La Ronde

[Gold Trumpet]

Years ago (I believe) there was a thread for this film, but I'm not even going to attempt to find it.

I finally was able to buy the Criterion DVD for this film. It was a pretty special moment for me because when I was 14 and ready to get beyond fun action movies, this film was my bridge to another world. I saw La Ronde before I ever saw a Stanley Kubrick film, but it was a little bit of fate because Max Ophuls was Kubrick's biggest influence. One of my best movie going moments ever was watching La Ronde back then and the recent viewing was just as special.

First, to illustrate the Kubrick influence, it is everywhere. Like Kubrick, Ophuls prides himself on the composition of his shots. Ophuls was the originator of the moving camera in dramatic films, but the purpose of his filmmaking is still dominated by his heavy handed focus on single shots. La Ronde is a perfect example because the plot is a roundabout of eight dramatic stories each told in singular fashion and each meant to imply greater meanings. Ophuls is adapting Schnitzler (like Kubrick did with Eyes Wide Shut) so he is taking on a literary subject, but he translates the literary aspect to screen mode by continuously creating wonderful shots that exemplify dramatic tension within a scene.

The cinematic language continues in the film with the constant camera movements. The film is playful with reality because it stars an author who operates within the story and talks to the audience. The author playfully mocks the idea the film is just set on a stage and is fake, but the camera movement adds a level of environment to the scenes. The camera follows all the characters as they go from room to room, but it usually does so with objects of the scene in the foreground of the camera's eye. The characters are always in sight, but many scenes always try to carry objects of the stage to be displayed with the characters. The use of these continuous sights through out the film add a level of environment because the camera movement is always tonal and plays to the whimsical European touch the film wants the story to inhibit. There is no break from the camera movements in the story. The dominance of it becomes its own realism.

Kubrick's final three films are also tonal in regards to constant camera movement, but I am less impressed with his works because Ophuls got much closer to the spirit of Schnitzler with his playful attitude. Kubrick bridged all of his projects to meet his increasingly simple personality needs as he got older. Max Ophuls worked with every level of filmmaking from German films and Hollywood and saw his style meet its peak in the 1950s when he ended his career in France and made La Ronde and other milestone works. Ophuls is also the perfect manager of his camera because the style and story in La Ronde is playful, but the camera movement never becomes exaggerated. Ophuls is always impressive with his cinematography, but he is never boastful. The story of the film is a good treatise on sexual politics at the turn of the century. The style and content marriage is pretty perfect.

[Alexandro]

I haven't seen La Ronde but I saw Le Plaisir also and noticed the influence on Kubrick right away. I thought it would be more subtle but it's actually pretty strong.

Ophuls does some very cool things with the camera. There is a joy to the camera movement, I think Scorsese calls it the "insinuation" of the camera, which perfectly fits the subject matter in the case of Le Plaisir, although is not as fluid as you would imagine. I mean it is like a ruimentary version i camera movement of what Kubrick would later achieve, at least technically . Le Plaisir is also episodic and not every story in the film is equally compelling, but three's enough fun and good spirit to carry it around.

What I really want to see is The Earrings of Madame de...

[SiliasRuby]

GT thanks for the recommendation. I fell in love with this film. I have a hard time falling in love with films these days. I'm just jaded enough to know when a film really inspires me. While I didn't fully connect with all of the characters I sensed their pain, their joy, their lustfulness. I want to purchase this film soon. I could watch this over and over again and sigh at the tragic beauty. There are some scenes in this that just want to make your heart melt, but I'm a softie when it comes to affairs of the heart. As long as they are done honestly and this film was done honestly.