User reviews

Yes, this movie is based on overt sexual tendencies; there is no argument there. What is so amazing about this movie is the cinematography. Ophuls created so many sweeping shots, so well, using only a camera on a track. This is an amazing feat. Also this movie echoes a lot of Freud. Remember, Ophuls is German and certainly read Freud during his life.

One of Freud's greatest works involving psychoanalysis is parapraxes, or slips of the tongue. In La Ronde, parapraxes play a major role, for parapraxes also apply to misplacement of items (and people). For every love, there is another lover. Freud would say that no matter how much you love your partner, there is a better partner for you out there. A partner that the second you see, you will become instantly infatuated with. La Ronde does an excellent job of this.

My very first Ophüls film, a breezy studio-bound adaption of Arthur Schnitzler's play "Reigen", set in the 1980s in Vienna (yes, I'm freshly returning from a one-week vacation in Vienna). Structurally, LA RONDE adheres firmly to the play's ten liaisons, each stars one pair of its 10 characters in a sequential order, starts with the whore (Signoret) and the solider (Reggiani), then the soldier and the housemaid (Simon), the housemaid and the young gentleman (Gélin), and so forth until it finishes with the Count (Philipe) and the whore, thus consummates "la ronde".

One prominent change is that Ophüls introduces an all-knowing raconteur (Walbrook), who is quite omnipresent, not only shepherds viewers into each story, but takes on minor roles whenever transition from one scene to another is needed as well, Walbrook is vivacious and stylish as the master of ceremonies, croons the theme strain from time to time, slyly breaks the fourth wall or intervenes in the happenings occasionally; whereas the sundry characters are primarily driven by their desire and impulsion regardless of their identities, each is equally allotted a fifteen-minute or so screen time divided into two parts with two different opposite-sex, like the merry-go-round in the background, they flirt, seduce, debate, banter and having sex (off-screen) in the most casual fashion, when they put on their clothes again, no string is attached, they can continue a small talk like friends or just move on to the next chapter without hesitation. It is the quintessential of cinematic operetta doesn't impose on lecturing viewers, only to divert, to flirt, to vivify the atmosphere and to evince the Franco-philosophy of c'est la vie!

Essentially the film is a star-studded celebrity parade, household names like Signoret, Simon, Darrieux, Miranda and Philipe etc. are indisputably in their most magnificent form although none of them is given too much fodder to capitalise on, it is all the same, for cinephiles alone, an eye-opening feast to worship, thanks to the fluid camera-work and the florid production exclusively set inside the studio, it is an escapist's utter pleasure to accommodate oneself to a sumptuous period where everything looks so nostalgically charming and beguilingly narcissistic, so we can all be free and easy, at least for 97-minutes.

This seems a little old fashioned even allowing for it's period setting. Perhaps it's the reluctance of the director to go beyond even the merest suggestion of congress that gives it an air of something made in the late thirties or forties. It certainly has charm though and Ophul's cameras twirl and glide like the carousel itself. Always looking sumptuous (perhaps it shouldn't) and always light-hearted (perhaps it should be more serious) it is a pleasant enough viewing. Oscar Strauss' music helps enormously and is in complete harmony with the visuals. Simon Signoret as the prostitute, seen at the start and finish is exemplary and Simone Simon shines most brightly as the seductive maid.

Through a series of dove-tailing love vignettes, Max Ophüls offers us an enchanting film replete with some of the greatest acting talent French cinema has known. The brevity of the individual segments of the film does not greatly impair the quality of the characterisation or acting performance, and there are some very impressive moments, particularly the scenes with Jean-Louis Barrault (best know for his role in Les Enfants du Paradis) and Simone Signoret (Les Diaboliques and Casque d'Or).

The film is surprisingly - for a film of its age - pretty explicit about the sexual proclivities of the aristocracy and military men. That a respectable middle-aged married woman should seek an amorous adventure with a man half her age, whilst her wealthy husband carries on with a young woman barely out of her teens most probably caused a few raised eyebrows when the film was released in 1950 - particularly when the film is very much in the velvet-lined mould of the traditional pre-war French romantic film.

