La Ronde
by Max Ophuls
List Price:
Our Price: $20.74
You Save: $19.21 (48%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Anton Walbrook, Gérard Philipe, Simone Signoret, Simone SimonDirector: Max Ophuls
Brand: LA
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Original Language)
Format: Anamorphic, Black & White, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, HiFi Sound, NTSC, Subtitled, Surround Sound, THX, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 93 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-09-16
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion Collection
DVD Reviews of La Ronde
DVD Review: La Ronde. Sexy, clever and very fun.
Summary: 5 Stars
LA RONDE (1950) Starring Anton Wallbrook, Simone Signoret, Simone Simon (from Cat People) Fernand Gravey and Danielle Darrieux. Directed by Max Ophuls.
SPOILERS>>>
Well, this was quite the film. I found this movie very complex and hard to analyze because it's so hard to convey poetry and passion, both of which this film has in spades. There is much here to enjoy. Beautiful, poetic, witty dialogue. Breaking down of the fourth wall. Strong female characters that revel in their sexuality and the power it has over the men in their lives. Scenes of passion that build slowly, almost in a suspenseful manner. Lots of thoughts by the characters about the nature of love and casual sex, marriage, infidelity, and even women who, while not using the "contemporary term" indulging in a "friends with benefits" situation with other men. This is definitely a dialogue driven film, but it is beautifully delicious, witty, thoughtful and passionate dialogue.
The film starts with our mysterious puppet master/raconteur played by Anton Wallbrook. His entrance is entrancing. Walking the foggy streets of Vienna, he engages the audience immediately by asking us what part he plays:
"What part do I play in this story? Author? Accomplice? Passer by?" As he soon reveals..."I am you...I am the personification of your desire to know everything"
His clothes are contemporary, but he slowly starts to change his clothes to become more "period friendly". As he starts to blend in to his surroundings in almost a chameleon like fashion (which he does periodically throughout the film) he asks the audience...
"But just where are we? On a stage? A film set? One doesn't know any more."
It's dialogue like this that slowly transports us to an almost magical place that seems both real, and not real. This gives the film a wonderful element of fantasy.
As it turns out, we have been transported to 1900 Vienna. As our Raconteur happily conveys..."Ahh, the past. I adore the past. It's so much more peaceful than the present and so much more certain than the future"
It's dialogue like that that drew me into this film immediately.
Soon, the mysterious puppet master takes us to a rather magical merry go round which is the engine of the film. It travels in a circle, or "La Ronde" as does the films plot. Connecting all the vignettes of stories of love and affairs. As the narrator turns the merry go round, a prostitute mysteriously appears. Wallbrook leads her off of the magical carrousel and tells her that she will meet a soldier which she does. They make love in a dark alley. He must leave her to return to his barracks on time or else he forfeits his weekend leave. This is the beginning of the first segment of the film "The Soldier and The Girl". After their tryst, we go to the next segment in the series of tales...The Chambermaid and The Young Man. In this segment, the soldier meets a girl at a dance. A beautiful woman who makes love to the soldier on a park bench. As he leaves for war, they continue to write. Meanwhile she gets a job as a chambermaid for a rich couple and their very attractive son. This scene is very steamy indeed. The Chambermaid is very adept and seductive; the son is rather shy and stammering. To watch his passion build as she slowly does little chores for him...standing very close, his lust overwhelms him and they soon are in the throws of passion (albeit behind closed shutters)
Each segment features one person from the previous story having an affair with the next person and so on and so on until the story returns to the first character. My favorite segment is the Chambermaids Lover, the young man, becoming entranced by a married woman named Emma (played by Danielle Darrieux.) Darrieux's scenes are enthralling. At the end of each characters "coupling", the Raconteur's marry go round starts turning to lead us to the next story. However, during the sexual encounter between Darrieux and Daniele Gelin, the merry go round (and engine that propels the story) breaks down. The longer the machine is broken, the longer that Darrieux and Gelin make love. This is a very light hearted, comedic, but very sexually frank film for its time. While we don't see any actual sex, we see characters entering bedrooms, and many scenes of blissful, post coital conversations that are very funny and full of wit. Simone Simon is wonderful as the seemingly innocent maid who under the surface is boiling with passion. However, the scenes with Darrieux is the real attraction in this film.
It is unabashedly sexy, scandalous, romantic and just plain fun. Our Raconteur doesn't just tell the story, he manipulates the characters, leading them to their respective trysts, as well as running interference to protect those trysts and to champion the illicit love that permeates the film. While it seems very adult in its subject matter, it is filled with a delightful mood and playfulness. It's almost disney'esque with its light hearted, playful tone and in its very esoteric storytelling.
