Miami Beach Cinematheque. Feb 8th, 2009. 8:00 p.m. 
Ah …Paris in the 1950s. Or any decade for that matter. There is no city more romantic. And capturing pleasures and loves in Paris is what no director did better in the 1950's as Max Ophüls, not a Frenchman at all, but born in Saarbrücken, Germany.
His most famous "mature period" work after a decade in Hollywood, with its lyrical, magical display of sweeping black and white and finally color tracking shot cinematography, and stunning monumental production design, which seems to caress the characters that inhabit within, is best displayed in the trio of films at MBC this month: the beautifully restored versions of La Ronde, Le Plaisir, and Lola Montès. He was an icon of romance with a twist, and his films are now finally "mounted on canvas" properly again, in newly restored versions, half a century after his untimely death in 1957.
“Everyone in the world has two fatherlands: his own and Paris”- Max Ophüls
The Film La Ronde (Roundabout), from 1950, will open this tribute to Max Ophüls on Sunday, February 8th at 8:00 p.m.The film features Simone Signoret, Anton Walbrook, Serge Regianni, Simone Simon, Daniel Gélin, Danielle Darrieux, Jean-Louis Barrault and Gérard Phillippe.
Literally speaking, La Ronde is a ride in an amusement park. Colloquially, it can also apply to a dance, where the couples, well, they spin around. Ophüls' film is based on a play of the same name, which was about class and the spreading of syphilis through a series of "rencontres sexuelles". Ophüls drops the disease, and most of the class issues in his interpretation of the work. Instead he opts to examine the intricacies, and the false-shallowness of relationships. In his world, even what may seem to be the most meaningless sexual encounter leaves a mark on those involved, and in a sense everyone else they touch.
Miami Beach Cinematheque
512 Española Way
Miami Beach, FL 33139
305 673 4567
www.mbcinema.com
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