Word: ende
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...heroine of Lola Montes (1955), Ophuls' last and greatest film, has stopped--yet she continues to live, by force of memory and will in an artistic creation. Hired at the end of her life by the Mammoth Circus, she is alternately forced and persuaded by its ringmaster to recall and re-enact her infamous exploits. With no more hope for love, she moves brokenly through the flashbacks and circus skits which recreate her life...
THIS IRONIC contradiction between supposed free will but actual determinism continues throughout. The first flashback's subject--the end of Lola's affair with Frantz Lizst--couls show her perfectly free (it's constantly filled, for example, with romantic music), and therefore like the heroes of Ophuls' early films. But Ophuls' static one-shots emphasize the separateness of the two lovers. Large objects in these shots' foregrounds express their estrangement. The characters' harmonious existence depends now entirely on their restraint, their good taste (Lizst, for example, being a musician). There is no exuberant, graceful triumph over surroundings; the first time...
...ship and express her curiosity and longing, ironically stress the objects and walls that confine her movement through the cramped lower deck. But complete imprisonment is prevented both by her smooth motion down long corridors and through crowded rooms, and by her detached, wondering viewing of objects. At the end of the sequence she flees the crowded lower deck and goes above, into the open air. The beauty of her and the camera's motions, the freedom of the space around her, is counterpointed by her entirely imaginary tie to her setting (the actual content of her relation...
...space and characters is perfect; its thematic parallel is the relation of these two personalities; strong yet subtle, passionate and deep yet completely controlled. Nevertheless Lola is in a desperate situation; if she fails to be hired by the Royal Theatre, she is through. At the scene's end, with nothing resolved, she backs out of the room and the frame closes in on her. Halfway through the door (and out of the picture), she stops when the King picks up her purse and gloves and brings them to her, in the act re-enlarging the surrounding space. His gesture...
...FOLLOWING scenes show Lola's greatest happiness, living with the King in the grand, orderly, deep interiors of the palace. Nevertheless the other face of this setting, as of all the others, emerges at the end. A revolution against Lola's presence forces the King to leave her. The appearance of single figures -- first the Prime Minister's, then the King's, lastly hers--in the interiors, allows their orderliness to overcome the characters' free integration with them that was possible in two-shot. When only one figure is present, these spaces become oppressive, the partitions and columns assume more...