploits to a throng of scandal-hungry spectators, while she performs with a face hardened in indifference, resigned to her empty role as a figure of spectacle in a garish gilded cage. Shot in delicate color and impeccably composed widescreen compositions throughout by Ophüls's regular cinematographer Christian Matras, Lola Montes is his most beautiful and restrained film, a fitting swan song for one of the cinema's most sensitive directors. --Sean Axmaker

Max Ophüls explores the scandalous life of dancer and courtesan Lola Montes with a bittersweet empathy that turns melodrama into a tragic melancholy masterpiece. Using the theatrical re-creation of Lola's life in a big-top pageant as a framing device, Ophüls contrasts the outrageous sensationalism of her reputation with poignant, poetic flashbacks that explore her many affairs, most notably with Franz Liszt (Will Quadflieg) and King Ludwig of Bavaria (Anton Walbrook). Lola's greatest tragedy is that she loved well, if not too wisely. If Martine Carol's central performance is lacking passion, as many critics have argued, her quiet, at times seemingly passive demeanor makes her a veritable prisoner of her society and her reputation. Swept along by Ophüls's sweeping camerawork, which glides through the film in a balance of intimacy and contemplative remove as if on the wings of angels, her life becomes like a cinematic ballet with Ophüls the choreographer and conductor. Peter Ustinov costars as the jaded circus ringmaster, who nightly narrates her exploits to a throng of scandal-hungry spectators, while she performs with a face hardened in indifference, resigned to her empty role as a figure of spectacle in a garish gilded cage. Shot in delicate color and impeccably composed wide screen compositions throughout by Ophüls's regular cinematographer Christian Matras, Lola Montes is his most beautiful and restrained film, a fitting swan song for one of the cinema's most sensitive directors. --Sean Axmaker

Similar DVD Movies

Kiss Me Deadly (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
IMG; Release date: 2011-06-21; Blu-ray
Best price: $20.74
Price in other shops: ~~$39.95~~

Le Plaisir
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2008-09-16; DVD
Best price: $20.73
Price in other shops: ~~$39.95~~

Earrings of Madame de...
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2008-09-16; DVD
Best price: $22.00
Price in other shops: ~~$39.95~~

The Music Room (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
IMG; Release date: 2011-07-19; Blu-ray
Best price: $20.95
Price in other shops: ~~$39.95~~

Orpheus (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
Criterion; Release date: 2011-08-30; Blu-ray
Best price: $23.96
Price in other shops: ~~$39.95~~

Design for Living (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
IMG; Release date: 2011-12-06; Blu-ray
Best price: $25.99
Price in other shops: ~~$39.95~~

The Rules of the Game (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2011-11-15; Blu-ray
Best price: $26.95
Price in other shops: ~~$39.95~~

Belle de Jour (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2012-01-17; Blu-ray
Best price: $28.66
Price in other shops: ~~$39.95~~

The Complete Jean Vigo (A propos de Nice / Taris / Zero de conduite / L'atalante) (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
IMG; Release date: 2011-08-30; Blu-ray
Best price: $19.99
Price in other shops: ~~$39.95~~

La Ronde
LA; Release date: 2008-09-16; DVD
Best price: $20.74
Price in other shops: ~~$39.95~~

Lola Mont?s (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]