Lola Montès

1955 "She lived too intensely and far too well!"
7.2| 1h56m| en
Details

Lola Montes, previously a great adventuress, is reduced to being the attraction of a circus after having been the lover of various important men.

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Reviews

LouHomey From my favorite movies..
Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!
SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
gsygsy There aren't enough superlatives to describe how I feel about this stunning work of art. It's one of the movies that means so much to me, I find it hard to write about it. Let's ditch bitching about Martine Carol. She is excellent. I have never understood the snooty, patronising negativity about her performance. When an actor plays a king or queen, it's not required that they act royally. They absolutely must not do that, unless it's for comic effect. Otherwise their status is undermined. Their royalty is shown by the deference of others. The same is true here. Lola has the effect she has because we see her having the effect. The actress doesn't have to act charismatically - as if anyone could!The photography, set and costumes, script, music, performances, and of course the direction: wonderful. Anton Walbrook, what a pleasure it is to see him here, in another of his long line of superb performances. And there's Pauline Dubost, Henri Guisol, Ivan Desny, Oskar Werner...Lola's tale is a cautionary one of the risks of living life on your own terms. But there are people who can do no other, and Lola is one of those.Max Ophuls, the visionary director, was another.The greatness of this film humbles me and inspires me: human beings can rise to these heights of creativity. The proof is here. It is LOLA MONTES.
erictopp It is a great shame that Max Ophuls only made one colour wide-screen movie - this one. The master of the tracking shot might have done so much more but this was his last completed movie.The scenes are mostly well-directed and beautifully photographed but the main problem with "Lola Montès" is Lola. It is impossible for the viewer to understand how this plain, charmless woman (underplayed by Martine Carol) could seduce and inspire composers and kings. Where is the beauty, the sexiness, the vivacity of Lola? I am not asking for a documentary but the real life story of Lola is so much more interesting. I know that Ophuls is commenting on the downside of celebrity - Lola wants to be a star and ends up in a circus (if Ophuls made this today, Lola would appear in a TV "reality" show or sex tape) - but without a compelling central character the spectacle falls as flat as the cardboard cutouts of Lola.
MartinHafer This movie is proof that the French, too, can make movies that are big budget spectacles that are dull and uninvolving. Like Around the World in 80 Days, The English Patient and The Last Emperor, this movie is BIG--bigger than life. And, like these other examples, sterile and uninteresting. It isn't that it's a bad movie---it certainly isn't. It's just with all the money and effort, it should have been better. As far as the style of the film, alternating from the circus to flashbacks, it sure reminded me of Max Ophüls' other film, Le Ronde. However, unlike Le Ronde, it lacked charm and style--it instead had a lavish budget and plastic characters. Plus, although the actress playing Lola was not completely unattractive, I had a very hard time imagining men falling for her.
writers_reign ... she doesn't get it here and it is difficult to know where she WOULD get it. Max Ophuls was one of if not THE most elegant director who ever looked thru a viewfinder whilst conversely Martine Carol was one of the most wooden performers since Laurence Harvey so what we're left with is a case of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. They were never going to cram all the events of Lola's life into even a four-hour movie, all the more surprising since she was dead at 40 and squeezed all her scandalous living into just over half that time. Ophuls, master of black and white story telling opted for color in what turned out to be his last film and we can only speculate by how far he would have eclipsed say Minelli had he lived. What emerges thru all the truncated and reconstructed versions is little more than a blueprint for a masterpiece manque. 7/10