The most impressive aspect of the film, above the great acting and splendid direction, is its humour. This is a film that is unable to take itself seriously. The mysterious raconteur (superbly played by Anton Walbrook) endeavours to keep the merry-go-round of love happily on its course, but has a few technical problems on the way. It's reassuring to know that even all-knowing deities have their off-days.

Another strong point is Oscar Straus's musical score, particularly the raconteur's merry-go-round ballad which accompanies the film throughout, not unlike the cheery music of a real merry-go-round in a fairground.

This has all the ingredients of a great film. It is a fanciful waltz across the ephemeral ballroom of love, and it succeeds admirably.

La Ronde is one of my favourite French films, I can't watch it too often as it has its faults but it hasn't failed to enchant me each time so far. Max Ophuls certainly had an elegant style about him, see Le Plaisir and Madame de .. for further evidence. He re-created Vienna 1903 seemingly effortlessly in this, and even with Anton Walbrook continually talking to the camera and a film set deliberately momentarily on display it's pretty convincing. The attention to period detail was knockout, done as only Ophuls knew how. It can still be done nowadays but lacking one vital ingredient: an atmosphere, a feel for the time and place that came with nitrate film stock. Modern films can look as sumptuous in their set and costume design even in todays colour, but nearly all fail to generate an atmosphere because modern film stock plays too realistic - and it ain't going to get any better with digital no-film-at-all!

The Austrian Anton Walbrook was a multi-linguist, his sinister sibilant English in Gaslight was perfect, in Colonel Blimp perfectly resigned as a defeated and baffled non-Nazi German soldier. He spoke a few gorgeous words in French in La Ronde and was then promptly dubbed for the rest of the movie. Maybe he couldn't sing, but why did they jettison such a lovely speaking voice as well?

The conventional hypocrisy of sexually cheating on your (straight?!) partner in secret is repeatedly portrayed, as well as the notion that casual sexual gratification is usually desired by both sexes of both classes and as fast as possible. These lovers of sex move on: familiarity breeds contempt - once you've come it's time to go! This sex (not love) merry-go-round is one reason why there are 6 billion people on Earth today! But I definitely don't agree with the previous comment that Ophuls' version of La Ronde was about the spread of STD even though the original play had it as a major theme. Ophuls was all about Pleasure, not Pain - any syphilitic transmission was left to the imagination here. Walbrook waxes wistfully cynical throughout this beautiful film - he wouldn't change a thing about Life and Sex if he could. I'm happily forced to watch this film with amused sadness from his point of view, and wouldn't change a thing about it even if I could.

Vienna 1900. But actually a film studio in France. Ophuls never lets you forget that. This masterwork is deeply concerned with truth and illusion. In love and in art, in the art of love. It is charming whilst showing you the limitations of charm, seductive whilst demonstrating the hazards of seduction. Great as it is, it probably is not the peak of the director's achievement: LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN, MADAME DE... and LOLA MONTES probably have better claims to that accolade. But the rare weak moments do not, in my view, detract from LA RONDE's status as a masterpiece, since over all its quality is so high. It boasts a dazzling cast, led by wonderful Anton Walbrook, and a theme tune by Oskar Straus that will follow you around for the rest of your life.

"La Ronde" is the cinematic equivalent of a short story collection in which affairs of the heart are the central theme and one character from each story plays a part in the next. Almost by definition, movies like this feel less satisfying to me, because no one story is ever allowed to build to any kind of dramatic conclusion, but "La Ronde" is a pretty good example of the genre.

I don't know that the film (which was based on a stage play) has much to say about love beyond generic platitudes, but it boasts some lovely little performances, especially by Danielle Darrieux, who would go on to captivate me a few years later in another and far superior Max Ophuls film, "The Earrings of Madame de...", and Simone Signoret, who plays a weary prostitute. The true star of the picture, however, is the production design, which alone makes the film worth watching. It looks sumptuous, and the camera glides around the spaces as smoothly and gracefully as the carousel that serves as a recurring visual motif in the film.

"La Ronde" was deservedly nominated for a Best Art Direction Oscar in the black and white category, and Max Ophuls and writing partner Jacques Natanson were nominated for adapting its screenplay.

