LA RONDE (1950) B/W 97m dir: Max Ophuls

w/Anton Walbrook, Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani, Simone Simon, Daniel Gelin, Danielle Darrieux, Fernand Gravet, Odette Joyeux, Jean-Louis Barrault, Isa Miranda

From The Movie Guide: "Released in Paris in 1950, LA RONDE, though quickly hailed as one of Max Ophuls' greatest achievements, was kept from U.S. shores for four years thanks to a judgment of 'immoral' by the New York State censorship board. A merry-go-round of romance is detailed in episodic fashion as characters drift from sequence to sequence, switching lovers as they go. ...

"Originally Ophuls had planned to adapt a novel by Balzac with Greta Garbo in a lead role, but instead he turned his attentions to the heralded Arthur Schnitzler play, which in his hands emphasized the follies of love over the concerns about syphilis the play explored. One of four masterworks Ophuls dashed off in the 1950s before his untimely death [the three others are: LE PLAISIR (1951), THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE ... (1953), and LOLA MONTES (1959)], LA RONDE explores his recurrent obsession with circles to dizzying effect. The humor is beguiling, the satire on target, Ophuls' legendary camerawork is in fine and restless form, and the acting of a very high order.

"Signoret is particularly good, but stealing the show, unexpectedly, is the marvelous Walbrook. Indulging the gentle sentiment of the whole undertaking to just the right degree, he is dapper and alert. The moment where one story is interrupted as he quickly reassembles the broken film is perfection. You're not likely to forget Walbrook's song --- a round, of course."