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''The Earrings of Madame de...'' ( ) is a 1953 romantic
drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...
film directed by
Max Ophüls 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 trac ...
from a screenplay he co-wrote with
Marcel Achard Marcel Achard (5 July 1899 – 4 September 1974) was a French playwright and screenwriter whose popular sentimental comedies Garzanti p. 3 maintained his position as a highly recognizable name in his country's theatrical and literary circles ...
and Annette Wademant. Based on the 1951 novel ''Madame de...'' by
Louise Lévêque de Vilmorin Marie Louise Lévêque de Vilmorin (4 April 1902 – 26 December 1969), commonly known as Louise de Vilmorin, was a French novelist, poet and journalist. Vilmorin was best known as a writer of delicate but wiktionary:en:mordant, mordant tales, of ...
, the title reflects the fact that the surname of the main character is never revealed—the few times it might be heard or seen, it is obscured by noise or a camera trick. The film is considered a masterpiece of 1950s French cinema, with film critic
Andrew Sarris Andrew Sarris (October 31, 1928 – June 20, 2012) was an American film critic. He was a leading proponent of the auteur theory of film criticism. Early life Sarris was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Greek immigrant parents, Themis (née Kat ...
calling it "the most perfect film ever made".


Plot

In ''
Belle Époque The Belle Époque () or La Belle Époque () was a period of French and European history that began after the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 and continued until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era of the Fr ...
'' Paris, Louise is an aristocratic woman married to André, who is both a count and a general in the French army. Relations between Louise and André are companionable, but they sleep in separate rooms and have no children, and André has a mistress, Lola. A spoiled and superficial woman, Louise has amassed large debts due to her lifestyle, so she arranges to secretly sell a pair of valuable heart-shaped diamond earrings that André gave her as a wedding present, but which she does not care for, back to the original jeweler, Rémy, disguising their disappearance by pretending to have lost them at the opera. The search for the earrings eventually reaches the newspapers, which prompts Rémy to go to André and discreetly offer to sell them back. André accepts cheerfully and, rather than confront his wife, coolly gives the earrings to Lola, of whom he has recently grown tired, as a parting gift when seeing her off on a train to Constantinople. Soon after arriving in Constantinople, Lola sells the earrings during a losing stint at the
roulette Roulette (named after the French language, French word meaning "little wheel") is a casino game which was likely developed from the Italy, Italian game Biribi. In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various grouping ...
table at a casino. They are purchased from a jewelry store by Baron Fabrizio Donati, an Italian diplomat. In Paris, Donati meets and becomes infatuated with Louise, and they fall in love while dancing together at a series of formal balls while André is away on maneuvers. After André returns, Louise attracts attention when she faints upon seeing Donati fall from his horse during a hunting excursion. Embarrassed, she announces that she will take a holiday in the Italian lake district, hoping the trip will calm her growing feelings for Donati. Before she leaves, Donati visits and gives her the earrings he bought in Constantinople, unaware they had previously belonged to Louise. Donati regales Louise with letters while she is gone, and she writes responses that she does not dare to send, and by the end of her trip, she finds that her love for Donati is deeper than ever. They meet secretly, and she confesses she can console herself when he is not around only through possession of the earrings, which she now identifies with him, rather than André. So she can wear the earrings openly, Louise makes a show of "finding" them inside one of her gloves in front of André before a ball. He initially says nothing, but at the ball he separates Louise and Donati, takes the earrings from Louise, and quietly confronts Donati about them, revealing their history. He then instructs Donati to sell them back to Rémy, so he can buy them—again—and give them back to Louise. Before departing, Donati informs Louise he can no longer see her and expresses his pain at learning of her lies about the earrings. Louise falls into a deep depression. André presents her with the earrings, but the ecstatic way she receives them causes him to change his mind. He informs her that she must give them to a niece who has just given birth, and she tearfully acquiesces. The niece's husband sells the earrings to Rémy to pay off some debts, and Rémy offers to sell them to André for a fourth time, but André angrily turns him away. Back at his shop, Rémy finds Louise waiting for him, and she arranges to buy the earrings back by selling some of the jewelry and furs that she had previously preferred to the earrings. When André discovers this, he goes to a gentleman's club and uses an innocuous professional slight as a pretext to challenge Donati to a duel with pistols. When Louise cannot get Donati to withdraw from the duel, she goes to the Church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont to pray at the shrine of St. Geneviève that he be spared, leaving the earrings as an offering. She races to the location of the duel and is approaching just as André, as the offended party, takes the first shot. When she does not hear a second shot, Louise slumps against a tree, and her maid runs for help, screaming, "She's dying!" The earrings are put on display at the church, alongside a plaque crediting Louise for their donation.


