''Lola Montès'' is a 1955

historical History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

romance film Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion (emotion), passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typica ...

and the last completed film of German-born director

Max Ophüls Maximillian Oppenheimer (; 6 May 1902 – 26 March 1957), known as Max Ophüls (; ), was a German-French film director who worked in Germany (1931–1933), France (1933–1940 and 1950–1957), and the United States (1947–1950). He made near ...

. Based on the novel ''La vie extraordinaire de Lola Montès'' by

Cécil Saint-Laurent Jacques Laurent or Jacques Laurent-Cély (6 January 1919 – 28 December 2000) was a French writer and journalist. He was born in Paris, the son of a barrister. During World War II, he fought with the Algerian Tirailleurs. Laurent was elect ...

, the film depicts the life of Irish dancer and courtesan

Lola Montez Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, Countess of Landsfeld (17 February 1821 – 17 January 1861), better known by the stage name Lola Montez (), was an Irish dancer and actress who became famous as a Spanish dancer, courtesan, and mistress of King Ludwig I ...

(1821–1861), portrayed by

Martine Carol Martine Carol (born Marie-Louise Jeanne Nicolle Mourer; 16 May 1920 – 6 February 1967) was a French film actress. Career Born Maryse Mourer (or Marie-Louise Jeanne Nicolle Mourer) in Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne, (France), she studied acting und ...

, and tells the story of the most famous of her many notorious affairs, those with

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

and Ludwig I of Bavaria. A co-production between France and

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...

, the dialogue is mostly in French and German, with a few English-language sequences. The most expensive European film produced up to its time, ''Lola Montès'' underperformed at the box office. However, it had an important artistic influence on the

French New Wave French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...

cinema movement and continues to have many distinguished critical admirers. Heavily re-edited (multiple times) and shortened after its initial release for commercial reasons, it has been twice restored (1968, 2008). It was released on DVD and Blu-ray in North America by

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scho ...

in February 2010.

Plot

In New Orleans, a whip-wielding ringmaster announces to the crowd the “attraction of the century” and “the most interesting predator” of his circus: the former royal mistress Maria Dolorès Porriz y Montez, Countess von Landsfeld, known as Lola Montez. She is carried richly adorned into the circus ring to receive questions from the audience. Each question costs 25 cents, which are not intended as a payment for Lola Montez, as the ringmaster announces, since they will be donated by her to a correctional home for

fallen women "Fallen woman" is an archaic term which was used to describe a woman who has "lost her innocence", and fallen from the grace of God. In 19th-century Britain especially, the meaning came to be closely associated with the loss or surrender of a ...

. The crowd shouts questions to Lola Montez about her waist size and her affairs, but the ringmaster answers them humorously. A parade of lovers begins, where the circus performers represent the number of Lola Montez' lovers. The question of whether the Countess von Landsfeld still remembers them leads Lola Montez to a first flashback of her affair with the composer

The affair with Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt and Lola Montez are on their way to Rome in a carriage, but the composer, who writes pieces for Lola Montez to which she dances in front of an audience, notices that their carriage is followed by another. He reckons to be a mere lover, since Lola Montez will go on board the other carriage as soon as she wants to leave him. Both of them spend the night in an inn and Liszt wants to prevent Lola from leaving. He tears up the just finished farewell waltz and secretly tries to leave the common room, but Lola Montez catches him and they spend one last night together. The next morning they part ways and Lola Montez reads up the torn notes, where Liszt says that she at least remains faithful to his music.