Grade: B+

La Ronde is, I think, one of those films which evade me almost completely. It is an anthology film made up of a couple of vignettes and brief love affairs. In these vignettes I find the film to be quite confounding, and I never really got what the point of this film is. The films comedy also evades me. It may well be approached with a wry, light hearted tone, and the inclusion of Anton Walbrooks omniscient Raconteur enhances that, but at the end of teh day most of the films humour flew over my head. It never felt particularly witty or ironic, and there was a sense of predictability in the film, as the carousel spins round. The set design and cinematography for this film are however excellent, typical of Max Ophuls, and technically, the film has no faults. Overall I find La Ronde to be a film which brilliance escapes me- I found it a little slow, a little dull, and not funny enough.

It's all a trifle, a flippant comedy by that incorrigible lusty libertine Arthur Schnitzler of pre-1900 Vienna, who made it his profession to tease the bourgeoisie by his very equivocal stories, always driving at the forbidden. Here is a bunch of lovers all betraying each other, there is no fidelity, no depth of feelings, just moving along from one bed to the next, and no one is even hurt - there is one wedded husband who finds it a little disappointing that his mistress doesn't turn up as they had agreed, but that's the worst hard feeling in the entire carousel of amorous exercises. The main thing is the supremely masterful direction, Max Ophuls' camera constantly moving around up and down and never resting in its enthusiastic exploration of relationships, and the scenery is exquisite to say the least and all the way. Of course, you recognise his dreamy settings of old Vienna from his earlier greatest film, "Letter from an Unknown Woman" on Stefan Zweig's short story, which made such an impression on his American audience that he stopped there to make two more films for them, but here he is back in Europe and in France and in his own private playground and home, and relishing it, enjoying it and making more than the best of it - his later French films are all exquisite masterpieces of refined taste, and this was the first of them. No superlatives are enough, they are all basically happy and fortuitous comedies, while the sad ending is only, that his last film, his first in colour and his most ambitious effort, "Lola Montez" five years later, was butchered and massacred by his producers and critics, which killed him at only 54 years. Yet he had made many of the most precious films ever made in continental Europe.

Dreamily tongue-in-cheek romantic concoction dips back lovingly into the past--Vienna, circa 1900--to travel through the circular realm of love's finest hours, connecting and sweeping up its players in a carousel of lighthearted whimsy. Dashing Anton Walbrook is a singing, cigarette-smoking master of ceremonies, one who appears to perceive the art of loving as a nostalgic pastime. Max Ophüls directed and co-adapted Arthur Schnitzler's play "Reigen", and his touch is valentine-fresh while viewing love through a rose-colored crystal ball. The happy/sad theme music by Oscar Straus compliments the phony-theatrical backdrop and, in the beginning, there are some very sweet and funny couplings. Unfortunately, the film is overlong and seems preconceived to attract attention with its ensemble star cast (everyone gets their moment in the spotlight, which comes off rather precious). Moments remain magical, even though a detached undercurrent runs throughout, eventually turning the characters into bemused mannequins. Two Oscar nominations: Best Screenplay for Jacques Natanson and Max Ophüls and Best Art Direction, Black-and-White. BAFTA winner for Best Film from any Source (France). Remade by Roger Vadim in 1964. **1/2 from ****

The first word that came to my mind while watching Max Ophüls' 'La Ronde' is fascinating. The opening shot is a 5 minute long take which instantly establishes the tone and vibe of the film. The narrator played by the great Anton Wolbrook walks onto a stage(the screenplay written by Jacques Natanson and Ophüls is based on the play by Arthur Schnitzler), he then talks about who he is and what role he is supposed to carry out in the plot, he then interestingly steps down from the stage and we suddenly see the studio lights and then he walks into a set meant to simulate the look of 19th century Vienna with precise lighting to simulate sunrise and ambient noises of birds chirping in the distance. Through this opening sequence, Ophüls quickly establishes the distinction between the stage and cinema(which is relevant considering the source material for the film), he also establishes how film creates the veil of illusion that entraps and engrosses the viewer and from then on pretty much through to the end of the film, he plays around with this concept of cinematic illusion. 'La Ronde' was 'meta' before being meta was cool.

