LOLA MONTES
A film retrospective by Michael Har-even
Copyright 1993 Michael Har-even
Director: Max Ophuls Cast: Martine Carol, Peter Ustinov, Oskar Werner, Anton Walbrook Released on 1955, 140 minutes.
LOLA MONTES tells the story of a woman who had many lovers all around Europe and ended up in an American circus selling her memories and kisses to the masses. The film is a mixture of the circus act presenting her life and of flashbacks from the past.
This film is very demanding for the spectator. The mixture of the present and the past, the unique style of Max Ophuls and the usage of cinemascope demand our full attention. I shall try to clarify some aspects of this film without revealing important details. In fact, the film has no ordinary plot. The film consists of several events from the life of LOLA MONTES. Who is Lola Montes?
She is the woman who had more than 42 lovers, the woman who was admired by every man in Europe and had love affairs with Wagner and Liszt. She was the perfect "femme fatal," the woman who symbolized love, the woman who had caused scandals all over Europe and ended up in the circus. When Lola was asked about herself, she said that all the things told about her are not true, she was just a woman who did whatever she wanted to do. Why are men attracted to Lola?
she is not very beautiful, she is a mediocre dancer and she has no unique qualities but Lola can do whatever she desires to do. She chooses whom will fall in love with her and when the affair should be terminated. In fact, one might suspect that Lola had many lovers in searching for true love. Her search is more important than all the conventions and all the rules in the world and as a result no obstacle seems to bother her.
When Lola finds a new lover, we admire her individuality. When Lola is making a scandal, we admire her for doing what we are afraid to do. When Lola realizes love, we admire her for fulfilling our dreams. When Lola joins the circus, we are not just feeling sorry for her but rather pity ourselves for failing to fulfill our own desires. Why did Lola stop her search? Why did she join the circus?
Lola is a true romantic hero, in the best tradition of the great romantic literature. When I am using the term "romantic," I am not referring to the misleading and abused connotation given to this word in this century. I think that a romantic hero is a person who doesn't believe in fate and tries to fulfill all his desires in any cost. The problem is that the fight is tedious and actually life itself is tedious. In the end, Lola became tidy and joined the circus. She was defeated by the naturalistic world, by the conventions and by the mass of people. Her final tragedy is that she is literally like in prison. She doesn't have enough strength to make her attempt to be free successful. The irony, of course, is that her prisoner is her last lover.
The naturalistic end of the film should raise many questions. Is LOLA MONTES a romantic film or a naturalistic film? Did Lola stop to be the perfect romantic hero? Does true love exist? Is romanticism as a life style possible?
The great qualities of LOLA MONTES are not just the ideas stated so far. The aesthetic style of Ophuls is very unique. His originality could be easily compared to that of Renoir, Welles or Bunuel. I could describe in great details his detached way of cinematography, the significance of the decor and his focusing on the exterior of the event and not on the interior. The best thing to do, however, is to go and see the film for yourself. LOLA MONTES is one of those rare gems which could be distincted from most of the films you have ever seen. To see LOLA MONTES is to realize that cinema can be the greatest form of art.
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews