"A ROMANTIC MASTERPIECE!" – Dave Kehr, The New York Times. Click here to read feature

"When people have asked me to name the greatest film of all time -- in my humble opinion, of course --
my instant answer has been unvarying for the past 30 years or so: Max Ophüls’ Madame de…"
– Andrew Sarris, The New York Observer. Click here to read review

“Is there any reason to miss Max Ophüls’s The Earrings of Madame de…,
from 1953, showing at Film Forum through March 29?
The only suitable excuse, aside from death, would be to have mislaid a pair of earrings.”
– Anthony Lane, The New Yorker. Click here to read review

"QUINTESSENTIAL… Max Ophüls is the auteurist's auteur."
– J. Hoberman, The Village Voice. Click here to read review

“A rallying cry has pierced the earlobes of the New York film community,
and it’s centered on the restored print of Madame de... currently running at Film Forum.”
– James Hughes, Stop Smiling. Click here to read review


[SIX STARS - highest rating!]
"Max Ophüls excelled in creating the most heart-wrenching dramas wrapped up in the most glittery of surfaces.
The Earrings of Madame de… could rate as one of the best of all time."
– Melissa Anderson, Time Out New York

(1953) “Unhappiness is an invented thing.” The earrings of Madame de... (her name is never spoken in full) pass from husband to Madame to moneylender to husband to mistress to lover, and back again — until someone barks, “Stay away from me with those infernal earrings!” — and fin de siècle high society is exposed in its frivolity, hypocrisy, and inability to love. The sumptuous sets and costumes, and the swirling camerawork — dollying, tracking, craning — of Ophüls’ trademark romanticism — its highlight the progress of a romance traced through a single rapturous dance through time shifts and costume changes — transform the astringency of Louise de Vilmorin’s original novella, while the performances by Danielle Darrieux in the title role, Charles Boyer as her husband, and Vittorio De Sica as her lover are “quite likely the finest each has given” (Pauline Kael). “The greatest film of all time . . . Below the glittering surfaces, the lush decor, the sensuous fabrics, there is the cruel sensibility of an artist mourning the death of this world and all other worlds to come. Inside the beautiful ladies and lovers of romance lurk the grinning skeletons of tragedy. If the cinema had produced no other artists except Ophüls and Renoir, it would still be an art form of profundity and splendor.” – Andrew Sarris. “Perfection... A novelist may catch us up in the flow of words; Ophüls catches us up in the restless flow of his images — and because he does not use the abrupt cuts of ‘montage’ so much as the moving camera, the gliding rhythm of his films is romantic, seductive, and, at times, almost hypnotic. The virtuosity of his camera technique enables him to present complex, many-layered material so fast that we may be charmed and dazzled by his audacity and hardly aware of how much he is telling us. Should the day ever come when movies are granted the same respect as other arts, The Earrings of Madame De... will instantly be recognized as one of the most beautiful things ever created by human hands.” – Dave Kehr.
A JANUS FILMS RELEASE.

“Ask any rabid cinephile: Max Ophüls’ The Earrings of Madame de… is a masterpiece of film form.”
– Eric Kohn, New York Press. Click here to read review

“A deeply refined stylist who achieved an unparalleled brand of romantic realism,
Ophüls was the rare filmmaker who rewarded both obsessive study and rapturous obsession.”
– Nicolas Rapold, The New York Sun. Click here to read review

“Ophüls's elegant camera work, luscious sets, and heartbreaking romantic story lines
were never more effective than in this 1953 masterpiece.
His gliding camera moves are more than just ornamental; they're loaded with cosmic portent.”
– New York magazine