Lola Montès
Lola Montès
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1h 55m
Directed by Max Ophuls • 1955 • France, West Germany
Starring Martine Carol, Peter Ustinov
LOLA MONTÈS 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 Montès’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 MONTÈS is at once a magnificent romantic melodrama, a meditation on the lurid fascination with celebrity, and a one-of-a-kind movie spectacle.
Up Next in Lola Montès
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LOLA MONTÈS Commentary
Recorded in 2008, this commentary features film scholar Susan White, author of “The Cinema of Max Ophuls.”
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Michael Cunningham on LOLA MONTÈS
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“Cinéastes de notre temps”: LOLA MONTÉS
In this episode of the French television series “Cinéastes de notre temps” from October 26, 1965, many of director Max Ophuls’s collaborators discuss working on LOLA MONTÉS. Actors and crew from earlier Ophuls films, including Danielle Darrieux and Simone Simon, also make appearances.
