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, Vudu, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, AMC on Demand
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, Amazon Video, Tubi TV, Kanopy, Plex, Plex Player
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 Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, AMC on Demand, Tubi TV, Freevee
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, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube
La Chienne
A chance meeting between two people will lead to deceit, betrayal, and eventually, tragedy.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1931
- Director Jean Renoir
- Cast Michel Simon, Janie Marèse, Georges Flamant, Magdeleine Bérubet, Roger Gaillard, Jean Gehret
- Genre Drama, Crime
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube
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
Mirror Image
(命帶追逐)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Taiwan, France • 2001
- Director Hsiao Ya-chuan
- Cast Lee Jiunn-Jye, Fan Hsiao-Fan, Era Wang
- Genre Drama
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Video, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Cruel Story of Youth
(青春残酷物語)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1960
- Director Nagisa Ōshima
- Cast Yūsuke Kawazu, Miyuki Kuwano, Yoshiko Kuga, Fumio Watanabe, Shinji Tanaka, Yosuke Hayashi
- Genre Drama, Romance, Crime
- 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, Apple TV, Vudu, Amazon Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
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 No streaming locations found.
Joker
A failed stand-up comedian is driven insane, turning to a life of crime in chaos in Gotham City.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Canada, United States • 2019
- Director Todd Phillips
- Cast Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Shea Whigham
- Genre Crime, Thriller, Drama
- Available on Netflix, Netflix basic with Ads, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, AMC on Demand
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 Hoopla, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV, Kanopy, Plex, Plex Player