Cast


Production

Ophüls said he was attracted by the construction of the story, stating: "there is always the same axis around which the action continually turns like a carousel. A tiny, scarcely visible axis: a pair of earrings". However, the film's script became considerably different from de Vilmorin's short novel, and Ophüls stated that "besides the earrings, there's very little of the novel left in the film... ustthe senselessness of that woman's life." He spoke privately with
Danielle Darrieux Danielle Yvonne Marie Antoinette Darrieux (; 1 May 1917 – 17 October 2017) was a French actress of stage, television and film, as well as a singer and dancer. Beginning in 1931, she appeared in more than 110 films. She was one of France's g ...
between takes throughout the shoot, telling her to portray the emptiness of her character. With its glittering costumes and furnishings and swirling camera work, the montage of ballroom dancing scenes that represents the process of Louise and Donati falling in love in the film is a celebrated example of Ophüls' technique. In his original treatment for the film, every scene was to be shot through mirrors on walls and other locations, but his producers rejected the idea. After his experience shooting '' La Ronde'' (1950), Ophüls was determined to stay on budget and on schedule for this film, and he made extensive preparations during pre-production, with the result that he ended up completing production ahead of schedule and under budget. Ophüls worked closely with art director Georges Annenkov to create the right atmosphere for the film. Annenkov designed the film's titular prop earrings, which were subsequently put on display at the Franco-London-Film production studios for many years. Darrieux,
Charles Boyer Charles Boyer (; 28 August 1899 – 26 August 1978) was a French-American actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found his success in American fi ...
, and Annenkov had all worked together in 1936 on the film ''
Mayerling Mayerling is a small village (pop. 200) in Lower Austria belonging to the municipality of Alland in the district of Baden (district of Austria), Baden. It is situated on the Schwechat river, in the Vienna Woods, Wienerwald (''Vienna woods''), so ...
'', which was Darrieux's first leading role. Initially, Ophüls was too embarrassed to give direction to
Vittorio De Sica Vittorio De Sica ( , ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement. Widely considered one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, four of the fil ...
out of respect for De Sica's work as a director, but the two became friends during the shoot of ''Madame de...''


