Word: walbrook
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Ophuls maintains a balance between scheme and characters by acknowledging and mocking the scheme. The meneur d? jen (Anton Walbrook), who opens the film by addressing the audience, keeps returning to change seenes between the ten episodes which compose the film. His appearances as functionaries-headwaiters, coachmen-are at once pleasantly obvious and sparked by unexpected twists which it would be criminal to reveal. Ophuls similarly keeps a sustained irony from overweighting the episodes, by employing a formal inventiveness remarkably responsive to the nuances of each situation. The subtle differences of class, age, and character of each person affords Ophuls...
...third is a brilliantly played will-he-or-won't-he-fall skit, full of characters walking to and from each other through luxurious rooms, and using astounding angled shots and hard cuts. The fourth episode involves us in a more deeply felt assignation-and so the drama proceeds. Walbrook's appearances becoming rarer and shorter...
...Ronde is hardly so dark. In large part it simply invites its audience to watch a divertissement. But Anton Walbrook's introduction mentions our "curiosity...people want to see all sides of life." This "curiosity" makes us follow the affairs of Ophuls' characters and sets up the final reversal when the plot comes full circle. Emotions that began the film trivial and simple, and became deeper and more important to the characters, are lost in the proliferation of incidents and characters. Our detachment imperceptibly increases as his characters grow older and more sophisticated, as their relations become games between people...
...addition to their lunch-hour activities, the City's 16 Guild Churches have each developed a specialty. St. Stephen, Walbrook, specializes in rescuing would-be suicides; with a staff of seven and 200-part-time volunteers, it handles more than 100 calls for help a week. St. Mary Aldermary gives advice on religious retreats; St. Martin, Ludgate, specializes in marriage counseling, and the tiny church of St. Ethelburga concentrates on the ministry of healing...