La Ronde [DVD]

This is a film that's perfectly constructed, immaculately acted and brilliantly directed. While it retains the structure and much of the dialogue from Schnitzler's original play, it replaces its moralising tone (it was originally a kind of morality play, preaching against the spread of the destructive little spirochete, syphilis) with French joie de vivre in all the delights of love - or rather sex, since love makes only an occasional appearance.The concept is simple. We are taken on a round of sexual liaisons that incidentally works its way up the class ladder at the same time (with a slight detour through the Grisette, the Poet and the Actress). The circle is closed off by the drunken encounter between the Count and the prostitute, taking us back to the character who started the whole dance off.The actors are the cream of the French profession at the time - which is saying something. The likes of Gerard Philipe, Simone Signoret, Danielle Darrieux and Jean-Louis Barrault, all give pitch-perfect performances, making the succession of duets a truly ensemble piece. Towering above them all, though, is Anton Walbrook as our Master-of-Ceremonies and puppet-master. His style of acting - naturalistic, laid-back but totally subsumed in the character he's playing - actually feels very modern.But, despite this starry list of performers, this is very much Max Ophuls' film. His wonderfully fluid camera-work carries us trippingly through the Vienna of 1900. It makes an interesting comparison with the almost exactly contemporaneous Third Man, where Carol Reed's stark, angled, expressionist camera reveals a very different Vienna of half a century later. Ophuls' single-take 5-minute opening shot is a tour-de-force to set beside the opening shots of Touch of Evil and The Player. It takes in special fog effects: it incorporates changes of setting from miniature theatre to film set to rooftop views to a Viennese square: it moves from the present to the past, from Spring sunlight to a balmy night: there are changes of wardrobe: there's dialogue throughout, singing in synch with an orchestral backing and perfectly cued action as the roundabout begins to turn and brings us the seamless introduction of the first of our characters. That roundabout - merry-go-round might be a better word in the context of the film - almost becomes a character in its own right, even suffering an embarrassing breakdown at the crucial moment of the meeting between the Young Man and the Married Woman. The way that Walbrook's master-of-ceremonies slips in and out of the action is perfectly managed. So, too, his more objective role as Brechtian observer of all this with delightfully knowing touches like the use of clapper-board to introduce the next scene.And through all of it is Oscar Straus's unforgettable waltz, tying it all together and swirling us through this wonderful, hedonistic, fin-de-siecle dance. An unmissable movie, fully deserving of its BAFTA best film award at the time. The DVD also includes some excellent extra material, including a fascinating interview with Daniel Gelin on working with Ophuls.

`La Ronde' portrays a merry-go-round of love: Leocodie, a woman of the street, meets Franz (a soldier) who meets Marie (a maid) who meets a young man called Alfred, who meets ... Well, you get the picture by now! After ten liaisons, we return to Leocodie and the circle is complete. What was scandalous in 1900s Vienna was a popular film in the France of the 1950s, but even Ophuls has no nudity, not even a bare man's chest. Bedroom scenes are clothed.In many disguises, gay actor Anton Walbrook plays the world-weary master-of-ceremonies. The film is somewhat charming and not without humour, as can be imagined with all the games of seduction being played and the deceptions made and the excuses engineered.I came to this - my first Max Ophuls movie - from two directions: a love of Vienna and a desire to collect the films of Anton Walbrook. Set in the Austro-Hungarian capital of 1900, it is based on a somewhat notorious play by Arthur Schnitzler. Ophuls added Walbrook's part as the central guiding spirit of the film adaptation.I learned this last fact from the insightful commentary provided to the film by Susan White. She also informs us that Ophuls cleverly set up the production to replicate the theatre, even involving the orchestra on-stage, and with Walbrook addressing the camera at times, even once introducing an episode with a film clapperboard. Later he is seen as a censor, cutting out the sex scene: this was 1950 after all.Her insightful commentary also includes details on the design and production of the film as well as providing brief biographies of the stars. She also points out things that the viewer might probably have missed (on a conscious level) the first time around, such as the use of props, shadows, and mirrors. She places the work of Ophuls in its cinematic context, but additionally expands this appreciation into the social, moral, and economic context of the times. She compares the mores of 1900 Vienna with the time of the film's production and also with other Schnitzler transformations, such as Kubrick's `Eyes Wide Shut' of 1999.Other extras comprise a twelve-minute interview with one of the stars, Daniel Gelin, and an insightful forty-minute talk (2007) with Alan Williams, professor of French and of Cinema Studies at Rutger University. He sums up `La Ronde' by saying "it's fun, sexy, philosophical, and aesthetically interesting." I agree, and it perhaps seems ripe for a remake with twenty-first century mores (including one or two gay liaisions).

