1000 Great Films
(c) 2009, William L. Sinclair

The Earrings of Madame De

a.k.a. Madame De..
Max Ophuls, France, 1953, bw (8*)

This is a gorgeously crafted and beautifully filmed truffle (rondelay?) about what else: a romantic triangle among the French aristocracy. The Madame "De" (we aren’t given her last name to protect the guilty) begins the film searching through some jewelry and clothes, and eventually finds some earrings to sell, which were a wedding gift from her husband. We don’t know why she needs the money, but we see the innovative direction from Max Ophuls right away as the camera follows her eye, the wonderful actress Danielle Darrieux. She is perfect for this part, always appearing elegant but letting her body language do her acting. I would compare her to Garbo, just as sophisticated a beauty, but the Swedish goddess didn’t have the acting skills of Darrieux.

After she sells the earrings, a wedding gift from her husband, the Count who’s also The General, wonderfully played by Charles Boyer in perhaps his finest performance, she set a chain of events in motion that seem to force her life to spiral into a web of deceit to everyone in her sphere. She meets an Italian diplomat, played by an appealing, and surprisingly good Vittorio de Sica, taking a break from directing classics like The Bicycle Thief (1949), and they start a whirlwind flirtation, seemingly blessed by her jovial husband. Here the camera of Ophuls really shines, as we track them dancing in one scene, following them through three rooms of opulent French society and artifacts. The story becomes typically entangled, as only the French seem to encourage adultery (and are downright civil about it), yet the stars of this film are really the Oscar®-winning costumes, the incredible art direction, and the innovative direction of Ophuls, which has the camera in constant motion so the pace never lets up.

Ophuls' masterpiece, as well as the best of a certain type of costume romance that reeks of a lifestyle of aristocratic opulence with little substance or heart. These people seem to possess each other like jewelry, which can be given away, sold, or even re-bought. Madame’s earrings become the perfect metaphor for her affairs of the heart. Before this film, cameras just didn't move this way; film buffs and artists will be entranced by the imaginitive eye of Ophuls.
0 comments:

