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  (1955) In a garishly colored circus, the suckers line up at a buck
a kiss with that celebrated adventuress Lola (French sex symbol
Martine Carol), as ringmaster Peter Ustinov starts his spiel and
the flashbacks begin. Ophüls’ first movie in color and widescreen
was the biggest-budgeted French film to date, with his always-mobile
camera gliding, tilting, and craning amid dazzling sets
and costumes, as the oscillation between the tawdriness of
the circus and the romanticism of flashbacks underscores the
difference between reality and memory, each flashback with
its own color scheme: for Lola’s youth, black-blue-grey; for her
affair with 19th century “rock star” Franz Liszt, red and gold;
and for her amour with the King of Bavaria (The Red Shoes’
Anton Walbrook), white, blue, silver and gold. Disliking the
newfangled CinemaScope screen, Ophüls broke it up with pillars, curtains,
arches — note the hanging rope dangling down amidst the mise en scène of
Lola’s backstage interview with the king. Ophüls’ final work, and arguably the
masterpiece of a career that encompassed films in five different languages, Lola was a flop on first release and subjected to a brutal butchering by its
producers — they even hacked up the original negative. After their eventual
bankruptcy, legendary New Wave producer Pierre Braunberger acquired the
rights and issued a limited restoration to great acclaim in 1969. But, in the
intervening 40 years,restoration technology has progressed dramatically,
and many more materials — including the innovative original sound mix
—have since turned up. In 2006, Braunberger’s daughter Laurence and the
Cinémathèque Française, with the support of the Thomson Foundation,the
Franco-American Cultural Fund, and Ophüls’ son Marcel, embarked on a state
of the art restoration. Scratches, tears and missingframes were fixed and the
full stereophonic magnetic track restored, with the vibrant hues as conceived
by production designer Jean d’Eaubonne (Casque d’or, Madame de...) and
cinematographer Christian Matras replacing the washed-out existing prints
and videos. The at-long-last restored Lola was a
sensation at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. “One of the signs of a great director is his
ability to sustain a consistent tone throughout
a film. Ophüls was such a director, and his Lola
Montès has as much unity of tone as any film I
can remember. It is all of a piece from beginning
to end: the mood, the music, the remarkably fluid
camera movement, the sets, the costumes. It is
a director’s film… Using the circus to supply his
narrative thread, Ophüls slides through a series of
flashbacks with as much ease, and psychological
completeness, as Welles exhibited in Citizen
Kane.” – Roger Ebert. Approx. 115 min.
A Rialto Pictures Release.
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“A MAGNIFICENT RESTORATION!
Evokes the evanescence of beauty, fame and glamour!”
– Stephen Holden, The New York Times
“A SUMPTUOUS RESTORATION! Recovers not just the movie's look but also its meaning. The romantic costume drama presents a great nineteenth-century femme fatale, a faux-Spanish danseuse and gold-digger whose lovers included Franz Liszt and King Ludwig of Bavaria. Yet Ophüls makes of her story something stunningly personal... A COLOSSAL SPECTACLE ABOUT COLOSSAL SPECTACLES.”
– Richard Brody, The New Yorker. Click here to read full article
[highest rating]
"A bodice ripper invested with the profundity of a Stendhal novel... Ophüls's boldest vision of film as a medium that reveres beauty in order to both nurture and mock dreams. Viewers are left to echo Liszt's compliment to Lola: Thank you for the illusion."
– Fernando D. Croce, Slant Magazine. Click here to read full article
“STUNNING... This loving restoration comes as close as possible to realizing Ophüls' original vision. Ravishing and reflexive, sumptuous and sad, Lola has finally received the treatment worthy of its place in film history.”
– Chris Wisniewski, Reverse Shot. Click here to read entire article
"THE NEAR PERFECT MARRIAGE OF CLASSICISM AND MODERNISM. The cinematic analog to Charlie Parker with Strings or, better yet, the second movement of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 32. The film's formal elegance has rarely been matched, and yet the borders of its expansive CinemaScope frame can scarcely contain the kinetic visuals."
– Cullen Gallagher, L Magazine. Click here to read full article
“Ophüls' LAST AND GREATEST FILM! One of the most scrupulously honest films in the history of cinema.”
– Malcolm Turvey, Artforum. Click here to read full article
“EXTRAORDINARY... A dazzling commentary on celebrity!”
– Vincent Canby, The New York Times. Click here to read full article
"THE MUST-SEE FILM EVENT FOR NEW YORKERS THIS OCTOBER!"
– Michael Moran, New York Entertainment Examiner
“THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CINEMASCOPE MOVIE EVER MADE! Ophüls uses color with a dazzling, kaleidoscopic imagination.”
– Phillip Lopate
“A BAROQUE MASTERPIECE… among the most emotionally and visually ravishing works the cinema has to offer.”
– Dave Kehr
“A breathtaking story about a courtesan who suffers both ecstatic highs and hellish lows. Thanks to the Cinémathèque Française, we finally have something close to a definitive version. Don’t miss it!”
– David Fear, Time Out New York
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