Lola Montes (1955)

We can't have a post about Mel Gibson without one featuring another fallen star recently in the news - Lindsay Lohan. So, in honor of her first day in jail, let's take a look at a film that someone should have shown her a long time ago: Max Ophuls' full-color epic Lola Montes, about the 19th century exotic dancer who died at the age of 39. (And it's no small coincidence that their stage names - Lilo and Lola - sound so similar)

I might add that I'm not the only blogger who feels this film can serve as a cautionary tale to modern starlets - in his review of the movie, Michael of I Shoot the Pictures urged Britney Spears and others to take heed.

---

French actress Martine Carol plays the fiery Lola, who counted the King of Bavaria and Franz Liszt among her many lovers. These relationships are dealt with in short flashback scenes. Another one of her lovers is played by Oskar Werner in the film, and he's rather enjoyable to watch.

The film starts and ends in a circus tent, where Lola is presented as a freak on display, and eventually ends up in a cage. The Ringmaster is played with great bravado by Peter Ustinov; it's a very interesting role, like that of a Weimar cabaret emcee. He speaks to Lola in both French and English, her native tongue.

The odd part of this is that the real Lola never performed in a "real" circus (with clowns and acrobats and such). But these scenes are all symbolic; it's Ophuls' commentary on the circus of show business, particularly Hollywood, as our instructor said, combined with desire.

Martine Carol's Lola is rather wooden, I felt, though some in the class liked how the character was written and presented. Our instructor said that she is a prisoner of her own image, and throughout the film she feels so trapped, so stiff. Almost like a study of this woman's powerlessness.

Our instructor said that Ophuls doesn't want the audience to get beyond the edifice of this character. But I was yearning to know more about Lola. Ophuls doesn't give that glimpse inside.

This is probably my least favorite film of all the Ophuls films I've seen so far. But it's worth seeing. It's also Ophuls' last film. He originally didn't want to do it, but after he was approached by the producers with the idea, he decided to do it if he could write the original screenplay.

Visually, it's spectacular, and very colorful, which is new to an Ophuls film. But so many elements of his films are here: long takes, some lasting up to 2 minutes, lots of interesting framing when the camera is looking through windows, and numerous scenes of characters ascending or descending staircases.

When the film opened in Europe, it was a epic failure with the public. One person in our class wondered if it's failure had to do with it being in CinemaScope; perhaps these epic films appeared too crass. Also, people may have been turned off if they were expecting something more narrative instead of metaphoric.

In Dave's superb essay on his blog Criterion Reflections, he notes that audiences may have been expecting something a bit more risque, based on what the posters seemed to promise. Yet Ophuls doesn't even show Lola dancing in the film.

The stylized sequences in the circus are often quite lavish, and they undoubtedly served as some kind of inspiration for the 2001 Nicole Kidman film Moulin Rougue!, which I thought of while watching this. There are even some menacing-looking henchman who assist the Ringmaster, adding to the creepiness - this darkness may have been a turnoff to audiences of the time as well.

Another student in the class said this film reminded him of The Blue Angel, where there's also a character named Lola and the idea the theme of people selling their souls.

Last winter Michael wrote a great essay on his blog about this film, and points out how the film was recently restored (in 2008) to better represent Ophuls' original cut. It's this version that we watched in the class (it's also the version on the Criterion DVD)

--------------

Recommended blog posts about the film Lola Montes (1955)

Michael's review: I Shoot the Pictures (May 2009)
Dave's essay: Criterion Reflections (Jul. 2010)
Michael's essay: The Evening Class (Feb. 2010)