LA RONDE (1950)

 

Directed By: Max Ophuls

Written By: Max Ophuls and Jacques Natenson

Based on the play “Reigen” By: Arthur Schnitzler

Cinematography: Christian Matras

Editor: Azar

Cast: Anton Walbrook, Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani, Simone Simon, Daniel Gelin, Danielle Darrieux, Fernard Gravey, Odette Joyeux

Soldiers, chambermaids, poets, prostitutes, aristocrats are on equal footing in this multi-character merry-go-round of love and infidelity.

This is an excellent experimental film. When film was still finding itself and what it could be with such a wide net of imagination 

This film Feels like one of those Gary Marshall films Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day anthology where the characters are linked together with a similar theme. LOVE ACTUALLY or the movies of Robert Altman. This is essentially a film about love, and in an ensemble where each character leads to the Max one and there’s a narrator. I guess you could believe it as a sort of Cupid.

The difference between this and the films is of course time and that this is actually artistic, and as I don’t know any of the stars of this film, you knew what to expect with the Gary Marshall cast

this is the film that you should only watch if you want to see something romantic and a love story and the many different ways, and which characters connect and find one another and almost feels like a book of short stories or at least short scenes as they all lead to another not that they make the best couples work and each one someone who might have been more of the victim and one story is the one in control in the next and vice versa

Like the merry-go-round that constantly comes up. The world spins and the characters move in and out of each other's lives not the same story but the same subject involving love of some kind. 

As the film offers up the ups and downs of relationships and love different meanings of it, different motivations of it, and the different roles some of us play we can all identify with the character in each vignette  

At least the film gives its ensemble chances to shine in one way or another. 

The film feels experimental, yet magical, especially for its time when it seemed like the rules were still being written when it came to this new invention of film and cinema.

Which is why it kind of feels like a circus as it constantly feels like a show, which might be because this started out as a play or theatrical piece before being made into a film 

It’s also an identifiable fairytale that isn’t afraid to go into subject matter that those types of stories usually avoid but still manages to feel like a fantasy of sorts. Where is magic in the storytelling in visuals as well as the presentation?

Grace: B