Lola Montes [Widescreen]

Max Ophuls last film (and first in colour), recounts the true life adventures of Lola Montes (Martine Carol), a famous courtesan whose notorious affairs with composer Franz Litz (Will Quadflieg) and Ludwig the First, King of Bavaria (Anton Walbrook), made her the talking point of European society. Told mainly in flashback, the film begins with Lola as the main attraction in a circus where the audience pay to ask her questions about her nefarious past. Ophuls trademark roving camera and opulent set design are serviced well by the cinemascope frame, while the bold use of colour imbues the film with a vibrant dreamlike quality. However it’s the fallen Lola, her life reduced to a grand sideshow spectacle that carries the most resonance, a potent metaphor for a filmmaker whose main body of work was one grand tribute after another to passionate women ruined by love. Adapted from the novel “La vie Extraordinaire de la Lola Montes” by Cecil Saint-Laurent. Also known as ‘The Sins of Lola Montes’ or ‘The Fall of Lola Montes’. Cast also includes Peter Ustinov, Oskar Werner, Henri Guisol, Lise Delamare. In French with English subtitles. See also “Letter from an unknown woman”(1948), “La Ronde”(1950).