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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9786305228851
Format: Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 630522885X
Label: Fox Lorber
Manufacturer: Fox Lorber
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Publisher: Fox Lorber
Release Date: February 23, 1999
Running Time: 110 minutes
Sales Rank: 37336
Studio: Fox Lorber
Theatrical Release Date: 1955
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video:
Max Ophüls explores the scandalous life of dancer and courtesan Lola Montes with a bittersweet empathy that turns melodrama into a tragic melancholy masterpiece. Using the theatrical re-creation of Lola's life in a big-top pageant as a framing device, Ophüls contrasts the outrageous sensationalism of her reputation with poignant, poetic flashbacks that explore her many affairs, most notably with Franz Liszt (Will Quadflieg) and King Ludwig of Bavaria (Anton Walbrook). Lola's greatest tragedy is that she loved well, if not too wisely. If Martine Carol's central performance is lacking passion, as many critics have argued, her quiet, at times seemingly passive demeanor makes her a veritable prisoner of her society and her reputation. Swept along by Ophüls's sweeping camerawork, which glides through the film in a balance of intimacy and contemplative remove as if on the wings of angels, her life becomes like a cinematic ballet with Ophüls the choreographer and conductor. Peter Ustinov costars as the jaded circus ringmaster, who nightly narrates her exploits to a throng of scandal-hungry spectators, while she performs with a face hardened in indifference, resigned to her empty role as a figure of spectacle in a garish gilded cage. Shot in delicate color and impeccably composed widescreen compositions throughout by Ophüls's regular cinematographer Christian Matras, Lola Montes is his most beautiful and restrained film, a fitting swan song for one of the cinema's most sensitive directors. --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Beautiful, somewhat ponderous rendition of a fascinating life
Lola was a wildly creative woman who kept reinventing herself to meet her ever-changing needs. Passionate, headstrong, opportunistic, shameless, amoral, she essentially flipped a not-so-ladylike finger at a repressive society and lived a fascinating life that today would garner headlines but lift few eyebrows. Her life story might even seem somewhat inspiring today -- how in the world did she have the strength? The nerve?
This gorgeous movie made in the fifties has little shock and ... Read More
Rating:  - Ophul's Awful Offal
Okay, it's not that bad, but I've been trying to upgrade the review titles lately and couldn't resist. Anyway, LOLA MONTES might carry the high cachet of a master's masterpiece, but I could barely keep my eyes on this story of the grand courtesan of Europe, Lola Montes, who left Liszt, loved King Ludwig, and wound up in the middle of a circus with Peter Ustinov wearing the tall silk and cracking a whip, the audience shouting out indelicate questions, and her life being replayed in a series of flashbacks. ... Read More
Rating:  - hello, dolly! (couldn't resist)
The dvd's in the proper CinemaScope ratio, but is non-anamorphic. With that in mind, the picture quality's great.
The movie's among the most beautiful I've seen. As a painter and former animator, I've seen many and am a tough critic. It seems to me, director Max Ophuls and crew were among the few working in the '50s who really understood how to compose in widescreen; in fact, this was Max's only widescreen movie and yet he was a master at it.
Few people complain that old master ... Read More
Rating:  - A shame, but not a waste.
Being unfamiliar with the criterion laserdisc print of this film, I can't really comment on the quality of this FOX LORBER edition. I can imagine that the colors could be a little more vibrant, as this edition did seem a little "washed out". But since its the only print available right now on DVD (region 1 anyways), I find it satisfactory (otherwise I would give this film a rating of 5 stars).
For those nitwits that don't find the character played by the exquisite Martine Carol fleshed out enough...Pay ... Read More
Rating: - We must not miss the destiny!
Max Ophlus' s masterpiece is a true straight forward step in the cinematographic language, daring and betting against all the odds, in this extraordinary, genial and unrepeatable film that belongs to the Pantheon of the greatest movies ever filmed in the Cinema Story.
When Wagner established the concept of Total Art, he proposed to integrate all the artistic disciplines. Ophlus in minor measure did the same with this admirable portrait, though the ravishing illumination, the amazing edition work, ... Read More
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