Reception

''The Earrings of Madame De...'' received mixed reviews when it was first released, but its reputation has grown over the years. On the
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, 97% of 36 critics' reviews of the film are positive, with an average rating of 8.7/10; the site's "critics consensus" reads: "Ophüls' graceful camerawork and visual portrayal of luxury and loss make ''Earrings'' a powerful French drama."
Jacques Rivette Jacques Rivette (; 1 March 1928 – 29 January 2016) was a French film director and film critic most commonly associated with the French New Wave and the film magazine '' Cahiers du Cinéma''. He made twenty-nine films, including '' L'Amour fo ...
praised the film, calling it "a difficult work, in the fullest sense of the word, even in its writing, one in which everything aims to disconcert, distract the viewer from what is essential through the accumulation of secondary actions, wrong turns, repetitions and delays; a work in which the picturesque tries hard to conceal the pathetic."
François Truffaut François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French filmmaker, actor, and critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. He came under the tutelage of film critic Andre Bazin as a ...
wrote that the film was very similar to Ophüls' 1933 German film '' Liebelei'', stating that "the last half hour, the duel and the finale, is a remake pure and simple." In a 1961 article in ''Kulchur'' that was later reprinted in her first book,
Pauline Kael Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael often defied the conse ...
praised the performances, "sensuous camerawork," "extraordinary romantic atmosphere," and "polished, epigrammatic dialogue." When it was re-released in England in 1979, the film was received as a rediscovered masterpiece, with
Derek Malcolm Derek Elliston Michael Malcolm (12 May 1932 – 15 July 2023) was an English film critic and historian. Early life Derek Elliston Michael Malcolm was born on 12 May 1932. He was the son of Douglas Malcolm (died 1967) and Dorothy Vera (died 196 ...
calling it "a supreme piece of film-making which hardly puts a foot wrong for 2 hours...a magnificent and utterly timeless dissection of passion and affection, the game of life and love itself."
Lindsay Anderson Lindsay Gordon Anderson (17 April 1923 – 30 August 1994) was a British feature-film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading light of the Free Cinema movement and of the British New Wave. He is most widely remembered fo ...
criticized the film, however, writing: "the camera is never still; every shot has the tension of a conjuring trick. The sleight of hand is dazzling, but fatally distracting...With a supple, ingenious, glittering flow of images that is aesthetically the diametric opposite of Mme. de Vilmorin's chaste prose, he has made the film an excuse for a succession of rich, decorative displays...In all this visual ''frou-frou'' it is not surprising that the characters become lost and the interior development of the drama is almost completely unobserved."
Molly Haskell Molly Clark Haskell (born September 29, 1939)Aitken, Ian, ed. (2006)''Encyclopedia of Documentary Film, Volume 2'' New York: Routledge. p. 541. . is an American film critic and author. She contributed to '' The Village Voice''—first as a ...
called the film a masterpiece with a cult following that grows every year, asserting that it is usually not as revered as other, more male-oriented films because it is a female-oriented film.
Richard Roud Richard Stanley Roud (July 6, 1929 – February 13, 1989) was an American writer on film and co-founder, with Amos Vogel, of the New York Film Festival (NYFF).Sight and Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (formerly written ''Sight & Sound'') is a monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). Since 1952, it has conducted the well-known decennial ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time. ...
's critics poll, and directors such as
Wes Anderson Wesley Wales Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American filmmaker. Wes Anderson filmography, His films are known for themes of grief, loss of innocence, and dysfunctional families. Due to his films' eccentricity, distinctive visual and narrative ...
and
Edgar Wright Edgar Howard Wright (born 18 April 1974) is an English filmmaker. He is known for his fast-paced and kinetic, satirical Film genre, genre films, which feature extensive utilisation of expressive popular music, Steadicam tracking shots, dolly zo ...
listed it as one of their favorites.


Awards

At the 27th Academy Awards, Georges Annenkov and Rosine Delamare were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White for their work on the film.


References

Bibliography * * *


External links

* * *
''The Earrings of Madame de . . . : The Cost of Living''
– an essay by
Molly Haskell Molly Clark Haskell (born September 29, 1939)Aitken, Ian, ed. (2006)''Encyclopedia of Documentary Film, Volume 2'' New York: Routledge. p. 541. . is an American film critic and author. She contributed to '' The Village Voice''—first as a ...
at
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". A "sister company" of art film, arth ...

"Max Ophuls's Movie of Matchless Elegance"
David Mermelstein, ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'', 7 August 2010
''The Earrings of Madame de...''
review at DVDbeaver.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Earrings Of Madame De... 1953 films 1953 romantic drama films 1950s French films 1950s French-language films 1950s Italian films Belle Époque Films about adultery in France Films based on French novels Films directed by Max Ophüls Films set in the 1890s French black-and-white films French romantic drama films French-language Italian films Italian black-and-white films Italian romantic drama films Films scored by Oscar Straus Films scored by Georges Van Parys French-language romantic drama films Films based on works by Louise de Vilmorin