Childhood and youth

The ringmaster announces a change of scene and costume, as they will now deal with the childhood and youth of Lola Montez. A flashback shows the young Lola boarding a ship to Paris with her mother. While her mother shares a cabin with her lover, Lieutenant James, Lola Montez has to sleep in the dormitory with other girls. Once in Paris, her mother wants her to marry an old baron who was the family's banker. To avoid this fate, she escapes with Lieutenant James, who confesses his love to her, and they get married. At the beginning of the second act in the circus, the ringmaster claims that the marriage was happy, but a flashback shows that after five years Lola Montez is actually fleeing from her violent, constantly drunk and cheating husband. This is followed by the further life of Lola Montez, depicted in the ring by elaborate tableaux vivants and acted scenes. Lola Montez makes her debut as a dancer in Madrid, is kidnapped by a rich Russian, whose love she rejected, and is freed by the intervention of the French ambassador. During these performances, a doctor talks with the director of the circus, who is still disguised as a clown and counting the daily profits. The doctor warns him that Lola's heart is weak and that she should take care of herself. Lola tells now her story herself. She danced in Vienna at and was in love with the

Kapellmeister (, also , ) from German ''Kapelle'' (chapel) and ''Meister'' (master)'','' literally "master of the chapel choir" designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term ha ...

. A short flashback shows how she found out on stage that he was married. She slapped the Kapellmeister while he was conducting the orchestra and then exposed him in front of his wife. At that time, the ringmaster visited her and offered her a contract with the circus, which she refused. In the circus, while the number of her lovers is read out, ranging from

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

Frédéric Chopin Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leadin ...

, from Count von Lichtenfeld to the

Grand Duke of Hesse The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine (german: link=no, Großherzogtum Hessen und bei Rhein) was a grand duchy in western Germany that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Grand Duchy originally formed from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1806 ...

, Lola Montez swings higher and higher on a trapeze until she stands on the top platform. This is when the flashback of her life in Bavaria begins.

Lola Montez and Ludwig I of Bavaria

Lola Montez meets a student hiking in the snowy mountains, who is offered a ride in her carriage if he shows her the way to Munich. Here Lola wants to make a career as a dancer, but she is not hired. Shortly before her departure, she begins an affair with Ferdinand von Freiberg, through whom she hopes to get in touch with King Ludwig I. She receives an audience with the king and complains about the lack of opportunities to perform. She clears any doubts about her body by tearing open her bodice in front of Ludwig I ("I have grown very well, do you want to see?"). The king arranges for her to appear as a dancer in the National Theatre, after which she wants to leave. He keeps her at court by commissioning a portrait of her, the completion of which he keeps delaying. She becomes his mistress, but also interferes more and more in politics. During the March Revolution of 1848, the citizens rebel against Lola Montez, who finally flees over the border to Austria at night with the help of the student she met on the way to Munich. She rejects the possibility of a simple life as the student's wife because something has broken in her and she can no longer love.

Finale

The ringmaster announces that Lola Montez had finally remembered his offer to work together and came to the circus. She has been performing here every day for four months, ending her show by jumping from the top platform onto a padded mat without a net. The doctor asks the ringmaster to keep the net this time, but the ringmaster fears to disappoint the audience and removes the net. The jump shot from Montez' point of view leaves the final outcome open, but at the end she is seen sitting in an animal cage. The male spectators queue in front of the cage to kiss Lola Montez' hand for a dollar. The ringmaster confesses to Lola Montez that he could not exist without her. She replies resignedly: "Life goes on."

Cast

Peter Ustinov Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov (born Peter Alexander Freiherr von Ustinov ; 16 April 192128 March 2004) was a British actor, filmmaker and writer. An internationally known raconteur, he was a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits ...

as Circus Master *

Will Quadflieg Friedrich Wilhelm "Will" Quadflieg (; 15 September 1914 – 27 November 2003) was a German actor from Oberhausen. He was the father of actor Christian Quadflieg. He is considered one of Germany's best post-war actors. One of his most widely recog ...

