Lola Montès
Short description
Lola Montès is a dancer and courtesan who has been involved with some of the most powerful men in Europe. Now, past the height of her fame, she has become the main attraction of a circus in New Orleans, where a ringmaster presents her life story to the crowd as a series of theatrical scenes. Between performances, she answers questions from the audience about the loves and scandals that once made her notorious.
The film was directed by Max Ophüls, his sixth feature and the one that followed The Earrings of Madame de... in 1953. Martine Carol plays Lola, with Peter Ustinov as the circus master, Adolf Wohlbrück as King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Henri Guisol, Lise Delamare and Paulette Dubost in supporting roles. Ophüls wrote the screenplay with Annette Wademant and Jacques Natanson, and the production was mounted across Germany and France with a credited cast of 55 and crew of 68.
On IMDb the film holds a 7.2 rating from around 6,600 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.9 from a much smaller sample, suggesting a modest but solid following among general viewers. A critics' rating of 8.7 from 34 reviews places it noticeably higher with reviewers than with audiences.
What's left behind the scenes
- The full version of the film has a runtime of 142 minutes.
- At the time of its premiere, it was the highest-budget project in the history of French cinema.
- The innovative narrative structure through a series of selective flashbacks was too bold for its time. Despite the director's protests, the producers re-edited the film to present Lola's story in chronological order. This made the plot even less understandable for an unprepared audience. Max Ophüls' battles with the producers over the editing were cut short by the director's death in 1957. Ten years later, the film was restored, but its original form could not be recovered due to the loss of 20 minutes of material cut during re-editing.
- The film is based on the unpublished novel "The Extraordinary Life of Lola Montès" (French: "La Vie Extraordinaire de Lola Montès") by Cecile Saint-Laurent, which is based on the scandalous life of Eliza Gilbert, also known as Countess Landsfeld.
- At the beginning of the 21st century, footage considered lost was discovered, allowing the French Cinematheque, in collaboration with Max Ophüls' son Marcel, to restore the film for its world premiere in the “Cannes Classics” program (2008). It was then that “Lola Montès” was presented to audiences as the director had envisioned it.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
