Maximillian Oppenheimer ( , ; 6 May 1902 – 26 March 1957), known as Max Ophüls ( , , ) or simply Ophuls, was a German and French film director and screenwriter. He was known for his opulent and lyrical visual style, with heavy use of
tracking shots, and his melancholic, romantic themes.
The
Harvard Film Archive referred to Ophüls as "a supreme stylist of the cinema and a master storyteller."
A refugee from
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
, Ophüls worked in Germany (1931–1933), France (1933–1940 and 1950–1957), and the United States (1947–1950). He made nearly 30 films, the latter ones being especially notable: ''
The Reckless Moment'' (1949), ''
Letter from an Unknown Woman'' (also 1949) ''
La Ronde'' (1950), ''
Le Plaisir'' (1952), ''
The Earrings of Madame de…'' (1953) and ''
Lola Montès'' (1955).
Life
Youth and early career
Max Ophüls was born in
Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken (; Rhenish Franconian: ''Sabrigge'' ; ; ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken has 181,959 inhabitants and is Saarland's administrative, commerci ...
, Germany, the son of Leopold Oppenheimer, a
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
textile manufacturer and owner of several textile shops in Germany, and his wife Helene Oppenheimer (née Bamberger). He took the
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...
Ophüls during the early part of his theatrical career so that, should he fail, it would not embarrass his father.
Initially envisioning an acting career, he started as a stage actor in 1919 and played at the
Aachen Theatre from 1921 to 1923. He then worked as a theater director, becoming the first director at the city theater of
Dortmund
Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...
. Ophüls moved into
theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...
production in 1924. He became creative director of the
Burgtheater in
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
in 1926. he turned to film production in 1929, when he became a dialogue director under
Anatole Litvak
Anatoly Mikhailovich Litvak (10 May 1902 – 15 December 1974), commonly known as Anatole Litvak, was a Russian-American filmmaker.
Born to Jewish parents in Kiev, he began his theatrical training at age 13 in Saint Petersburg, St. Petersburg, ...
at
UFA in Berlin. He worked throughout Germany and directed his first film in 1931, the comedy short ''Dann schon lieber Lebertran'' (literally ''In This Case, Rather
Cod-Liver Oil'').
Of his early films, the most acclaimed is ''
Liebelei'' (1933), which included a number of the characteristic elements for which he was to become known: luxurious sets, a feminist attitude, and a duel between a younger and an older man.
It was at the Burgtheater that Ophüls met the actress Hilde Wall. They were married in 1926.
Exile and post-war career
Predicting the
Nazi
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
ascendancy, Ophüls, a Jew, fled to France in 1933 after the
Reichstag fire and became a French citizen in 1938. After the fall of France to Germany, he travelled through Switzerland and Italy, where he had directed ''
Everybody's Woman'' (1934). In July 1941, before leaving for the United States, he stayed in Portugal, in
Estoril
Estoril () is a town in the civil parish of Cascais e Estoril of the Portuguese Municipality of Cascais, on the Portuguese Riviera. It is a popular tourist destination, with hotels, beaches, and the Casino Estoril. It has been home to numero ...
, at Casa Mar e Sol. Once in Hollywood, championed by director
Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges (; born Edmund Preston Biden; August 29, 1898 – August 6, 1959) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director.
He is credited as being the first screenwriter to find success as a director. Prior to Sturges, other ...
, a longtime fan, he directed a number of distinguished films.
His first
Hollywood film was the
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. vehicle, ''
The Exile
''The eXile'' was a Moscow-based English-language biweekly free tabloid newspaper, aimed at the city's expatriate community, which combined outrageous, sometimes satirical, content with investigative reporting. In October 2006, co-editor Jake ...
'' (1947). Ophüls' ''
Letter from an Unknown Woman'' (1948), derived from a
Stefan Zweig novella, is the most highly regarded of the American films. ''
Caught'' (1949), and ''
The Reckless Moment'' (1949) followed, before his return to Europe in 1950.
Back in France, he directed and collaborated on the adaptation of
Arthur Schnitzler's ''
La Ronde'' (1950), which won the 1951
BAFTA Award for Best Film
The BAFTA Award for Best Film is a film award given annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and presented at the British Academy Film Awards. It has been given since the 1st BAFTA Awards, representing the best films of 19 ...
