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France · 1950
1h 35m
Director Max Ophüls
Starring Adolf Wohlbrück, Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani, Simone Simon
Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance
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An all-knowing interlocutor guides us through a series of affairs in Vienna, 1900. A soldier meets an eager young lady of the evening. Later he has an affair with a charming maid who is carrying on with the young man of the house. The young man seduces a married woman. On and on, spinning on the gay carousel of life.
Ophuls has used a dearth of closeups, brilliant decor playing a vital part. Film gains an opulence in the expert lensing of Christian Matras. There is much filming through carved glass, linen, silks and mirrors to create the aura of romance.
La Ronde is two soulless hours of sexual musical chairs and popping bodices. It’s a personal film in the sense that Vadim’s presence is felt within every frame, but this charisma doesn’t register visually or theoretically but lecherously, usually through the single-minded sexual ambitions of the story’s attractive men.
Ophuls’ technique is often on the nose, but it’s still exhilarating.
The intricate work of a craftsman, and a beautiful appearance by the beguiling Simone Sigornet.
The characters are sketchy by design, but the set design is wondrously opulent, and Ophüls cleverly picks up on Schnitzler's central theme, about how sexual desire erases class distinctions.
The New York Times by Walter Goodman
The performers are as seductive as the script. It's quite an affaire.
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