Lola Montes [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Lola Montes [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Max Ophuls Cast: Martine Carol
Martine Carol
, Anton Walbrook
Anton Walbrook
, Peter Ustinov
Peter Ustinov
, Ivan Desny
Ivan Desny
Max Ophuls
Lola Montes [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Lola Montes [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Max Ophuls Cast: Martine Carol
Martine Carol
, Anton Walbrook
Anton Walbrook
, Peter Ustinov
Peter Ustinov
, Ivan Desny
Ivan Desny
Max Ophuls

Blu-ray (Wide Screen)

$39.99 
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Overview

Max Ophuls' final film (and his only movie in color) is a cinematic tour-de-force masquerading as a biography, in this case a dazzling fictionalized life of the notorious 19th century dancer, actress, and courtesan. A still beautiful, but weary and disillusioned (and, as we later discover, ailing) Lola Montes (Martine Carol) is first seen as the featured attraction at a seedy American circus, appearing at the center of a series of various tableaux depicting the scandalous events for which she is known. With a strangely sincere yet sinister and manipulative ringmaster (Peter Ustinov) providing color commentary, some of it very ironic on two or more levels, the movie flows between these staged recreations in the circus and the events as recalled by the subject. In a series of dissolves, the film takes us through her girlhood with her mother, interrupted when her mother's lover (Ivan Desni) becomes attached to the daughter; her unhappy marriage and its aftermath; romances with composer Franz Liszt (Will Quadflieg), abduction by a Russian general (in the arms of Cossacks, no less); her affairs across the landscape of Europe with men great and notable; her thwarted aspirations as a dancer; and her romance with King Ludwig I (Anton Walbrook) of Bavaria, which led to her being made Countess of Landsfeld, and, later, to his abdication. The gracefulness of Ophuls' cyclical narrative, and the transitions between the recalled elegance of the locales, and the people with whom her romances and affairs took place, and the seediness of the circus -- where she is also compelled, in the course of performing, to perform as an aerialist -- were lost on viewers in 1955. And for many years the movie only existed in a version re-cut without the director's approval, in which the story was presented in linear fashion. It was only in the 1960's, long after Ophuls' death, that efforts were made to restore the original structure, and in 2008 the movie's original Technicolor luster was restored to its full depth and richness.

Product Details

Release Date: 02/16/2010
UPC: 0715515052719
Original Release: 1955
Source: Criterion Collection
Region Code: A
Presentation: [Wide Screen]
Sound: [Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language: English
Time: 1:54:00
Sales rank: 12,444

Special Features

Audio commentary featuring Max Ophuls scholar Susan White; "Max Ophuls ou le Plaisir de Tourner," a 1965 episode of the French television program Cinéastes de notre temps, featuring interviews with many of Ophuls's collaborators; Max by Marcel, a new documentary by Marcel Ophuls about his father and the making of Lola Montès; Silent footage of actress Martine Carol briefly demonstrating the various glamorous hairstyles in Lola Montès; Theatrical release trailer from Rialto Pictures

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits
Martine Carol Lola Montès
Anton Walbrook Ludwig I, King of Bavaria
Peter Ustinov Circus Master
Ivan Desny Lt. James
Will Quadflieg Franz Liszt
Oskar Werner Student
Lise Delamare Mrs. Craigie
Henri Guisol Maurice
Paulette Dubost Josephine
Héléna Manson James' Sister
Willy Eichberger Doctor
Jacques Fayet Steward
Daniel Mendaille Captain
Jean Galland Baron's Secretary
Claude Pinoteau Conductor Claudio Pirotto
Beatrice Arnac Circus Rider
Werner Finck Wisboeck
Germaine Delbat Stewardess
Walter Kiaulehn Theater Patron
Willy Rosner Minister
Friedrich Domin Circus Manager
Gustav Waldau Rhino Trainer
Helene Iawkoff Actor
Betty Philipsen Actor
Marcel Ophüls Actor
Willy Roesner Minister
Georges Auric Composer

Technical Credits
Max Ophuls Director,Screenwriter
Annette Wademant Screenwriter
Jacques Natanson Screenwriter
Albert Caraco Producer
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