Anton Walbrook Adolf Anton Wilhelm Wohlbrück (19 November 18969 August 1967) was an Austrian actor who settled in the United Kingdom under the name Anton Walbrook. A popular performer in Austria and pre-war Germany, he left in 1936 out of concerns for his o ...

as Ludwig I, King of Bavaria * Oskar Werner as Student *

Henri Guisol Henri Guisol (12 October 1904 – 11 May 1994) was a French film actor. He appeared in more than seventy films from 1931 to 1980. He enjoyed a career in French '' who done its'' and film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily t ...

as Horseman Maurice *

Lise Delamare Lise Delamare (born Jolyse Effrey Jeanne Delamare; 9 April 1913 – 25 July 2006) was a French stage and film actress. Partial filmography * '' George and Georgette'' (1934) * ''Les précieuses ridicules'' (1934) * ''Pension Mimosas'' (1935) - ...

as Mrs. Craigie, Lola's mother *

Paulette Dubost Paulette may refer to: * Paulette (name), French feminine given name *Paulette (tax) * Paulette Caveat - a caveat filed in 1973 by a group of Dene chiefs at the land titles office in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories to gain a legal interest in ...

as Josephine, Lola's maid *

Jacqueline Cantrelle Jacqueline Georgette Cantrelle (23 September 1925 – 10 October 1994) was a French actress. Cantrelle was the daughter of the violinist William Cantrelle (1888–1956) and the comedian Marianne Cantrelle (1900–1972). Her grandmother was the a ...

as friend of conductor

Production

''Lola Montès'' was planned as a major project that should put the theory of a European film into practice. Therefore, the film was shot in French, German and English. The German director Max Ophüls was initially critical of the material, but after studying the biography of Lola Montez he began to work on the script for a black and white film. The production companies expected the film to be a success right from the start and cast it with top-class actors. The French sex symbol of the 1950s

was hired in September 1954 and received a fee of around 350,000 marks; Adolf Wohlbrück's fee was 100,000 marks. Since Ophüls wanted the film to revolve around the idea of a circus in which Lola Montez answers questions about her life in front of the audience in the ring, the production and distribution department decided to have the film shot as a colour film. Although the production company had prepared fixed-time contracts with the actors, the start of filming was delayed because Ophüls only consented to a color film after long test shoots. He rewrote the script to consciously use colours in the film. As

CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...

films became increasingly popular with the public, the “prestige project” was also planned in the then new recording format. This resulted in further changes to the script, which ultimately also meant high costs for contract extensions for the actors involved, some of whom did not experience a single day of filming during the first contract period. "I started to work two days before the contract was over," wrote leading actor

looking back. The first day of shooting took place in mid-February 1955; the shooting locations in the following months were Paris, Nice, Schloss Weißenstein in Pommersfelden, Bamberg and Bavaria Film in Munich. Since in return for a shoot in CinemaScope Ophüls obtained the assurance that "all technical and artistic resources would be made available to him", the cost of the film rose to unprecedented heights at the time. For the ingenious colour concept of the film, paths were artificially coloured; for a shot in which snow was needed, the set was taken to the High Tauern; the scenes of the parade of Ludwig I at the

Monopteros A monopteros (Ancient Greek: , from the Polytonic: μόνος, 'only, single, alone', and , 'wing') is a circular colonnade supporting a roof but without any walls. Unlike a tholos (in its wider sense as a circular building), it does not have w ...

in the

Englischer Garten The ''Englischer Garten'' (, ''English Garden'') is a large public park in the centre of Munich, Bavaria, stretching from the city centre to the northeastern city limits. It was created in 1789 by Sir Benjamin Thompson (1753–1814), later Coun ...

were extended from winter to summer and therefore all costumes had to be reworked. For the circus scenes, which represent the frame story and the central theme of the film, a permanent circus building was built, since the building of the

Circus Krone Circus Krone, based in Munich, is one of the largest circuses in Europe and one of the few in Western Europe (along with Cirque d'hiver de Paris, Cirque d'hiver d'Amiens and Cirque Royal in Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, ...

