Lola Montès

A film told in the form of a circus performance. A circus in America has a new attraction. A woman sits in the middle of the ring while the ringmaster sells her life to the audience: how many men she was with, which country she was expelled from, which king's favourite she was, announced one by one. The audience may ask questions and every question has a price. The woman is Lola Montez. The narrative turns back from the circus and the parts of her life open in turn: the years beside a composer, tours in Europe, an affair with a king and the political crisis that affair caused in one country. At the end of each flashback we return to the ring. With that structure the film asks a question: who is telling this life, and whom does the telling serve. The design is the most striking thing. It uses the wide screen and keeps narrowing the frame with curtains, columns and gauzes. The colours change in each section. Martine Carol plays Lola, Peter Ustinov the ringmaster and Anton Walbrook the king. Max Ophüls directed; it was his last film. It was not well received on release and the producers cut it and put the scenes into chronological order. The original edit was restored years later. An important production for anyone who likes classic European cinema and formal experiment. For a viewer expecting a straight life story, the narrative keeps breaking.