Max Ophuls

Lola Montès

Lola Montès

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.

Film Info

  • Germany, France
  • 1955
  • 115 minutes
  • Color
  • 2.55:1
  • English, German, French
  • Spine #503

Special 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 new essay by film critic Gary Giddins

    New cover by David Downton

Purchase Options

Special 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 new essay by film critic Gary Giddins

    New cover by David Downton
Lola Montès
Cast
Martine Carol
Lola Montès
Peter Ustinov
Ringmaster
Anton Walbrook
Ludwig I, King of Bavaria
Will Quadflieg
Franz Liszt
Oskar Werner
Student
Ivan Desny
Lieutenant Thomas Jane
Henry Guisol
Horseman Maurice
Credits
Director
Max Ophuls
Based on the novel by
Cécil Saint-Laurent
Screenplay
Annette Wademant
Screenplay
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

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