Max Ophuls
The Restored Edition
Second Sight
R2 DVD
French
Language with clear subtitles
Lola
Montes as an extravagant and masterful film made by Max Ophuls in 1955. Based
on the real life of Lola Montez, courtesan, femme fatale and liberated woman,
it achieved infamy when released in 1955 and was a box office failure. The
public were not ready for the unique spectacle Ophuls had prepared for them. Ophuls
died two years later engaged in an ongoing battle with the film's producers to
regain control of his masterpiece. After his death a savagely butchered version
was in circulation for many years - cut, edited and censored, it was never
fully appreciated.
It
is amazing how long it can take for a director’s ideal to be realized. Through
the efforts of Andrew Sarris of the Village Voice a partially restored version of
the film was shown at the New York Film Festival in 1963. However, only in 2009
has the director’s original vision been brought to the scene and what a vision
it is ! The restoration work took over 2 years and was presented at the 2008
Cannes Film Festival where it was rapturously received. Tthis is a work of
breathtaking beauty.
The
film centres on the life of Lola Montes, "The Most Scandalous Woman in the
World." She was the mistress of Franz Liszt and King Ludwig of Bavaria, of
students and artists, of soldiers and ringmasters. She learnt young the power
of her sex and used it for her benefit and ultimately to her loss. She was
loved by many but never trusted love. Whenever she travelled in a carriage with
a lover, she paid to have her own carriage follow them so she always had a
means of escape. Her life was “larger than life” and hence Opuls presents it
via the most larger than life medium that can be imaged, the circus.
Peter
Ustinov, the ringmaster, narrates her past as Lola revolves on a platform. She
is the centre of the circus, the nexus of a true spectacle. In many ways she is
like a caged and dangerous animal; intriguing and beautiful, a prisoner never
the less, Ustinov regularly cracks his whip to co-ordinate the show as though
to emphasize the “anima” connotations of her appearance.
The
circus is garish, colourful and gaudy, filled with clowns, dwarfs and the
excesses of the “sideshow”, which mirror the excesses of her life. It provides
a handle for her story to be told. At first it is presented by astounding sets,
dances, show pieces and narrated tales, but these fade into a sequence of
flashbacks which tell the pertinent tales of her childhood, lovers and later
life. It is quite a daring work of cinema and visually arresting. The sets of
the circus are absolutely astounding – beautiful, seductive and yet at the same
time with an element of melancholy. It is also quite shocking, even with the age
of the film, it presents a potent image of a woman who has used the only means
at her disposal to achieve a degree of independence and yet been destroyed by
it.
One
cannot think of a more powerful image of objectification, this is a woman on display;
she has become an “object” of the sideshow. At the climax of the show,
customers can even pay a dollar to kiss her hand or touch her side.
The
acting is superb, Ustinov as a slimy nickel-and-dime ringmaster is marvelous and
Martine Carol as Lola is superb as the fading, yet dignified beauty. The cinematography
is extremely inventive and even though this was a film made in 1955 it is still
visually innovative, visually arresting and filled with nuance and pathos.
After so many years it is now restored to its full length of 110 minutes.
Extras
include Working with Max Ophus, a new seventy minute documentary and a
commentary by Susan White (author of The Cinema of Max Ophuls).
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This
review will appear in Volume 2 No.4
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
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