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
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
France · 1950
1h 35m
Director Max Ophüls
Starring Adolf Wohlbrück, Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani, Simone Simon
Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
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.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
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.
Users who liked this film also liked
Alien
In space no one can hear you scream.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, United States • 1979
- Director Ridley Scott
- Cast Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm
- Genre Horror, Science Fiction
- Available on Hulu, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube
Rashomon
(羅生門)
A singular crime from four different perspectives.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1950
- Director Akira Kurosawa
- Cast Toshirō Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Takashi Shimura, Masayuki Mori, Minoru Chiaki, Kichijirô Ueda
- Genre Crime, Drama, Mystery
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Tubi TV, Kanopy, Plex, Plex Channel
Wild Strawberries
(Smultronstället)
A retired doctor reflects on his life during a long road trip to receive an honorary degree.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Sweden • 1957
- Director Ingmar Bergman
- Cast Victor Sjöström, Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Björnstrand, Jullan Kindahl, Gunnar Sjöberg
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Amazon Video, Kanopy
Videodrome
First it controls your mind. Then it destroys your body.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Canada • 1983
- Director David Cronenberg
- Cast James Woods, Sonja Smits, Debbie Harry, Peter Dvorsky, Jack Creley
- Genre Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube
Diva
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1981
- Director Jean-Jacques Beineix
- Cast Frédéric Andréi, Richard Bohringer, Roland Bertin, Wilhelmenia Fernandez, Thuy An Luu, Chantal Deruaz
- Genre Action, Drama, Thriller
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
Ghost in the Shell
(GHOST IN THE SHELL/攻殻機動隊
)
A group of cybernetically enhanced cops are called into a stop a biohacking threat.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan, United Kingdom • 1995
- Director Mamoru Oshii
- Cast Atsuko Tanaka, Akio Otsuka, Iemasa Kayumi, Kouichi Yamadera, Yutaka Nakano, Tesshou Genda
- Genre Action, Animation, Science Fiction
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Tubi TV, Pluto TV, Hoopla, Plex, Plex Channel
Happy Together
(春光乍洩)
A couple take a trip to Argentina in search of a new beginning, but instead find themselves drifting ever further apart.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Hong Kong, Japan, Korea • 1997
- Director Wong Kar-wai
- Cast Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Leslie Cheung, Chang Chen, Gregory Dayton, Yee-Gan Chan
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Rakuten Viki, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
Lola Montès
She lived too intensely and far too well!
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, West Germany • 1955
- Director Max Ophüls
- Cast Martine Carol, Peter Ustinov, Adolf Wohlbrück, Henri Guisol, Lise Delamare, Paulette Dubost
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max
Le Plaisir
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1952
- Director Max Ophüls
- Cast Claude Dauphin, Gaby Morlay, Madeleine Renaud, Ginette Leclerc, Mila Parély, Danielle Darrieux
- Genre Drama, Comedy, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel
HOUBA! On the Trail of the Marsupilami
(Sur la piste du Marsupilami)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium, Mexico • 2012
- Director Alain Chabat
- Cast Alain Chabat, Jamel Debbouze, Fred Testot, Lambert Wilson, Patrick Timsit, Géraldine Nakache
- Genre Family, Adventure, Comedy
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video
Dunkirk
Hope is a weapon, survival is a victory.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, Netherlands, France • 2017
- Director Christopher Nolan
- Cast Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Aneurin Barnard, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles, James D'Arcy
- Genre War, Action, Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, Plex
Perfect Strangers
(Perfetti sconosciuti)
Everyone has three lives: a public life, a private life and a secret life
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy • 2016
- Director Paolo Genovese
- Cast Giuseppe Battiston, Anna Foglietta, Marco Giallini, Edoardo Leo, Valerio Mastandrea, Alba Rohrwacher
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on VIX
The Apparition
(L'Apparition)
A truly canonical investigation
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium, Jordan • 2018
- Director Xavier Giannoli
- Cast Vincent Lindon, Galatéa Bellugi, Patrick d'Assumçao, Anatole Taubman, Elina Löwensohn, Claude Lévêque
- Genre Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV, VUDU Free, Kanopy, Hoopla, Plex, Plex Channel
1917
Two British soldiers race to deliver a message that will stop over 1,000 men from walking into a German ambush.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, United States • 2019
- Director Sam Mendes
- Cast George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Richard Madden, Claire Duburcq
- Genre War, Drama, Action
- Available on Netflix, Netflix basic with Ads, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand