Directed by:
Max OphülsCinematography:
Christian MatrasCast:
Charles Boyer, Danielle Darrieux, Vittorio De Sica, Jean Debucourt, Jean Galland, Paul Azaïs, Mireille Perrey, Madeleine Barbulée, Colette Régis (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
When, beset by debt, the titular Countess Louise (Danielle Darrieux) decides to sell a pair of earrings that were a wedding gift from her husband André (Charles Boyer), she unwittingly sets in motion a chain of events that will have serious consequences not only for the Parisian couple but for André's mistress and for an Italian Baron (Vittorio De Sica), who purchased the, by then, much-travelled jewellery. Featuring nuanced performances by all three lead actors and directed by celebrated auteur Max Ophuls, this intricately constructed and elegantly designed drama is a searing study of fateful passion wound up in deceits, deals and desires. (British Film Institute (BFI))
(more)Reviews (2)
Grand, overwhelming, bombastic in its melodramatic nature beyond the rather high emotional ceiling of the genre. The dubious fatefulness is not hidden behind the characters’ actions, but rises to the surface, and its involvement in the game is conspicuously pointed out to us several times (the bet on thirteen, the interpretation of the cards). The men here are active and observant; the women are passive, observed, constantly swooning, dealing with emotions and taking care of their outward appearance. They so conscientiously take care of their appearance that it seems natural when Louise treats her diamond earrings more tenderly than she treats the men who come into her life and who are consequently just unreliable, less glittering derivatives of those earrings. Music plays almost continuously, stirring emotions and inspiring the characters to dance. The dancers (of whom the grand prize for endurance goes to Christian Matras behind the camera) exhibit the same tirelessness, to the point that in one scene there is nothing left for an annoyed musician to do but to demonstratively pack up his things and leave. He is overwhelmed by the melodramatic determination of the film, which is only just getting into the final third, which is perhaps less active in terms of movement, but is unabashedly self-reflexive in its sense of irony. Ophüls’s peak work and the most action-oriented of the films in which the only real “surface” action takes place off-screen. 85%
()
It's a powerful film that tells the story of how one social class functions. Actually, it's more about how it doesn't function. Some scenes are excellent, they are beautifully shot, but it just didn't manage to compel me to fully engage and pay attention to every shot. It's not a bad movie, it's just that the subject matter didn't quite grab me.
()