The only other Max Ophüls film that I had seen before this was 'Letter from an Unknown Woman'. It really is interesting to analyse 'La Ronde' with regards to 'Letter from an Unknown Woman'. In 'Letter from an Unknown Woman', I very quickly understood that Ophüls was interested in the precise execution of the formal elements of filmmaking. The symmetry in the staging of specific scenes and sequences, precise placement of camera to call back to earlier scenes for ironic effect,etc., there are a number of examples of these technical elements in 'Letter from an Unknown Woman'. But along with that there was an intense and melancholic exploration of a woman's failed romance. Ophüls made us really care about Lisa in that film. In 'La Ronde', Ophüls continues to explore failed romance and the mysteries of sexual attraction. The film ventures into territories of exploring the causes and reasons behind an attraction between two people. Some may just be desperate to be with someone of the opposite sex, someone might seek company out of sheer boredom or for being in a bland and lifeless marriage, some might get attracted to specific individuals who might remind them of a loved one or a forgotten moment in the past,etc. But having said all of that, it becomes very clear that Ophüls is more interested in tweaking and maneuvering these themes to underline the plot machinations and forced interceptions that a director engages in during the process of making a film. The film doesn't dig deep into the characters and make us care for them, but intentionally so. For me, the character played by Anton Walbrook is supposed to be the surrogate for the director. The film is divided into a number of separate episodes. Walbrook makes his way into almost each episode to ensure that one character from that particular episode makes his/her way into the next episode to make sure the film keeps moving forward smoothly and the figurative merry-go-round keeps rotating. The camera movements are again as precise as they were in 'Letter from an Unknown Woman'.

Due to restricted and limited access to the characters, we don't to really attach ourselves to any particular actor, but the acting is stellar from pretty much everyone involved, specially Anton Walbrook and Danielle Darrieux. I also have to mention that the song 'La Ronde de l'amour' and the tune adds to charm of the film exponentially.

'La Ronde' is a film about the magic that a filmmaker can create out of the illusion of cinema. Ophüls constantly uses self-reflexive scenes of Wolbrook breaking the 4th wall or Wolbrook walking in an area where the studio equipments are clearly visible or him changing the course of the characters to ensure the plot progresses in a specific way or even scenes of Wolbrook censoring and editing out chunks of the film. This is a very mature, artistic yet immensely mischievous exploration the process of filmmaking. Is it at the basic level, a gimmick film? Yes, but when a gimmick is executed in such a marvelous way by a master director, it becomes impossible not to admire it.

Psychology was one of the most important aspects in the plays of Arthur Schnitzler, Vienna's most brilliant and best-known fin de siècle dramatist. German director Max Ophüls knew this of course, still, in my opinion he didn't put psychology first in his very drama-like film version of Schnitzler's play Der Reigen. Ophüls lays quite a lot of weight into the appearances of the mysterious `showmaster', which makes the film rather dark and a little bit spooky, although it is in fact about perfectly ordinary people and their instincts.

The actors are French and speak French (although the setting remains Vienna). The language makes the film a little more pathetic than it should be: `l'amour' has completely different qualities than `Liebe' or `love'.

6 out of 10.

Anton Walbrook plays this all seeing man that brings viewers to 1900 Vienna. There he introduces us to various characters who have sex, then go off and have sex with other characters etc etc until at the end it reaches a full circle.

This movie is beautiful to look at it--the settings and costumes are stunning and there's a wonderful music score. Also all the acting is great--but this is a bore. The film is episodic in nature and doesn't flow together smoothly. The dialogue was (for 1950) pretty risqué but by today's standards it's static and predictable. Also the movie is extremely slow moving with scenes that are stretched out to a ridiculous degree. It seems a lot longer than it's 96 minutes. It's hard to believe that this was banned from the US until 1954 on the grounds that it was immoral! True--everybody has sex but there's no nudity or sex shown at all. Beautiful but static and slow.