in Munich was too low for Max Ophüls' ideas, and the Circus Brumbach was already busy with artists and animals. Each scene was shot in French, German and English, so that production costs and shooting time increased more and more. Two circumstances saved the film from the premature stop of the shooting due to lack of money: Reinegger, the distributor of Union-Film, had insured the film ''Lola Montès'' against exceeding the planned shooting time of 82 days due to force majeure, and had sufficient financial means to have ''Lola Montès'' completed thanks to the purchase and subsequent box office success of the Heimatfilm ''Der Forster vom Silberwald''. At the time of its premiere, ''Lola Montès'' had consumed 7.2 million marks, which Ophüls commented in an interview in 1955:

“Whatever sum you will hear, don't forget to divide it by three. Because basically we are shooting three films, one German, one English and one French, since all three versions are shot one after the other with the original cast. So each of the three films will cost a sum that by no means can be called unusual."

Release

This was the last film directed by Ophüls before his death of a heart attack in March 1957. As originally shown in France in 1955, the audience sees the events of Lola Montès' life through the use of flashbacks. Use of the technique was criticized upon its release, and the movie did poorly at the box office. In response, the producers re-cut the film and shortened it in favor of a more chronological storyline, against the director's wishes. According to Roger Ebert, a "savagely butchered version was in circulation for a few years" following Ophüls' death. The film critic Andrew Sarris and others eventually showed improved versions, closer to the original, at the New York Film Festival in 1963 and 1968.

Restoration

Certain elements remained missing and were believed

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography * Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland *Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

, but the later discovery and restoration efforts by Technicolor artists of the lost footage allowed a new version to be edited according to Ophüls' original intentions. The color version of the film with missing footage was digitally restored by a small team of restoration artists including John Healy at Technicolor under the direction of Tom Burton. The black-and-white version of the film was repaired by Martina Müller and Werner Dütsch. The color version including lost footage was shown at the New York Film Festival according to the director's edit version from September 26 to October 12, 2008. ''Lola Montès'' was re-released by Rialto Pictures in November 2008 with the full

Cinemascope CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...

aspect ratio restored and with five minutes of additional footage never before shown in any U.S. release. ''Lola Montès'' was released on DVD and Blu-ray in North America by

in February 2010.

Legacy

Roger Ebert lauded the film's camerawork and set design, but felt that Carol's "wooden ndshallow" performance as the titular character prevented the film from achieving greatness. Nonetheless, it is today among Ophüls' revered works.

Dave Kehr David Kehr (born 1953) is an American museum curator and film critic. For many years a critic at the '' Chicago Reader'' and the ''Chicago Tribune,'' he later wrote a weekly column for ''The New York Times'' on DVD releases. He later became a ...

called it a masterpiece, and wrote that "certainly this story of a courtesan's life is among the most emotionally plangent, visually ravishing works the cinema has to offer." The film also received five votes in the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

's 2012 '' Sight & Sound'' critics' poll. ''Lola Montès'' is acclaimed in Danny Peary's 1981 book '' Cult Movies'' as one of the 100 most representative examples of the

cult film A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage i ...

phenomenon.

References

External links

* * * *
Senses of Cinema essay
by Rodney Hill
''Loving Lola''
an essay by Gary Giddins at the Criterion Collection
LIFE Magazine (May 23, 1969)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lola Montes 1950s biographical drama films 1950s English-language films 1950s French-language films 1950s German-language films 1950s historical drama films 1950s historical romance films 1950s multilingual films 1955 romantic drama films 1955 films CinemaScope films Circus films Cultural depictions of Lola Montez English-language French films English-language German films Films directed by Max Ophüls Films scored by Georges Auric Films set in the 19th century Films shot in Austria Films shot in Bavaria Films shot in Nice French biographical drama films French historical drama films French historical romance films French multilingual films German biographical drama films West German films German historical drama films German historical romance films German multilingual films Romance films based on actual events Biographical films about entertainers Films based on French novels Films based on works by Jacques Laurent 1950s French films 1950s German films