Rent La Ronde (1950)

Pass-the-Parcel with Benefits - La Ronde review by griggs

La Ronde is basically a game of romantic pass-the-parcel, except everyone unwraps each other. Anton Walbrook plays the ringmaster, slipping in and out with a smirk, keeping the whole contraption spinning while reminding us it’s all artifice.

Ophüls directs with his trademark elegance: the camera glides through bedrooms, ballrooms and boudoirs with such grace it’s as if seduced by the material itself. The cast deliver what’s needed — charming, witty, sometimes sly — but it’s the staging that lingers, not the faces.

And that’s my sticking point. I admire the elegance, the irony, even the bite, but I never felt swept up in the whirl. La Ronde is powered by lust and fuelled by hypocrisy — stylish, slyly sharp, endlessly in motion. I was left outside peering through the glass, which, come to think of it, may be exactly the point.