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Lola Montès (1955, Fr.)
(aka The Sins of Lola Montès)
In director Max Ophuls' inspired first (and last) color
and widescreen film -- in CinemaScope -- a technically brilliant,
visually-ambitious, historical-biopic and epic drama about the
tragic amorous liaisons of the elitist aristocracy, and the scandalous,
cruel creation and crude exploitation of a society fixated
on 'celebrity' status. In particular, the film demystified the life
story of a notorious, sexy and ribald seductress, often viewed with
complicated tracking shots. The plot was structured as a series of
cyclical, flashbacked, non-chronological, disjointed tableaux that
re-enacted her scandalous life, populated by various acrobats, dwarfs,
equestrians, and other performers (including a strongman) in the
central circus ring of the tawdry Mammoth Circus.
The film was a financial, over-budget
disaster that was quickly withdrawn and re-released in 1957 in a severely-cut
version (from 140 to 90 minutes) that was re-edited (rearranged chronologically
without the framing flashback structure or device) and translated
(dubbed from German to French), with added voice-over narration.
Another reconstructed version appeared in 1968 (missing 30 minutes
of the original), while a more recent, fully-restored version (missing
only 20 minutes of the original) was released in 2008:
- in the stunning opening sequence, two beautiful
chandeliers descended in front of a circus band whose leader was
dressed in an Uncle Sam costume; the moving
camera descended further and picked up the appearance of the
top-hatted, circus RingMaster (Peter Ustinov) carrying a whip who
emerged from behind a curtain and approached toward the center
of the circus ring
- the RingMaster began a lengthy
and sensationalized speech to an unseen, expectant audience: "And
now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for.
The most sensational act of the century. Entertainment, emotion, action,
history"; behind him, there were numerous activities taking place (i.e., a juggling
act was being performed by two parallel lines of girls)
- the exploitative Circus RingMaster then introduced
the main sideshow attraction of the bizarre and gaudy circus being
held in New Orleans, LA - the now aged title character Lola Montès
(Martine Carol); she was an infamous,
19th-century Spanish/Irish-born adventuress, paramour and courtesan-prostitute:
"A creature a hundred times more murderous than any beast in our
menagerie. A bloodthirsty monster with the eyes of an angel. Ravaged
hearts, squandered fortunes, the saraband of lovers, scepters,
crowns, an authentic revolution. Triumph and downfall. Lola Montes,
Countess Maria Dolores of Lansfeld. In the very flesh!"
- the entrance of Lola Montes was preceded by a parade
of clowns and other circus performers who entered the center ring,
as the RingMaster continued his introduction: "Here,
ladies and gentlemen, the truth, nothing but the truth on the extraordinary
life of Lola Montes, reenacted by the entire company in pantomime,
acrobatics, tableaux vivants, with music and dance and with the entire
orchestra"; the exploits of her scandalous, lurid and notorious
life would soon be dramatically re-enacted and staged for the circus audience
- Lola's appearance was dramatic - she was carried
to the center of the circus ring while sitting totally immobile
and enthroned on a gold platform, and wearing an elaborate gold
dress; the platform was turned in a clock-wise direction before
it was set down; the lights were changed to a deep blue hue, as
close-ups of her face revealed she had been painted with the features
of a doll
- the camera circled about her on a 360-degree track
moving counter-clockwise as the RingMaster manipulatively circled around
her and announced the question-answer part of the performance:
"The first part of the show. Questions. Ask
your questions, ladies and gentlemen. Lola Montes will answer the
most shocking questions, the most intimate questions, the most
indiscreet questions, about her scandalous career as femme fatale.
Don't be shy, ladies and gentlemen, 25 cents per question"
- after asking for questions (for 25
cents each) from the audience, a chorus of
identically red-uniformed male acrobats (looking like bellboys)
carried hollowed-out, molded female heads of Lola on sticks (shaped
as collection receptacles) to receive quarters and dollars from
the audience's patrons, to be donated, according to the RingMaster
"for the relief of fallen women"; he also facetiously
promised: "She'll tell all"
- the RingMaster answered all of the questions for
Lola; questions included queries such as: "Where did she dance
without her costume?", "Did the doctor give you something?", "Where
are your children, Lola?", "Was her mother like her?", "Which
does she love best: love or money?", "What are Lola's measurements,
please?", "Does Lola wear a bra?", and "How
many lovers?"
