The Earrings of Madame de…
By Cyril Pearl -- Video Business, 9/1/2008
CRITERION/IMAGEStreet: Sept. 16
Prebook: now
> Max Ophuls’ classic of love, lies and despair.
Max Ophuls’ 1953 masterwork follows an aristocratic French woman (Danielle Darrieux) who pawns a pair of earrings, triggering the chain-reaction downfall of her life. A gorgeously photographed and stylized movie, filled with silky-smooth tracking shots, Madame de… has never looked finer than it does in this Criterion edition, which also features a collection of well-selected supplements.
Shelf Talk: Madame de… is the centerpiece in a trio of Criterion releases celebrating Ophuls, which also includes La Ronde (1950) and Le Plaisir (1952). There are plenty of Ophuls lovers as well as film students and Francophiles who will be interested.
Foreign-language drama, B&W, NR (mature themes), 105 min., French with English subtitles, DVD $39.98Extras: commentary, interviews, visual analysis, more
Director: Max Ophuls
First Run: W Int’l., 1953, NA
