Rent Lola Montès (1955)

3.5 of 5 from 98 ratings
1h 50min
Rent Lola Montès (aka Lola Montes / The Sins of Lola Montes) Online DVD & Blu-ray Rental
  • General info
  • Available formats
Synopsis:
"Lola Montes" 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 Montes'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 Montes' is at once a magnificent romantic melodrama, a meditation on the lurid fascination with celebrity, and a one-of-a-kind movie spectacle.
Actors:
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Directors:
Producers:
Albert Caraco, André Haguet, Anton Schelkopf
Writers:
Jacques Laurent, Max Ophüls, Annette Wademant, Jacques Natanson, Peter Ustinov, Franz Geiger
Aka:
Lola Montes / The Sins of Lola Montes
Studio:
Second Sight Films Ltd.
Genres:
Classics, Drama, Romance
Collections:
10 Films to Watch if You Like: Amarcord, A History of Films about Film: Part 2, A Brief History of French Poetic Realism, A Brief History of the Tradition of Quality, A Brief History of Film..., The Instant Expert's Guide, The Instant Expert's Guide to Kenji Mizoguchi, Top 10 Best Last Films: World Cinema, Top Films
Countries:
France
BBFC:
Release Date:
06/07/2009
Run Time:
110 minutes
Languages:
French Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles:
English
DVD Regions:
Region 2
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen 2.40:1
Colour:
Colour
Bonus:
  • 'Working With Max Ophuls: Lola Montes Revisited' A new 70-minute making-of documentary by Ophuls scholars Martina Muller and Robert Fischer
  • Commentary By Susan White: author of The Cinema of Max Ophuls'
BBFC:
Release Date:
11/05/2020
Run Time:
114 minutes
Languages:
French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Subtitles:
English
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen 2.55:1
Colour:
Colour
BLU-RAY Regions:
B
Bonus:
  • Audio commentary featuring Max Ophuls scholar Susan White
  • "Max Ophuls ou le plaisir de tourner," a 1965 episode of the French television program Cineastes de notre temps, featuring interviews with many of Ophuls's collaborators
  • Max by Marcel, a 2009 documentary by Marcel Ophuls about his father and the making of 'Lola Montes'
  • Silent footage of actress Martine Carol briefly demonstrating the various glamorous hairstyles in 'Lola Montes'
  • Theatrical rerelease trailer from Rialto Pictures

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Reviews (2) of Lola Montès

Doubts. - Lola Montès review by NW

Spoiler Alert
11/05/2012

A painfully unhappy tale, harshly presented. The episodic style of its show ground presentation here does nothing to reduce a superficially brutal lack of compassion – despite Ophuls genuine understanding and feeling for character. A skilful presentation, indeed, and conceptually valid, but the film is not one which I should have been proud to have made, nor one which I greatly enjoyed watching. Perhaps I am disappointed that the film is plain entertainment rather than a probably impossible attempt at historical truth. That, however, is a purely personal and emotional reaction, and what else should a good film provoke? You must judge for yourself.

I often found the soft and rapid French dialogue agonisingly hard to follow – my weakness, no fault of the film – but oh, how I wish we COULD have French sub-titles!

Take the above as a first assessment – but I reflect and am puzzled. The film has excellent leading actors whom I admire; an outstanding director, whom I also admire – while I can watch “La Ronde” or “Madame de ...” repeatedly, I found it an effort to see Lola Montes through to the end. Why? La Ronde takes 80 minutes, Madame de ... 95; Lola is only 110 but felt twice that. It is a very lavish production, brilliantly filmed and choreographed, well acted – yet somehow the light touch and wit of La Ronde have been replaced by spectacle and cleverness and something has drained away. Had Ophuls had his way, Danielle Darrieux would surely have done better than Martine Carole? People imagine that Ophuls was Viennese ... perhaps here he has returned from the wit of La Ronde to his true origins in Saarbrucken’s heavy industry of meticulous and accurate craft work! – or is it just the producers and too much money?

The commentary by Susan White is very helpful, though a bit pedestrian, and emphasised my recognition of the sheer brilliance of the direction without encouraging me to feel any more engaged by the film as a whole. Judge for yourself – I am sure I must be missing something! (The restoration has been an excellent achievement, as the commentary makes fascinatingly clear.) The commentary on Max Ophuls and the making of the film is superb. I was delighted to hear that he dide not like using cinemascope ... too often the choice of spectacle over content ...

3 out of 3 members found this review helpful.

Bitter sweet story - Lola Montès review by CSF

Spoiler Alert
16/11/2023

I would not call it a tale since it is the true story of a woman of her time. Max Ophuls has always an original way to film his narrative. However he didn't need to be that original since Lola's life was far from being common. Martine Carol has not always been a great actress. Like Brigitte Bardot, all she had to do was to appear on the screen and the audience would swoon over. Still the film is interesting by the way it is made and by showing the clash between the narrow minded of the 19th century society and a woman years ahead of her time. For the rest I would agree totally with NW's comment.

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

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