I've just read all the previous comments on this and I'm surprised that none of them apparently grasped that the main thrust of the plot was the passing of venereal disease from one character to another. It's not just coincidence that the first coupling is between a prostitute and a soldier - prostitutes traditionally work near army barracks and are, or arguably were in 1900, more likely to be carriers of venereal disease than most other women simply because by definition they had sex with more men than the average woman, married or single, in 1900. The vastly overrated semi-Amateur film maker Jean-Luc Godard dismissed both the film and one of France's leading actors (Gerard Philippe) with the words 'France's worst actor in France's worst film', which in itself should be sufficient to send all intelligent people flocking to see La Ronde. It is, of course, dated. It has to be, it was made 54 years ago yet it still retains that quality that has always eluded and will always elude Godard, Style. What if not stylish should we call it when our self-appointed narrator, Anton Walbrook, discards his slightly down-market raincoat and dons an opera cape to lead us to a sleazy quarter of Vienna and make us privy to the initial sexual encounter, the first, of course, of many, between prostitute Simone Signoret and soldier Serge Reggiani (soon to play similar roles in Jacques Becker's 'Casque d'Or') and provide the first 'take' on love/sex which is indifference; even when Signoret is prepared to waive her fee Reggiani disdains free sex on the grounds that her room is a ten minute walk from where they met and only reluctantly does he finally agree to an al fresco coupling from which he hurries away with barely a 'thank you', let alone a cigarette. Cynicism is still rampant in the next encounter in which Regginani seduces Simone Simon's comely housemaid then hurries back to the dance where they had met. Cynicism of a different sort informs the next encounter when the young man of the house (Daniel Gelin) where Simon is employed practices his seduction technique on her before attempting it with the real thing in the shape of older, married Danielle Darrieux. This episode, together with its successor (Darrieux and her husband, Fernand Gravey) serves as a filmic equivalent of an interval in a theatre (the film is based, as is widely known, on a play by Viennese playwright Artur Schnitzler)and Gelin's initial impotence is metaphored subtly (for 1950) by the breaking down of the roundabout which allows Ophuls to cut away to Walbrook in mechanic mode and then back to a now successful Gelin consummating his infatuation for Darrieux. And so it goes on, brief encounters, longer liaisons, just like life in fact. Virtually all of the cast had or would appear in classic films, not least Jean-Pierre Barrault, so memorable in 'Les Enfants du Paradis', Gerard Philippe, the original 'Fanfan le Tulipe' with 'Les Orgueillex' still to come, Serge Reggiani, a veteran of 'Les Portes de la Nuit', laughed off the screen in 1946 and now regarded rightly as a masterpiece, and so on, arguably only Isa Miranda as the actress let the side down. All in all a triumph. 8/10

So much has been written about this great film directed by Max Ophuls that it seems self-indulgent to add to the various interpretations. Some people find it almost to be a Freudian textbook, others see it as being just a series of sexual encounters. They maybe right but quite honestly I do not care. I watch it quite often, and simply wonder at the sheer artifice of it, as if life itself, interpreted quite rightly as a human being, watches and sometimes manipulates the achievement of that highest pleasure, the sexual act. All the preliminaries and the climbing down from orgasm are depicted. We watch as Anton Walbrook shows us the merry-go-round of that most pure of acts when we lose consciousness of ourselves, and how we give pleasure and take it. On this human stage of existence and Walbrook as life shows it as such, many characters pass into view, and then disappear from view, and as it is artifice and a fantasy of life it comes full circle. Just as our lives come full circle in death, and the merry-go-round of being alive stops. But I must not forget the many faceted selves that are depicted. A woman who gives sexual pleasure for nothing to soldiers played splendidly by Simone Signoret, and then on to the soldier who meets a working woman in a house and Simone Simon was never better in this role. She in turn is seduced by Daniel Gelin as the young ' master ' of the house, and he in turn gives pleasure to a married woman and Danielle Darrieux is in her element here. And so it goes on finishing with Gerard Philippe as a Count who does not quite know what to do with his military sword! Finally Simone Signoret and along with Philippe the merry-go-round comes to a halt. It has been a bitter sweet ride as life is and the haunting music by Oscar Strauss ends the film. This fantasy is set in Vienna because as Anton Walbrook observes, and I quote inadequately, ' the past is more reliable than the future. ' As all our futures are for all of us; maybe gone in a second. A pure masterpiece.