- during the questioning, the RingMaster privately
asked Lola about her doctor's recent diagnosis of her declining health,
and she responded: "He said I mustn't drink and smoke anymore";
after the questions, a parade of "Lola's lovers" entered the ring
and acrobatically performed in front of her
- other questions were
asked: "Why didn't you ever stay with your lovers, Countess?" and
"Does the Countess still remember the past?"; the background behind
the Countess began to change to represent memories of her past
- the remainder of the film was composed of a series
of reenactments or episodic flashbacks into aspects of Lola's scandalous
life, loves and dance career; the RingMaster continued to orchestrate and narrate the story of her
past as a commercial, untouchable spectacle, seen in the flashbacked
vignettes; it was unclear whether the RingMaster was sadistically
tormenting Lola and exploitatively using her, or functioning as her
guardian angel; the RingMaster announced: "We'll look back to her early days"
- each locale in the film retained a color scheme (in CAPITALS),
for example, the circus scenes (with bright REDS, YELLOWS, BLUES) - see more below
- the first flashback covered the last few days of Lola's affair
as the mistress of composer Franz Liszt (Will Quadflieg), when
she was en route through Italy in his large wagon-caravan, with
her own coach not far behind (YELLOWS, TANS, AUTUMN COLORS)
- the RingMaster prefaced a brief overview of Lola's own childhood
and upbringing as happy: ("Her happy youth and her radiant adolescence");
however, Lola experienced a difficult and unloved youth by her widowed
mother Mrs. Craigie (Lise Delamare); her mother planned to marry
her off to an aged baron (a banker), but she rebelled; and then her
five-year marriage to Lieutenant Thomas James (Ivan Desny), the
lover of her own mother, was not idyllic in actuality, due to her
husband's infidelity, abusiveness and drunkenness
- Lola's career as an aspiring ballerina-dancer in Madrid was
marked by her rejection of a rich, tyrannical Russian viceroy General
Paskievitch; according to the RingMaster, she rejected-spurned the
tyrant, who then kidnapped her with his Cossack Army, but she was saved
by the intervention of a French diplomat in the Embassy, who romantically
'protected her' for 24 hours
- Lola traversed across a tightrope
placed in front of a series of painted backdrops that represented the
different countries or locales of her numerous affairs, as the RingMaster
listed all of her many lovers, and sang a song about her body parts
or "treasures" that she offered men: ("Three sweet ones:
the heart, the wrists, and the hand; Three mad ones: the eyes, the
hair, the feet; Three soft ones: the arms, the ears, and the nose;
Three curved ones: the shoulder, the mouth, and the breasts; you give
your body but you keep your soul")
- the flashbacks and tableaux were interrupted by
the arrival of a Doctor (Willy Eichberger) who reported on his
diagnosis of Lola's declining health and fragility:
"She has a weak heart and the sore throat may indicate something
more serious. That woman is worn out before her time. She must be careful"; the Circus
Manager (Friedrich Domin) was reluctant to allow Madame Montes to quit
the circus: ("She has to earn a living")
- the re-enactments continued with the RingMaster's summarization of
Lola's life choice: ("Lola understood that keeping a good reputation
was out of the question. Rumor, scandals, passion, that's what she
chose in order to create a sensation")
- she experienced a "fresh scandal"
in Vienna at Tivoli where she was dancing during an outdoor concert;
immediately after discovering that her lover, musical orchestra Kapellmeister/Conductor
Claudio Pirotto (Claude Pinoteau), was married, she marched up to him
on stage and slapped him while he was conducting; then she approached
the Conductor's wife and gave her the "ugly" ring on her finger, given
to her by the woman's "cowardly" husband who claimed he was divorced;
due to the publicity, Lola was regarded as "the most famous woman on
the French Riviera" - revered and sought after by aristocratic and
wealthy high-society elites
- Lola then became "the first woman in Europe to smoke cigars" - an
appropriation of a powerful symbol of masculinity
- in the middle of the survey
of Lola's rise to fame and power before her dramatic fall, she
rejected work in the circus (in American institutions including
Barnum's Circus and Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show) after being
offered employment by the RingMaster as an unusual attraction:
("You know how to trigger a scandal, Excite the audience...Scandal
means money...The world's most scandalous woman. The most scandalous
act. You will re-enact your scandals...We'll show everything that
women dream of doing, but lack the courage to do"); she declined
the lucrative offer for "top fees" - refusing to be shamed and
degraded: ("I'm not a machine for scandal... I'm not a fairground
freak. I'm not interested in your offer")
