Lola Montès (1955)

Lola Montès is a French romantic film drama first released in 1955, directed by Max Ophüls.  The film stars Martine Carol, Peter Ustinov, Anton Walbrook, Henri Guisol and Lise Delamare.  It has also been released under the title: The Fall of Lola Montes.  Our overall rating for this film is: excellent.


After an illustrious career as an adventurer, igniting the passions of kings and dukes the world over, Lola Montès is finally reduced to a circus exhibit.   Night after night she has to enact scenes from her life in a circus tent before a crowd of sensation-eager spectators.  This humiliation she consents to is a just retribution for her past sins...

Max Ophüls’ final film is his most visually stunning, whilst evoking the cinematographic brilliance of his earlier masterpieces, La Ronde and Madame de…   Although made in the notoriously ephemeral Eastmancolor, the surviving prints of the film are well-preserved and show that the director had a complete grasp of the new medium in this his one and only colour film.

The director’s reluctance to use CinemaScope is well known, and this is one technological advancement which does damage the film slightly.  Although the widescreen format is well used in the circus scenes, which are filled with motion and energy, it presents difficulties for more intimate scenes, and the director was forced to black out the edges of the screen to achieve the effect he was after.  As a result, the film has far less intimacy than Ophüls’ earlier films, and his central character, appears strangely cold and distant throughout the film.

There are some real gems on the acting front. Peter Ustinov is quite masterful as the American circus ringmaster, appearing alternately tender and brutal towards Montès, in probably his best film role in a very illustrious career.  The film’s star, Martine Carol, is impressive, but appears too reserved as Lola Montès to arouse much sympathy, although in the final heart-breaking scene she manages to bring a lump to the throat.  Oskar Werner appears in a small role as Montès’ student admirer and protector, a promising newcomer who would later achieve celebrity in Truffaut’s 1962 film Jules et Jim.

© James Travers 2000

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