La Ronde is one of the most personal and unique films ever done. To me it is like a perfect mix of literary rollercoaster and a cinematographic carnival, where the richness of the stories, the variety of characters and undefined moods of the situations create a elegant yet mysterious experience to those who have the open mind and curiosity not to avoid that just because it is a film from another time, world and idea of cinema.Max Ophuls is maybe the old director that is closest to Kubrick (maybe not a mere coincidence that both films are taken from Schnitzler), and here you can tell by the very opening scene, that is quite unsettling and reminds of eyes wide shut disturbing masks.La Ronde is a bitter, fatalistic, existential and yet paradox ally lighthearted and wise look at mankind ethereal and unresolved questions about love, relationships, ambition, solitude, memories of gone youth and how to approach getting older and die. And all in one film that is so fluid and perfect that looks like a unique long shot. I'm looking forward to its blu ray release

I thought it was marvellous but unfortunately the DVD stuck at several points when I tried to watch it. I had invited friends round to watch it but it was after the deadline for returns had expired. We were all a bit frustrated that we had to abandon watching it, because it was clearly very good. And I have loved his other films.

This was an old film, I was expecting the version I saw in the cinema in the late '60's

David Thomson's brilliant book 'A Biographical Dictionary of the Cinema' led me to this gem of a film. Anton Walbrook delights as the master of ceremonies and there is great support from other celluloid heroes like Danielle Darrieux. This is what cinema is all about. Max Ophuls at the top of his game on the carousel of dreams.

Élégance, mélancolie, humour, charme, classe... entrez dans la Ronde

Le produit m'a été livré dans le délai prévu. La qualité mentionnée était exacte. Je suis très satisfait et je recommande fortement ce vendeur. Excellent sur toute la ligne !

I am a devotee of films and something of a Schnitzler scholar. This film represents a major nexus of my interests. I know the play "Reigen" ("La Ronde") very well -- my translation of it was produced by San Diego's Old Globe Theatre some years ago. Ophuls's film of the play is superior in every way. True, it is in French, the original language having been Schnitzler's superb German, but the script has not suffered at all, probably because the Viennese sensibily is not that far removed from the Parisian. Those who produce "La Ronde" usually feel compelled to find some framing/transitional device to bridge the episodic nature of the play, and that chosen by Ophuls is highly satisfactory (Anton Walbrook's resemblance to Schnitzler himself doesn't hurt). The cast is the finest available in France at the time (1950), combining established stars with up-and-coming players like Simone Signoret and Serge Reggiani. Criterion's DVD transfer upholds the high standards one has come to expect from that fine label. I recommend this DVD to anyone interested in the best of continental theatre, or just entertaining movies.

Mon épouse et moi avons beaucoup apprécié ce film où brillent de nombreux grands acteurs dans une très bonne mise en scène.

This film was restricted when I first saw it ("X" certificate). By present day standards it is blameless; it comprises a circle of incidents in which the men are predators and the women willing "victims" in the rounds of seduction and infidelity. The society presented is classless in the sense that all are seeking the same end irrespective of their background or life style. Entertaining, memorable acting and hummable music. See it yourself!!