- when the tableaux re-commenced,
before the final flashbacks with other lovers in Bavaria, Lola
made a "dizzying ascent" high up
onto a trapeze platform at the "summit" of the circus tent, where
she was soon to perform a climactic daredevil stunt that was "fraught
with danger" - to dramatize and depict herself as a "fallen woman"
- Lola also had a brief romance with a naive, 20 year-old
idealist, Latin teacher and leftist German student revolutionary (Oskar
Werner) in Bavaria, who entered her coach to guide her to the capital
(WHITE)
- after failing with a royal officer-guard to be introduced to the
crowned head of Bavaria, Lola created a commotion with her bolting
horse to attract attention during a royal parade; she insinuated herself
into an affair with the half-deaf and elderly King Ludwig I (Anton
Walbrook) in order to become part of his national dance entourage,
even though she was only a mediocre dancer; she manipulatively displayed
her body for him by ripping open her bodice to prove she had a full
figure, after which the King ordered: "Bring a needle and thread" to
repair her dress - an ingenious sequence of the King's minions down
the line barking orders and scurrying throughout the
palace to fulfill his order; she also scandalously
posed nude for a painting-portrait of herself for the King that wasn't
allowed to be displayed due to widespread protest; she was rewarded
with a palace and became known as the Countess of Landsfeld before
the citizens revolted in 1848 against her and the King, forcing him
to abdicate the throne; Lola was aided to escape and flee across the
border into Austria by the student revolutionary she had met earlier
- the young revolutionary offered Lola less fortune and fame but a
"new start...a simple life, love in a new land...it's destiny, one
mustn't fight destiny!" - but she declined ("It's all over, all over")
Various Lovers in Lola Montes' Life
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Lola Briefly With Composer Franz Liszt (Will Quadflieg)
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Lola - Wife of Lt. James for Five Years
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Drunken and Abusive Husband Lieutenant Thomas James (Ivan Desny)
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Kapellmeister/Conductor Claudio Pirotto (Claude
Pinoteau) - Publically Slapped by Lola
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Unnamed Student Revolutionary (Oskar Werner)
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King Ludwig I (Anton Walbrook)
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- the flashbacks ended with the RingMaster reminding
the audience that Lola finally took him up on his offer to work for
the circus, where she had been employed for four months; Lola's
final acrobatic, trapeze stunt was a dangerous, death-defying plunge:
("She risks her pretty neck...a sensational dive") from
a high platform; upon orders from Lola's Doctor and the Circus
Manager, the RingMaster was forbidden to remove a safety net as a
precautionary measure positioned just above the floor of the circus
ring; after Lola was asked if she wanted the net or not - she answered
no, and the safety net was dismantled before her jump; a small padded
platform was positioned under her; it was unclear whether Lola fainted
as she jumped or not
- Lola's act was followed
by a quick cut to black as she hit her target; another commercial enterprise
was proposed by the RingMaster who exhorted male patrons over
16 to approach and pay a dollar to touch or kiss Lola's hand; she
was enclosed, entrapped or enshrined - like a beast - in a wooden
animal cage ("She will be in our menagerie, among the wild
beasts"); a long line-up of eager, top-hatted
male customers were ready to worship and 'celebrate' Lola; her last
words to the RingMaster were: "I'll be all right"
Lola in Wooden Beast Cage With Patrons Lined Up
To Touch or Kiss Her Hand
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- the film ended with a lengthy camera pull-back
along the extensive line of gawking admirers awaiting Lola, and
finally tracking out beyond closing curtains (crudely painted with
scenes of Lola's life)
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Exploitative Circus RingMaster (Peter Ustinov)
Lola Montès (Martine Carol)
Red-Uniformed Bellboys with 'Lola' Heads on Sticks Collecting
Money
Memories of Lola's Past - The Start of the Film's First
Flashback
Lola As An Aspiring Ballerina - Traversing a Tightrope
RingMaster: "She becomes more and more irresistible"
The RingMaster's Rejected First Offer of Circus Employment
to Lola
Lola Tearing Open Her Bodice For King Ludwig
Lola's Nude Portrait Posed for the King
Lola's Domesticity with the King Before He Was Forced to Abdicate His Throne
Lola's Daredevil Acrobatic Circus Stunt - A High Dive Jump From
A Trapeze Platform
The Padded Platform Below Lola
Ending: Pull-Back Beyond Closing Curtain
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