That the charm edges out the schmaltz is mostly due, of course, to the great Anton Walbrook, the "personification of your desire" to see all of reality, and the consummate Continental boulevardier. In other words, what Chavalier shoulda been.

The main story where Anton Walbrook presents and finishes the film is excellent. And so is every scene where he interferes in the subplot to help the characters in their love-affairs.

The problem is that the ten substories are so weak in the dialogue and the plot. They are all about love-encounters that end up in slightly different ways. Who cares? When you're finally start to wonder what's going to happen to the most interesting character (i.e. The maid) she disappears and her lover (The student) now has a pointless encounter with a married woman after which we see her in a scene with her husband.

It's interesting to see how the director, Ophüls, plays around in this one with strange camera angles, shadows and symbolic items, but it doesn't help when the rest of the movie is a long film's journey into a blessed ending.

A very simple but easy rule to judge if a film is too long or just boring is to count the times you've reached for your wrist watch. During this one, I had a numerous reaches, so the day-after impression of the film is unfortunately disappointing.

On a technical point of view, Max Ophuls was absolutely brillant. Camera work here sparkles, so are the shadows, the use of wonderful studio settings. This is great cinema. The idea of using an actor (Walbrook) as a presentator is also very fine (Ophuls will do it again with Peter Ustinov). I agree with another viewer who says that some of the stories are weak, with no suprise. But It don't erase the charm of the whole film. This is also a very all-star cast of the French cinema of the 1930's and 1940's. Every actor and actress here have all their fame at the moment. Some (Philipe & Barrault) seems to me a little bit too theatrical. Besides that, La Ronde still is a very good example of high quality French movies at that time.

French stars of the day abound in "La Ronde," Max Ophuls ode to love in the Vienna of 1900. Anton Walbrook serves as narrator and plays some small roles in the various vignettes, which star Simone Signoret, Simone Simon, Serge Reggiani, Danielle Darrieux, Ferdinand Gravey, Jean-Louis Barrault, Isa Miranda, and Gerard Philip - quite a cast.

Using the image of the carousel, the narrator takes us through a series of love/lust stories which by 1950 standards are at times very explicit, so much so that the film wasn't released in the U.S. until 1954, though its original release to other countries was in 1950. There is prostitution, adultery, performance anxiety, an older man with practically a teenager, and an older woman/younger man scenario.

Employing a beautiful, catchy theme by Oscar Strauss, "La Ronde" is lyrical with lovely performances, and certainly nothing like the films it inspired - Vadim's remake and also the later "Chain of Desire" (not one of my favorites). Some of the stories are short, some not as good, but they all are infused with charm, humor, fluidity, and beautiful atmosphere and detail of the period.

Though not in the Orphuls version, which emphasizes love and sex with the narrator's cynical and amused view, the original play has to do with the spread of STDs, a theme picked up in "Chain of Desire." "La Ronde," however, is all about pleasure and fun.

A clever film with some sublime moments. The early bit where Anton Walbrook strolls across a stage is so exquisitely done that I always have to rewind it again and again. That is the kind of poetic effect that Cocteau always strained for and never struck so cleanly.

In recent years, most French films I have seen seems to have been sexually obsessed. This is interesting and may account for some of the reason Americans and Frenchmen often don't seem to see eye to eye. American films are many times sexually obsessed as well, though not as apparently often and not in films from the 1930s to the 1960s. However, sex, not love, was the focus in many French films from this same period--such as The Rules of the Game (1939) and La Ronde (1950). Now I am NOT making a blanket indictment of French films--I LOVE many of them and have great respect for the work. However, it's a real shame, as I began watching many more French films in recent months so I could find some good and acceptable French films for students in our school's French classes and I have been FAR less successful than I'd hoped.

