Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
Drama | Romance
A pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember, who may hold the key to his downfall.
Starring: Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan, Mady Christians, Erskine Sanford, Marcel Journet, Art Smith
Director: Max Ophüls
Madame de… / The Earrings of Madame de… (1953)
Drama | Romance
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 (the extraordinary Danielle Darrieux) sells a pair of earrings given to her by her husband (Charles Boyer) 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 fin de siècle novel employs the elegant and precise camera work for which the director is so justly renowned, to ravishing effect.
Starring: Charles Boyer, Danielle Darrieux, Vittorio De Sica, Jean Debucourt
Director: Max Ophüls
Lola Montès / The Sins of Lola Montes (1955)
Biography | Drama | Romance
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 Ophüls charts the course of Montès's scandalous past through the invocations of the bombastic ringmaster (Peter Ustinov) of the American circus where she has ended up performing. Ophüls's final film, Lola Montès is at once a magnificent romantic melodrama, a meditation on the lurid fascination with celebrity, and a one-of-a-kind movie spectacle.
Starring: Martine Carol, Peter Ustinov, Anton Walbrook, Oskar Werner, Ivan Desny
Director: Max Ophüls
