Lola Montes (1955)

Ladies and gentlemen, we bring you Lola Montes, the most scandalous woman in the world! This is the phrase that night after night opens Lola’s bawdy circus act. Taking over the role of the narrator, Lola recounts events of her infamous life, disguised as titillating stories. The realistic flashbacks of real-life events provide a counterweight to the salacious nature of Lola’s narrations and serve to identify the viewer with the circus audience. Lola Montes is Ophüls’s last film, for which he was given a budget of 2 million dollars ? the highest budget given to a European production up until that time. Despite working in the unfamiliar territory of color and Cinemascope, Ophüls delivers yet another masterpiece stretching narration to its limits and blurring the divide between viewer and spectacle.

Director: Max Ophüls
Screenwriter: Annette Wademant, Max Ophüls
Novel: Cécil Saint-Laurent
Cinematography: Christian Matras
Editor: Madeleine Gug
Principal Cast: Martine Carol, Peter Ustinov, Anton Walbrook

France / West Germany, Color
French, 106’
Format: 35mm