Get Twitter Followers

Easy way to get Twitter followers: Get More Followers

Digital Copyright

MyFreeCopyright.com Registered & Protected

Large Assoc. of Movie Blogs

the LAMB

$7 Popcorn
1 Minute Film Review
100 Films
1000 DVDs To See
1,416 and Counting
353 Haiku Movie Review
All Talking! All Singing! All Dancing!
Anchorwoman In Peril!
Anh Khoi Do and Movies
Are You Screening?
Auckland Film Festival 2008
Audientication
Awesome All Day
Battle Royale with Cheese
Because I Saw the Film
Beth Loves Bollywood
Big Mike's Movie Blog
Bigger Picture Research
Bitchin' Film Reviews
Black Hole DVD Reviews
Black Sheep Reviews
Blog Cabins
Bohemian Cinema
Careful With That Blog, Eugene
Celluloid Fire
Champlain Motion Pictures
Cinebeats
Cinema Fist: Film to the brain...
Cinema Viewfinder
Cinemascope
Cinematic Passions
Cinexcellence
Coosa Creek Mambo
Counting Down the Hours
Crack of the Whip
Critical Mass Reviews
Culture Snob
Cut, Print, Review
Daily Film Dose
Dave's Blog About Movies and Such
Dave's Movie Reviews
DC Girl @ the Movies
Deadpan
Dear Jesus
Deep Dish
Diary of a Mad Film Fan
Die, Danger, Die, Die, Kill!
Do You Have a Flag?
Doodad Kind of Town
Directorama
Electronic Cerebrectomy
Evil on Two Legs
Exile in Myville
Eye Candy
Fataculture
Ferdy on Films
Film Babble Blog
Film-Book dot Com
Film for the Soul
Film Forager
FilmArcade.net
FilmFather
filmicability with Dean Treadway
Filmopia
Film Under Fire
Final Girl
Flick Rater
Foolish Blatherings
Freddy in Space
Friend Mouse Speaks
From the Front Row
Full Moon Reviews
Fused Film Blog
Getafilm
Gina Faust, Movie Maven
Good News Film Reviews
Goodies Movie
GoToMovies
HD Movie Library
He Shot Cyrus
Hey U Guys
Hollywood Chainsaw Blogger
Hoping for Something to Hope For
Horror 101
Horror Happenings
How to Buy and Maintain Your Chainsaw
I Love Horror
I'm Feeling So Blahg
Igloo of the Uncanny
Indie Film Spotlight
Insight Into Entertainment
Intermission at Work
Internal Bleeding
Invasion of the B Movies
Is This Seat Taken?
It's A Mad Mad Blog2
Jen Reviews Movies
Jigsaw's Lair
John's Movie Blog
Just Chick Flicks
karlhungus.com
Keyzer Soze's Place
Killed by Dreck
Lair of the Green Knight
Lazy Eye Theatre
Lil' Blog of Horrors
Lost Highway: B-movie and cult film reviews
Lurple.com
Mantis Fists
Matte Havoc
Media Shy
Mendelson's Memos
Mistertwister's Movie Nook
Movie Cafe
Movie Dearest
Movie Mom
Movie Reviews by Captain D
Movie Reviews (such as they are)
Movie Ticket Reviews
Movie Trick
Movie Viewing Girl
Movies et al
Movies Score
Movies Score Indonesia
MovieZeal
Moving Pictures
Must Love Movies
My Christmas Movies
My Journey thru IMDB's Top 250!
Napier's News
Natsukashi
No Smoking in the Skullcave
Noir of the Week
Noirish City
Octopus Cinema
Only the Cinema
Original Sharp Says
Out of the Past ~ A Classic Film Blog
Paracinema
Permission To Kill
Phil on Film
Pluck You, Too!
Popcorn N Roses
PsychSkull
Punch Drunk Critics
Rachel's Reel Reviews
Radiator Heaven
Rama's SCREEN
Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob
Rants of a Diva
Read. Rave. Review.
Reel Fanatic
Reel Whore
Retrospace
Rita's Romantic Movies
Row Three
Rupert Grint Fansite - Ice Cream Man
Sarahnomics
Scary Film Review
SciFiDrive
Screaming Blue Reviews
Screen Savour
She Blogged By Night
She Likes to Watch
Sizzling Popcorn.com
Soiled Sinema
Son of Double Feature
Soundtrack Geek
Spaghetti Sauce and Sweet Peas
StinkyLulu
Storywh0re
Sunnyside Kitchen
Super Movie Time
Taliesin Meets the Vampires
Talking a Lot Without Ever Really Saying Anything
The Arid Metropolitan
The Box Office Junkie
The Center Seat
The Citizen's Blog
The Critical Critics
The Cynical Blog
The Dancing Hotdogs Present...
The Dancing Image
The Dark of the Matinee
The Dueling Cavalier
The Every Movie That Counts Blog
The Fantastic Adventures of Furious D
The Film Brief
The Film Fiend
The Flesh Eating Blog
The Flick Chick
The Harvey Klinger Experience
The Horror Club
The Jack Sack
the jaded viewer
The Kinetoscope Parlor
The Last Blog on the Left
The Lightning Bug's Lair
The Long Take: Uninterrupted Cinema
The Moon is a Dead World
The Movie Coroner
The Movie Fanatic
The Movie Projector
The Movie Whore
The MovieNess
The Moviezzz Blog
The Moving Arts
The Reel Ninja
The Rocket Video Blog
The Rub: Movie Reviews
The Screening Log
The Seventh Art
The Shark Guys
TheSkyKid.com
The Sophomore Critic
The Spoon
The Stop Button
The Ugly Cow
The Vast Picture Show
This Distracted Globe
Thrilling Days of Yesteryear
Time Out for a Creative Change
Tractor Facts
Trash Aesthetics
Treadway Writes
Tricky Movie Trivia
Twenty Four Frames
Unheralded
Valley Dreamin'
Video Store Blues
Watch It
What I Watched Last Night
What What Would Toto Watch?
Where the Long Tail Ends
Wordplay
World's Best Films
YDKS Movies
Zola's Movie Pic's

Want the code? Email the LAMB.
Like the LAMB? Join!

Privacy Policy

To view this site's privacy policy, please click: Privacy Policy

Labels


About Me

My photo
Artist, photographer, composer, author, blogger, metaphysician, herbalist