★ 7 / 10
Yikes, but this is a classy and vivacious
CinemaSerf
Yikes, but this is a classy and vivacious adaptation of de Vilmorin's novel of just why marriage isn't (or shouldn't be) for everyone. It all starts when the…
Yikes, but this is a classy and vivacious adaptation of de Vilmorin's novel of just why marriage isn't (or shouldn't be) for everyone. It all starts when the comtesse "Louise" (Danielle Darrieux) has to sell some jewellery to settle debts of which her husband - a renowned general "André" (Charles Boyer) is unaware. Now this action sets in train a chain reaction that sees these earrings provide a conduit for a story of lust, deception and duplicity as both parties find themselves caught up in some extra-martial relationships and coincidences that ultimately lead to misunderstandings and tragedy. It's a wonderfully internecine story that, though maybe having a slight overdose of serendipity at times, is really effective at demonstrating just how one lie can have an unpredictable domino effect with far reaching ramifications! Ably aided by a strong performance from Boyer, Vittorio De Rica as the baron "Donati" and Lia Di Leo's powerful contributions as "Lola", Darrieux is on great form here as the story unfolds - she even manages a song amidst the emotional chaos she has (inadvertently) caused. The attention to detail gives the production a lavish look to it and at times the writing is remarkably observant and potent - especially from Boyer. It's a love story that is almost entirely devoid of sentiment, walks a thin line between cruelty and generosity and I really enjoyed it.
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★ 6 / 10
Kinda fun early on, but does not stay that strong
Horst_In_Translation
"Madame de..." is a French/Italian co-production from 1953 that is mostly in the French language too and this one is already over 65 years old now. This was…
"Madame de..." is a French/Italian co-production from 1953 that is mostly in the French language too and this one is already over 65 years old now. This was directed by German filmmaker Max Ophüls and definitely a late career effort from him. He was 50 when he made this, but his untimely death happened less than five years later. Today Ophüls is sadly almost forgotten by non cinema buffs here in Germany, which is a bit of a pity, but also nice that theaters are showing his films from time to time again like this one here so people remember him. And there is of course this festival named after him. But now let's be a bit more specific and take a look at his work here. He is also one of the many writers who adapted the novel for the screen. The result was an Oscar nomination for the costume design, where (as always) Edith Head won the category back then. But the nomination is okay too. It is definitely not undeserving, the costumes here are really nice for both men and women and I could only imagine how they would be even better if this was a color film. But it is not and that is alright. I find it a bit strange, however, that this is classified here on imdb as a drama (and romance), because I thought there was a lot of comedy in here, most of it pretty dark. Just take a look at the ending. This is the best example. And I mean even the title is a comedic connection to (at least) 2 occasions when we hear the central character's name being cut off after the "de". One would be because the carriage is moving away. The other would be because an assistant does not care about aristocratic heritage.
I would say this film is at its very best early on. Basically the first 30 minutes or so until the moment when the husband gives the earrings to the woman on the train. That was really entertaining I would say and I laughed a lot about several scenes, also some really short moments like when the husband is looking for the jewellery at the theater and we see one man raising his head and making a sound to indicate that he wants silence. Now that was quite funny. And there were many moments like these early on. Maybe the fact that I liked it so much also had to do with Charles Boyer, a 4-time Oscar nominee at that point and Honorary Oscar winner. He was really really a lot of fun and spot-on with his mannerisms, body language and face expressions. I thought he was much better than Vittorio De Sico who really did almost nothing for me unfortunately and his frequent presence in the second half did not exactly help the movie from my subjective perspective. As for Danielle Darrieux, she was good. Somewhere in-between the two guys in terms of how much I liked the performance. But overall, she does a decent job as lead actress here and she is the only female with major screen time, so overall a respectable turn from her. Actually she only died a little over 2 years ago at the ancient age of 100. Just a random snippet of information. But yeah, I thought that after she was also pretty good in the first half hour of the film, then the following 70 minutes of this 100-minute film, she was not at her best. Again, I would say it was a comedy to see the earrings move from one character to the next in a pretty hilarious fashion. The guy who gets them and sells them back to the husband early on was pretty hilarious too as a running gag. Well done. However, it does get a bit chaotic later on. You must be 100% awake, 0% sleepy to really follow up on everything that happens to the earrings and every character to completely understand what was going on. I must say sometimes I did not and once you're out of the loop, it is even more difficult to find appealing features in here. And I felt this was also true for many others in the audience. So I would say the first first half gets an 8 and maybe everything afterwards a 5 out of 10, the pretty showy ending then a 6 perhaps. You could say that the apparent death of two major characters eventually contributes to this being considered a drama and the "I don't love you" quote add to the romance genre, but still you should make up your mind yourself if you like this film for its more serious or lighter moments. For me it was the latter. Thumbs-up all inall, but the rating here is still way too high. This great it was not unfortunately, just one of the better (not best) films of 1953.
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