From the opening credits when we hear the music, it sets a tone of fun. The music by Oscar Straus is also very exceptional in how he captures the mood of playfulness of the characters and actually is able to augment the suspense we feel when we wonder "will they or won't they". The cinematography is top notch by Christian Matras. The film is so fluid and surreal in its transitions from scene to scene. Each segment starts with a level of slight uncomfortability which then melts into a passion that both parties are more than willing...no..desperate to engage in. It's a beautiful film visually, full of the cream of the crop of beautiful French actresses who are extremely talented and fascinating to watch. I couldn't take my eyes off of this film and enjoyed it just as much on second viewing. This film is about a wonderful love of life, passion and sex. With wonderfully fleshed out women who aren't clichés or "sleazy" but simply looking to escape the mundane and to seek, voraciously, all that love, life and passion has to offer them. It's lusty, bawdy, sexy, witty and just plain fun. Everyone in the film turns in a great performance.
Some of the segments move faster than others to be sure. There is some pacing problems in some parts, but for the most part, all the pieces of this film connect well and make for a very enjoyable experience. Very slickly produced and very enjoyable. I've never seen anything like it. However...I can see how the people who enforced the code at the time made it difficult for the film to get any sort of wide release in the US. If ever a film deserved the Criterion treatment, this film is it. It has a beautiful print and lots of great commentary and analysis.
Description of La Ronde
Simone Signoret, Anton Walbrook, and Simone Simon lead a roundelay of French stars in Max Ophuls's delightful, acerbic adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's controversial turn-of-thecentury play La ronde. Soldiers, chambermaids, poets, and aristocrats, all are on equal footing in this multicharacter merry-go-round of love and infidelity, directed with a sweeping gaiety as knowingly frivolous as it is enchanting and shot with Ophuls's trademark intricate cinematography. SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES: New, restored high-definition digital transfer, Audio commentary featuring film scholar Susan White, author of The Cinema of Max Ophuls, Interview with Max Ophuls's son, the Academy Award winning filmmaker Marcel OphulsInterview with actor Daniel Gelin (Napoleon, Testament of Orpheus)
Interview with film scholar Alan Williams, Selected correspondence between Sir Laurence Olivier and Heinrich Schnitzler (the playwright's son), illustrating the controversy surrounding the source play
New and improved English subtitle translation. PLUS: A new essay by film critic Terrence Raffert
The exquisite circularity of the roundelay has always been an attractive cinematic device, but never has it been used with more delicacy and canny insight than in La Ronde, Max Ophüls's adaptation of the Arthur Schnitzler play Reigen. The camera glides, swirls, and delicately dances around fleeting moments between lovers, from chance meetings and secret trysts, to the sincere but hopeless courtship by a besotted admirer, to the relaxed banter of cuckolding married couples. Ophüls's wry glimpses behind closed doors and pulled curtains are both cynical and sweet, generous of character but suspect of motive. As one scene ends, we waltz along as the characters change partners and dance again and again; we follow streetwalkers and soldiers, courtesans and counts, until we come full circle. Returning to the superb metaphor of the carousel, where dapper Anton Walbrook wanders about as host and commentator (a sort of literary ringmaster, like Peter Ustinov in Lola Montes), Ophüls plays at the game of love with a cocked grim and a sly jab, though he never belittles or judges. What could easily have descended into farce is lifted into loving satire by Ophüls's elegant touch and sparkling wit. A huge success in Europe, its continental attitude wasn't embraced by American audiences at the time. But it has come to be regarded one of Ophüls's finest and most beautifully visualized films. Everyone is somebody's fool, and isn't it wonderful? --Sean Axmaker
Bestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948) (Import All Region)PD Entertainment; Published: 2007; DVD
Best price: $24.95
Diabolique (The Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 1999-01-26; DVD
Best price: $23.00
Price in other shops:
Design for Living (Criterion Collection)IMG; Release date: 2011-12-06; DVD
Best price: $18.99
Price in other shops:
The Phantom Carriage (Criterion Collection)IMG; Release date: 2011-09-27; DVD
Best price: $17.10
Price in other shops:
Port of Shadows (The Criterion Collection)GABIN,JEAN; Release date: 2004-07-20; DVD
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
Kiss Me DeadlySony; Release date: 2001-06-19; DVD
Best price: $5.48
Price in other shops:
The Complete Jean Vigo (À propos de Nice / Taris / Zéro de conduite / L'Atalante) (The Criterion Collection)IMG; Release date: 2011-08-30; DVD
Best price: $18.55
Price in other shops:
Lola Montes (The Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2010-02-16; DVD
Best price: $27.22
Price in other shops:
Le PlaisirImage Entertainment; Release date: 2008-09-16; DVD
Best price: $20.73
Price in other shops:
Earrings of Madame de...Image Entertainment; Release date: 2008-09-16; DVD
Best price: $22.00
Price in other shops: