Lola Montes

Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece of pure voyeur!
Review: When the era of poetic realism ended in France (the 1930s), a new kind of cinema developed, a kind of cinema that was called the 'cinema of quality' (1940s-1950s). Films that came out of the cinema of quality were usually films that tried to achieve the success of typical Hollywood films (needing big budget, famous stars, cheesy slap-in-the-face story, etc.). Martine Carole was one of these famous actresses of this particular era. This film is not just a autobiographical portrayal of the femme fatale Lola Montes, but Ophuls had surely made himself clear in his idea of totally ridiculing the actress herself and the cinema of quality studio system. Carol's mannequin-like acting was intentional (though she was not at all a good actress in her other films), just like Ophuls wanted it to be(for the mockery's sake) and in the film, the 'Lola' representation of Carol was fragmented, and shattered through a lot of masking shots: a total degradation of her femininity. The rather surrealistic circus events that framed the story helped in our understanding of how Lola's life was being sneered at by the audience, how she became the object of desire and also the object of disgust. And as being one of the product of the cinema of quality era, the film also include some breathtaking costume design, and really exquisite settings. A thoughtful analysis of the feminine as a femme fatale, and a total masterpiece with lots of self-reflexivity of the film as cinema.