Ophüls conjures that space into life -- indeed, makes it the very subject of his film -- by means of the most sumptuous stylistic effects imaginable.
Comment
02/09/06
Lola Montes (1955)
79 %
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted: 19
Fresh: 15
Rotten:4
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Synopsis: LOLA MONTES, the last film by Max Ophüls, is one of the most celebrated examples of both wide screen CinemaScope and lush Technicolor in film history. Added to this is Ophüls' usual use of sweeping crane shots and angled tracking shots,... [More]
Starring: Martine Carol, Peter Ustinov, Anton Walbrook, Oskar Werner
Director: Max Ophuls
Reviews for Lola Montes
1 - 19 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Top Critic Much truncated on the first release, and financially ruining its producers, this is a superb film, inspiring Kubrick among others.
05/24/03
Top Critic
Top Critic
In some odd way, the huge production scale and marvelous widescreen color scheme make Lola Montès seem more distant and artificial than Ophüls’ smaller-scale black-and-white films.
10/10/08
Some fetching period observation appears from time to time, but life is rarely breathed into this frilly opus.
10/08/08
Top Critic A baroque masterpiece by Max Ophuls, his last film (1955) and his only work in color and wide-screen.
10/08/08
Lola Montès could never be confused for realism in any format: home video, theater or iPod. But its effectiveness as a tragedy relies on Ophüls setting out a luxurious spread for his hapless heroine.
10/08/08
I recommend Lola Montès wholeheartedly both for its sensuous delights and its ever exquisite artistry.
10/08/08
Ophüls' style co-stars, paralleling and reinforcing stage artificiality with tracking and crane and pan shots, fluidly tilting to emphasize romance as opposed to "reality."
09/22/08
A bodice-ripper invested with the profundity of a Stendhal novel, Lola Montes is also, even more than La Ronde, Ophüls's definite commentary on movie-watching.
09/20/08
The idea behind this biopic might be brilliant but I didn't see the film's magic onscreen.
07/13/08
It is all of a piece from beginning to end: The mood, the music, the remarkably fluid camera movement, the sets, the costumes.
10/23/04
Top Critic
Ophüls makes the story of Lola Montes (Martine Carol), the successful nineteenth-century courtesan (if only so-so Spanish fandango dancer), into a visually dazzling, ironic commentary on celebrity.
05/20/03
Top Critic Andrew Sarris in 1963 dubbed this film the greatest ever made, and although he's noted for his quirky opinions, he's no fool.
01/01/00
Top Critic The clunky Cinemascope camera does not allow Ophuls to move as often or as delicately as he was used to.
01/01/00
1 - 19 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Latest News for Lola Montes
October 09, 2008:
Critics Consensus: Express Scores, Body of Lies Falls Flat
This week at the movies, we've got suspicious spies (Body of Lies, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe), gridiron greats (The Express, starring Rob Brown and Dennis... More...
Related Forums for Lola Montes
More DVDs
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
 93% |
Iron Man |
| 85% |
Forgetting Sarah Marshall |
 50% |
Sex and the City - The… |
| 52% |
Leatherheads |
| 12% |
Made of Honor |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 35% |
You Don't Mess with the Zohan |
| 18% |
The Happening |
| 75% |
Paranoid Park |
| 93% |
The Visitor |
| 71% |
Stuck |
IGN RSS Feeds