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Max Ophuls

Max Ophüls (born Maximillian Oppenheimer, 6 May 1902, Saarbrücken, Germany - 25 March 1957, Hamburg, Germany) was an influential German-born film director who worked in Germany, the United States and France. He made nearly thirty films.

He started his career as a stage actor in 1919 but moved into theatre production in 1924. Two years later, he became creative director of the Burgtheater in Vienna and, having had 200 plays to his credit, turned to film production in 1929, when he became a dialogue director under Anatole Litvak at Universum Film AG (aka UFA) in Berlin. He worked throughout Germany and directed his first film in 1931, the comedy short Dann schon lieber Lebertran (literally In This Case, Rather Cod-Liver Oil).

Of his early films, the most acclaimed is Liebelei (1933), which included a number of the characteristic elements for which he was to become known: luxurious sets, a feminist attitude, and a duel between a younger and older man.

Predicting the Nazi ascendancy, Ophüls, a Jew, fled to France in 1933 after the Reichstag fire and became a French citizen in 1938. After the fall of France to Germany, he travelled through Switzerland and Italy to the USA in 1941, only to become inactive in Hollywood. Fortunately, he was rescued by a longtime fan, director Preston Sturges, and went on to direct a number of distinguished films.

His first Hollywood film was the Douglas Fairbanks Jr. vehicle, The Exile (1947). Once established, he went on to direct Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), Caught (1949), and The Reckless Moment (1949) before his return to Europe in 1950.

Back in France he directed and collaborated on the adaptation of Schnitzler's La Ronde (1950), which won the 1951 BAFTA Award for Best Film, and Lola Montès (1955) starring Martine Carol and Peter Ustinov, as well as Le Plaisir and The Earrings of Madame De... (1953), the latter with Danielle Darrieux and Charles Boyer, which capped his career. Though he died from rheumatic heart disease in Hamburg, Ophüls was buried in Le Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

What members say | Filmography

Max Ophuls - what members say

Letter from an Unknown Woman review by Zamy from London

Doomed love 24 January 2007
... This must be one of the best films ever about a tragic love affair. Max Ophuls brings all his cinematic artistry to bear on Lisa's love for a man who takes pl... Read customer review

Lola Montes review by A customer from Ely

Pretty vacant 2 August 2009
...ducers on its original release we can finally see it how its masterful director Max Ophuls intended. Lola Montes is one of those cinematic flops film theorists keep t... Read customer review

Madame De... review by A customer from Lydbury North

French Class 29 January 2009
...A very classy offering from Max Ophuls, really about the unfaithfulness of uppper class people in 1890s Paris. All sorts of schemings attend a pair of earrings, involvin... Read customer review

Max Ophuls - filmography

Lola Montes on DVD (1955)
Starring: Martine Carol, Peter Ustinov, Anton Walbrook
Director: Max Ophuls
Certificate:
The film tells the tragical story of the life of Lola Montes who was a great adventurer and stopped being the attraction of her circus after having been the lover of various important men.

65% from 372 members

Madame De... on DVD (1953)
Starring: Vittorio De Sica, Danielle Darrieux, Charles Boyer
Director: Max Ophuls
Certificate:
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A series of tragic misunderstandings and deceptions ensue after the Countess Louise, the wife of a General, sells the earrings he had given to her on their wedding day to pay off her debts.

72% from 665 members

Le Plaisir on DVD (1951)
Starring: Claude Dauphin, Gaby Morlay, Madeleine Renaud
Director: Max Ophuls
Certificate:
Adapted from three short stories by Guy de Maupassant each dealing with one aspect of pleasure. In 'Le Masque' a man regains his youth. 'La Maison Tellier' finds a prostitute in a romantic encounter. 'Le Modele' sees a model marrying an artist after a failed suicide atempt.

70% from 484 members

La Ronde on DVD (1950)
Starring: Anton Walbrook, Simone Signoret, Simone Simon
Director: Max Ophuls
Certificate:
After ten years in Hollywood, where he made the acclaimed LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN, Max Ophuls returned to France. His first film, LA RONDE, is taken from Arthur Schnitzler's play REIGEN, which features a series of interlocking love stories set in Vienna at the turn of the 19th Century. Ophuls ..read more »

70% from 534 members

Reckless Moment on DVD (1949)
Starring: James Mason, Joan Bennett, Geraldine Brooks
Director: Max Ophuls
Certificate:
Following the accidental death of her lowlife boyfriend, respectable mother Lucia Harper instinctively hides the body to protect her family. Before a long a stranger calls, sent by his partner to blackmail her. the comfort and security of Lucia's world appears to be in danger of collapsing.

71% from 483 members

Letter from an Unknown Woman on DVD (1948)
Starring: Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan
Director: Max Ophuls
Certificate:
Philandering concert pianist Stefan arrives home to find a letter which begins 'by the time you read this I might be dead'. So unfolds the story of Lisa, one of the many women he had shared a brief encounter over the years and swiftly forgotten. Her life had been spent loving him unflateringly and ..read more »

75% from 1,000 member

Caught on DVD (1948)
Starring: James Mason, Robert Ryan, Barbara Bel Geddes
Director: Max Ophuls
Certificate:
After a long career in Europe making costume dramas like MAYERLING TO SARAJEVO, Max Ophuls came to Hollywood. In CAUGHT, he attempted an American-style film noir with a heavy soap opera influence. Taken from a novel, WILD CALENDAR by Libbie Block, the script is by Arthur Laurents, most famous as ..read more »

68% from 199 members

La Signora Di Tutti on DVD (1934)
Starring: Memo Benassi, Isa Miranda, Friedrich Benfer
Director: Max Ophuls
Certificate:
Max Ophuls' LA SIGNORA DI TUTTI can be regarded today as a dress rehearsal for his 1955 masterpiece LOLA MONTES. Isa Miranda stars as a famous actress who, in the opening scenes, attempts suicide. A series of lavish flashbacks details the events leading up to her cataclysmic decision. In her heyday,..read more »

74% from 54 members

Max Ophuls facts

5 most recent films

Lola Montes - 3.5 stars
Madame De... - 3.5 stars
Le Plaisir - 3.5 stars
La Ronde - 3.5 stars
Reckless Moment - 3.5 stars

5 highest-rated films

Letter from an Unknown Woman - 4.0 stars
La Signora Di Tutti - 3.5 stars
Madame De... - 3.5 stars
Reckless Moment - 3.5 stars
Le Plaisir - 3.5 stars

5 lowest-rated films

Lola Montes - 3.5 stars
Caught - 3.5 stars
La Ronde - 3.5 stars
Le Plaisir - 3.5 stars
Reckless Moment - 3.5 stars

Most frequent co-stars

Danielle Darrieux - 2 times - show films
James Mason - 2 times - show films
Charles Boyer - 2 times - show films
Anton Walbrook - 2 times - show films
Vittorio De Sica - 2 times - show films