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List Price: $39.95Amazon.com's Price: $31.99 You Save: $7.96 (20%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0715515031424
Format: Anamorphic, Black & White, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, HiFi Sound, Subtitled, Surround Sound, THX, Widescreen, NTSC
Label: Criterion Collection
Manufacturer: Criterion Collection
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Criterion Collection
Region Code: 1
Release Date: September 16, 2008
Running Time: 93 minutes
Sales Rank: 4118
Studio: Criterion Collection
Theatrical Release Date: March 16, 1954
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Simone Signoret, Anton Walbrook, and Simone Simon lead a roundelay of French stars in Max Ophuls's delightful, acerbic adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's controversial turn-of-thecentury play La ronde. Soldiers, chambermaids, poets, and aristocrats, all are on equal footing in this multicharacter merry-go-round of love and infidelity, directed with a sweeping gaiety as knowingly frivolous as it is enchanting and shot with Ophuls's trademark intricate cinematography. SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES: New, restored high-definition digital transfer, Audio commentary featuring film scholar Susan White, author of The Cinema of Max Ophuls, Interview with Max Ophuls's son, the Academy Award winning filmmaker Marcel Ophuls
Interview with actor Daniel Gelin (Napoleon, Testament of Orpheus)
Interview with film scholar Alan Williams, Selected correspondence between Sir Laurence Olivier and Heinrich Schnitzler (the playwright's son), illustrating the controversy surrounding the source play
New and improved English subtitle translation. PLUS: A new essay by film critic Terrence Raffert
Amazon.com essential video:
The exquisite circularity of the roundelay has always been an attractive cinematic device, but never has it been used with more delicacy and canny insight than in La Ronde, Max Ophüls's adaptation of the Arthur Schnitzler play Reigen. The camera glides, swirls, and delicately dances around fleeting moments between lovers, from chance meetings and secret trysts, to the sincere but hopeless courtship by a besotted admirer, to the relaxed banter of cuckolding married couples. Ophüls's wry glimpses behind closed doors and pulled curtains are both cynical and sweet, generous of character but suspect of motive. As one scene ends, we waltz along as the characters change partners and dance again and again; we follow streetwalkers and soldiers, courtesans and counts, until we come full circle. Returning to the superb metaphor of the carousel, where dapper Anton Walbrook wanders about as host and commentator (a sort of literary ringmaster, like Peter Ustinov in Lola Montes), Ophüls plays at the game of love with a cocked grim and a sly jab, though he never belittles or judges. What could easily have descended into farce is lifted into loving satire by Ophüls's elegant touch and sparkling wit. A huge success in Europe, its continental attitude wasn't embraced by American audiences at the time. But it has come to be regarded one of Ophüls's finest and most beautifully visualized films. Everyone is somebody's fool, and isn't it wonderful? --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A French Lesson in Infidelity.
It was a happy day when I first heard Criterion was finally releasing Max Ophüls' two great films, La Ronde (1950) and Criterion Collection: Earrings of Madame De. Ophüls is known for his brilliant tracking shots and elaborate camera movements (which influenced Stanley Kubrick). He is also known for his black-and-white French bedroom farce, La Ronde (1950), starring Anton Walbrook, Simone Signoret, and Gérard Philipe, based on Arthur Schnitzler's controversial 1897 play, Reigen. (Adolf Hitler ... Read More
Rating: - A movie once seen you'll never forget it
A classic "round" of vignettes, each about love, each vignette blending into the next by means of a single character, like passing a baton in a foot race, until we're back at the beginning again. It begins with a young prostitute (played by Simone Signoret) meeting a soldier (Serge Reggiani) and ends, after about six vignettes, with a different soldier (Gerard Philipe) paying a visit to Signoret. All of it is held together by a raconteur, played superbly with just the right amount of sardonic ... Read More
Rating: - Still entrancing over 50 years later
My high school French teacher took the whole class to see this picture and I found it charming and fell in love with Danielle Darrieux. I enjoyed it even more a half century later, I was impressed with the excellent picture quality. All the actors spoke beautiful French,clear enough to make it an excellent teaching lesson. I admire the courage of my French teacher given some controversy at the time. The music in the VCR soundtrack seems rather poorly preserved, perhaps a DVD recording at some time could ... Read More
Rating: - A feast for the eyes
"La Ronde" succeeds on many levels. The screenplay, adapted from the play by Arthur Schnitzler, is witty and provocative. It has a lightness of touch and delicate irony that is peculiar to the French. The performances are excellent-especially Danielle Darrieux's portrayal of an adulterous wife. However, the real distinction of this movie is it's visual style. The black and white cinematography is anything but flat. There are layers and textures in this film that are a feast for the eyes. The sumptuous ... Read More
Rating:  - Interesting
Wise, witty account of various people having affairs, forming a chain that eventually comes full circle, all held together by sarcastic Walbrook. A film of style and charm, based on an Arthur Schnitzler play. Screenplay by Jacques Natanson and director Ophuls. Remade as CIRCLE OF LOVE and CHAIN OF DESIRE.
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