Synopsis
Lola Montès is a visually ravishing, narratively daring dramatization of the life of the notorious courtesan and showgirl, played by Martine Carol. With his customary cinematographic flourish and, for the first time, vibrant color, Max Ophuls charts the course of Montès’s scandalous past through the invocations of the bombastic ringmaster (Peter Ustinov) of the American circus where she has ended up performing. Ophuls’s final film, Lola Montès is at once a magnificent romantic melodrama, a meditation on the lurid fascination with celebrity, and a one-of-a-kind movie spectacle.
Cast
| Lola Montès | Martine Carol |
| Ringmaster | Peter Ustinov |
| Ludwig I, King of Bavaria | Anton Walbrook |
| Franz Liszt | Will Quadflieg |
| Student | Oskar Werner |
| Lieutenant Thomas Jane | Ivan Desny |
| Horseman Maurice | Henry Guisol |
Credits
| Director | Max Ophuls |
| Based on the novel by | Cécil Saint-Laurent |
| Screenplay | Annette Wademant and Max Ophuls |
| Dialogue | Jacques Natanson |
| Producer | Albert Caraco |
| Cinematography | Christian Matras |
| Editing | Madeleine Gug |
| Production Design | Jean d'Eaubonne |
| Costume Design | Georges Annenkov |
| Music | Georges Auric |
Disc Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer (with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
- Audio commentary featuring Max Ophuls scholar Susan White
- “Max Ophuls ou le plaisir de tourner,” a 1965 episode of the French television program Cinéastes de notre temps, featuring interviews with many of Ophuls’s collaborators
- Max by Marcel, a new documentary by Marcel Ophuls about his father and the making of Lola Montès
- Silent footage of actress Martine Carol briefly demonstrating the various glamorous hairstyles in Lola Montès
- Theatrical rerelease trailer from Rialto Pictures
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Gary Giddins
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