Great intro and ending. The short stories are nearly all too short, only the second story gelled well. I thought the costumes were great to allow the actors to play the other roles, but the actress a particularly after the shot when she states she's 18 lent me to wish they had different actors for each story. 7/10
On the carousel of love, round and round we go, getting on, getting off, and we can't be sure into whose arms we'll land. That's what Max Ophüls' La Ronde is all about, a clever anthology about love and desire, set up as a chain where everyone gets to have two different lovers along the way. Strung up in a cinematic necklace, pearls of wisdom follow one another, but they are often self-serving, a means to justify one's behavior in preparation for jumping on or off the carousel. The film would be of interest even if it were only a kind of Short Cuts, but it's much more intriguing than that. Adolf Wohlbrück plays a mysterious meta character that is part narrator, part Cupid, part stand-in for the film maker, part Deadpool (how's that for a description?), smoothly navigating, but also manipulating, the stories as they're being told. It seems a weird coincidence that I recently watched Lubitsch's One Hour With You, because it seems to be the template for La Ronde - a comedy about adultery, breaking the fourth wall, dialog (really, monologue) in verse that sometimes turns into song... One of Lubitsch's lesser works, but whether inspired by it or not, Ophüls polishes the same kind of material until it glitters and captivates.
I like to imagine that the subtext of this film is the story of a courageous STI, fighting for upward social mobility as it's passed from the prostitute in the first scene to the Count in the last. At least, that's the only protagonist I could find to root for in this beautifully-shot film filled with vapid, boring, and generally shitty characters.
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boulderman
Great intro and ending. The short stories are nearly all too short, only the second story gelled well. I thought the costumes were great to allow the actors to play the other roles, but the actress a particularly after the shot when she states she's 18 lent me to wish they had different actors for each story. 7/10Siskoid
On the carousel of love, round and round we go, getting on, getting off, and we can't be sure into whose arms we'll land. That's what Max Ophüls' La Ronde is all about, a clever anthology about love and desire, set up as a chain where everyone gets to have two different lovers along the way. Strung up in a cinematic necklace, pearls of wisdom follow one another, but they are often self-serving, a means to justify one's behavior in preparation for jumping on or off the carousel. The film would be of interest even if it were only a kind of Short Cuts, but it's much more intriguing than that. Adolf Wohlbrück plays a mysterious meta character that is part narrator, part Cupid, part stand-in for the film maker, part Deadpool (how's that for a description?), smoothly navigating, but also manipulating, the stories as they're being told. It seems a weird coincidence that I recently watched Lubitsch's One Hour With You, because it seems to be the template for La Ronde - a comedy about adultery, breaking the fourth wall, dialog (really, monologue) in verse that sometimes turns into song... One of Lubitsch's lesser works, but whether inspired by it or not, Ophüls polishes the same kind of material until it glitters and captivates.epicureanlotus
I like to imagine that the subtext of this film is the story of a courageous STI, fighting for upward social mobility as it's passed from the prostitute in the first scene to the Count in the last. At least, that's the only protagonist I could find to root for in this beautifully-shot film filled with vapid, boring, and generally shitty characters.Dieguito
Beautiful movie about love and relationships. A very well told and directed story.marco_n65
Wonderful