, and ''
Lola Montès'' (1955) starring
Martine Carol and
Peter Ustinov
Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov (16 April 192128 March 2004) was a British actor, director and writer. An internationally known raconteur, he was a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits for much of his career. Ustinov received #Awa ...
, as well as ''
Le Plaisir'' and ''
The Earrings of Madame de...'' (1953), the latter with
Danielle Darrieux and
Charles Boyer, which capped his career. Ophüls died from
rheumatic heart disease on 26 March 1957 in Hamburg, while shooting interiors on ''
The Lovers of Montparnasse'', and was buried in
Le Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. This final film was completed by his friend
Jacques Becker
Jacques Becker (; 15 September 1906 – 21 February 1960) was a French film director and screenwriter. His films, made during the 1940s and 1950s, encompassed a wide variety of genres, and they were admired by some of the filmmakers who led th ...
.
Ophüls's son
Marcel Ophüls became a documentary-film maker, director of ''
The Sorrow and the Pity'' and other films examining the nature of political power.
The annual Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis in
Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken (; Rhenish Franconian: ''Sabrigge'' ; ; ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken has 181,959 inhabitants and is Saarland's administrative, commerci ...
is named after him.
Style
All his works feature his distinctive smooth camera movements, complex crane and dolly sweeps, and
tracking shot
In cinematography, a tracking shot is any shot where the camera follows backward, forward or moves alongside the subject being recorded. Mostly the camera’s position is parallel to the character, creating a sideway motion, tracking the chara ...
s.
Ophüls' style inspired
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...
, who once stated that Ophüls "did some brilliant work. I particularly admired his fluid camera techniques."
Paul Thomas Anderson gave an introduction on the restored DVD of ''The Earrings of Madame de...'' (1953).
Some of his films are narrated from the point of view of the female protagonist. Film scholars have analyzed films such as ''Liebelei'' (1933), ''Letter from an Unknown Woman'' (1948), and ''Madame de...'' (1953) as examples of the
woman's film genre.
Nearly all of his female protagonists had names beginning with "L" (Leonora, Lisa, Lucia, Louise, Lola, etc.)
Actor
James Mason, who worked with Ophüls on two films, wrote a short poem about the director's love for tracking shots and elaborate camera movements:
:A shot that does not call for tracks
:Is agony for poor dear Max,
:Who, separated from his dolly,
:Is wrapped in deepest melancholy.
:Once, when they took away his crane,
:I thought he'd never smile again.
Filmography
* Also worked on ''
Les amants de Montparnasse'' (1958).
Bibliography
* Max Ophüls (1959), ''Spiel im Dasein. Eine Rückblende. Mit einem Nachwort von Hilde Ophüls und einer Einführung von
Friedrich Luft, sowie achtzehn Abbildungen'' (autobiography), Stuttgart: Henry Goverts Verlag (posthumously published).
See also
*
List of German-speaking Academy Award winners and nominees
References
Citations
Sources
*
*
*
Further reading
* Alan Larson Williams (1977, reprinted 1980, 1992), ''Max Ophüls and the Cinema of Desire: Style and Spectacle in Four Films, 1948–1955,'' Dissertations on Film series, New York: Arno Press (reprint). ,
* Susan M. White (1995), ''The Cinema of Max Ophüls: Magisterial Vision and the Figure of Woman'', New York: Columbia University Press. ,
* Lutz Bacher (1996), ''Max Ophüls in the Hollywood Studios'', Rutgers, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. ,
*
Melinda Camber Porter (1993), "Through Parisian Eyes: Reflections on Contemporary French Arts and Culture", Da Capo Press. ,
External links
* Dossier about Max Ophüls (edited by Toni D'Angela), on ''La furia umana'', n° 9, 2011, texts (English, French, Italian) by Raymond Bellour, Chris Fujiwara, Leland Monk,
Gaylyn Studlar, Susan M. White, Alain Masson, and others
*
Max Ophuls Bibliography(via UC Berkeley Media Resources Center)
Senses of Cinema Essayby Tag Gallagher
Max Ophüls Award
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ophuls, Max
1902 births
1957 deaths
Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
Naturalized citizens of France
French film directors
French screenwriters
Film directors from Saarland
German film directors
German screenwriters
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to France
Jewish German writers
Jewish German artists
Jewish French writers
Jewish French artists
Jewish film people
People from the Rhine Province
People from Saarbrücken
20th-century German Jews
20th-century French Jews