The Earrings of Madame de... (1953)
Directed by Max Ophüls
In late 19th century France, the Countess Louise, wife of a wealthy general, sells the earrings her husband gave her on their wedding day to pay off her secret debts, then claims to have lost them. Her husband quickly learns of the deceit, which is the beginning of many tragic misunderstandings, all involving the earrings, the general, the countess, and her new lover, the Italian Baron Donati.
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What critics compared The Earrings of Madame de... to
It is “superficially superficial,” to borrow a phrase from a far greater film that explores similar themes, The Earrings of Madame de…
If you’ve seen Grand Hotel, or Grand Illusion, or The Earrings of Madame de…, you’ll appreciate the loving sense of homage.
The black-and-white The Earrings of Madame de... is of a piece with its predecessors, La Ronde (1950) and Le Plaisir (1952), but most consider it the best of the three.
A side-by-side comparison of the ballroom sequences in Madame and Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (based on a novel by Arthur Schnitzler, as was Ophüls’s 1950 film La Ronde) would be startling, especially in the resemblance between the slow-dancing suitors played by De Sica and Sky Dumont, “the Hungarian.”
Deliciously blending Sacha Guitry's The Pearls of the Crown and Ophüls's own La Ronde, this is just about as polished as European cinema gets.
In September 2008, Criterion released three Max Ophuls films simultaneously on DVD: “La ronde” (1950), “Le plaisir” (1952), and “The Earrings of Madame De...” (1953).
The Criterion Collection has released this and two other Ophuls films, Le Plaisir and The Earrings of Madame de... in gorgeous new black-and-white transfers.