Product Description

Martine Carol stars as notorious 19th century Mexican circus performer Lola Montes, who in her heyday counted among her lovers the crowned heads of France, Italy, Poland, and Russia. The film dwells upon Lolas' extended affairs with King Ludwig of Bavaria (Anton Walbrook) and composer Franz Liszt (Will Quadflieg). We learn of these various amours in flashback form, for the film is framed by a prologue and epilogue in a tawdry New Orleans circus, where an old and faded Lola is exploited by a slimy nickel-and-dime ringmaster.

Special Features

Lola Montes Revisted - A documentary on the making of the film
Commentary by Susan White, author of 'The Cinema Of Max Ophuls'

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20981 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-07-06
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Formats: Dolby, PAL
• Original language: French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 110 minutes

Synopsis
LOLA MONTES, the last film by Max Ophuls, is one of the most celebrated examples of both wide screen CinemaScope and lush Technicolor in film history. Added to this is Ophuls' usual use of sweeping crane shots and angled tracking shots, making this a beautiful, creative film. It is the story of Lola Montes (Martine Carol), the 19th Century dancer who was famous for her scandalous affairs with everyone from Franz List (Will Quadflieg) to Ludwig, the King of Bavaria (Anton Walbrook). At the end of her career she was the main attraction at a circus in the United States which featured a lavish tableaux of scenes from her life. The ringmaster, played by Peter Ustinov, leads the circus audience through her life, and also cues the cinematic flashbacks. Ophuls had used a similar structure in his adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's play REIGEN in his film LA RONDE. Here, although not in chronological order, the flashbacks span Lola's life, covering everything from her early unhappy marriage to a drunken military officer, who she leaves to embark on a career as a dancer, to a very short affair with a German student played by a young Oskar Werner. Ophuls, with his always-moving camera, gives the story a wonderful sense of historical drama.

Review
Lola is back and more beautiful than ever. --The Guardian

Review
A sumptuous restoration --The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Genius in colour
This is the last film made by Ophuls - a true genius of the cinema whose work becomes better and more moving with each decade that passes. It was a troubled film, castigated and butchered on release - at least 40 mins were cut. It isnt perfect, but it is a dream of a how perfect a film might be. For this reason, it is a film best watched after the inestimable Le Plaisir, the fabulous La Ronde, the spellbinding Madame de, the exceptional Caught and, perhaps the best intro to Ophuls, Letter from an Unknown Woman. See these films because, unlike Lola, they are wholly achieved pieces of cinema, and then see how Lola is an attempt to transcend them. This doesn't mean that Lola Montes needs a primer to be enjoyed, rather that its beauty is the greater for knowing the path that led to its making. It's a movie aching with intent to summarise the maker's philosophy. It is epic in scale. It is in colour - the only Ophuls film that is - and it is an old man's dream of how life loops back on itself, a meditation of love, loss and fame, on freedom and imprisonment. Ophuls's use of the camera - those prowling tracking shots - is as eloquent as cinema gets. Praise the Lord, it is available on DVD at last. One of my wishes granted. Next up, please - Dreyer's Passion of Joan of Arc - now that would be a great double bill with Lola

excelent plus
this movie is excelent as all the french produntions of max ophuls also la ronde the digital print and sound very well done