In the case of La Ronde, the stories, though well presented, do not center on love but sex and STDs. The movie opens with a wonderful narrator (sort of like a cupid who likes to encourage and set up sexual encounters--not making the couples fall head over heals in love). The first is a rather surly soldier who gets a "quickie" under the bridge with a prostitute (this is certainly NOT a romance) and goes from there to various adulterous affairs involving unfaithful wives as well as husbands. We are also told that "love" is very fleeting and NEVER lasts. Perhaps this is true with prostitutes and mistresses, but saying all love is fleeting is a very sad message indeed.

If the movie had instead focused on real love and not solely the glandular type, this could have been a VERY sweet and well-crafted movie. As it is, it is a smarmy and still well-crafted movie.

The comment made by writers_reign about this movie was brilliant and undoubtedly true. In light of STD transmission, this puts the movie in a new light and makes a lot of sense. Still, is THAT really what you want to see?! YUCK!

The hugely charismatic Anton Walbrook takes on the role of our guide - using a carousel quite effectively as his prop - through this charming tale of sex. Delicately delivered - nothing graphic, vulgar or sleazy, but it's essentially a story of sex - with or without love! Aside from underpinning the narrative, Walbrook also portrays half a dozen ancillary characters as we embark on a Viennese Waltz with a difference. Initially, it's the gorgeous lady of the night "Léocadie" (Simone Signoret) who ensnares the poverty stricken soldier "Franz" (Serge Reggiani) and then like a 4x400m relay race, he in turn has a dalliance with "Marie" (Simone Simon) who meets "Alfred" (Daniel Gélin) who himself has his own cougar in the form of "Emma" (Danielle Darrieux) who is married to the wealthy "Charles" (Fernand Gravey) who has his own regular assignation with... Ultimately it all comes full circle with poor old "Léocadie" again! There's an inevitability to the story, I suppose, but somehow that doesn't really matter. It's quite a potent, sometimes honest sometimes idealistic, sometimes just plain daft - series of delightfully delivered vignettes that depict human nature in quite a natural way. Those that want, want to have; those that have are always the ones who want more, or don't know what they want - the grass is always greener? The writing allows the talented array of actors assembled here to each shine (or even glow) in their own way and Christian Matras has created a clever accompaniment to our peccadillo-strewn adventures that partnered with the sagely interventions of Walbrook add up to a thoroughly enjoyable ninety minutes from Max Ophuls that looks great, makes us smile - and probably rings at least a little true for all of us.

Some people might find La Ronde sweet and romantic, but I just found it to be weak and thus forgettable. The story's innovative structure does not seem so innovative in 2000, and it's not because people have copied it ad infinitum. It is because people have improved upon and perfected the multiple storyline film. Nowadays we have masters like Scorsese and especially Altman who can do this kind of film without trying. Ophuls, though, did not have many (or possibly not any) real precursors to this sort of work. The film progresses very linearly, far too linearly. It begins with two characters, a man and a woman, meeting. Then one character goes on to meet a member of the opposite sex, then the newcomer goes on to another, and so on, until the person whose story did not move on in the first segment is met by the last character we meet, and then FIN. It is so fixed in this structure that it immediately becomes boring. It would have been possible to keep it from becoming boring if the characters had more depth or the stories themselves could have been deeper, but no. In fact, the segments are varied quite a bit in length. One may last for 15 minutes, the next could last 2 minutes. Characters pop in out of nowhere to become the next link in the chain. I just didn't care about anything that happened. Plus, all the men in the film are enormous jerks. They are very misogynistic and use the women of the film in a terrible way. Not to mention the theme song, which is repeated ad nauseam throughout the film, etc, etc...

The only real value to the film was that it did contain some very innovative scenes. I did not like the whole thing with the merry-go-round's breakdown symbolizing a man's impotence. It was a bit tacky, but I can't say that it wasn't inventive. I liked the way the narrator (a character whom I have not discussed; I'll just say I found him annoying and a little creepy) led one of the characters through time. My favorite scene in the film involved a very clever way of cutting out a sex scene: when two characters embrace, there is a cut to the narrator, who is looking at a strip of film, the very film we are watching, and he cuts, on screen, the sex scene. That was clever. Someone should steal it.

All in all, though, La Ronde is pretty inconsequential. I give it a 5/10.