German-born Max Ophüls became one of the masters of the traveling shot and sustained take in movies in France and the United States; the sweep of movies like three just released on Criterion, “La Ronde” and “La Plaisir” and especially, “The Earrings of Madame De…,” demonstrate that time and space can be the true subjects not just of cinema, but of longing, desire, regret… For some, these are surpassed by “Lola Montès” (1955), his final film (made in French, German and English versions: there’s a multi-disc DVD waiting to happen), and a Technicolor-CinemaScope feat of sustained visual delirium. August auteurist Andy Sarris, just turned 80, wrote upon its 1963 New York Film Festival debut, “’Lola Montes’ is, in my unhumble opinion, the greatest film of all time, and I am willing to stake my critical reputation, such as it is, on this one proposition above all others.” Brechtian, poetic and devastatingly sad, “Lola Montès” can almost convince you of Sarris’ estimation. Lola is a fallen woman, a legendary courtesan; she’d slept with Liszt and the King Of Bavaria, and (her) life is presented as a circus: Ophüls elevates all. The trapeze scene is stunning. With Martine Carol, Peter Ustinov. 115m. This is a newly restored version. (Ray Pride)
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