Madame de - cinema review

(France 1953)
directed by Max Ophuls, starring Danielle Darrieux, Charles Boyer, Vittorio De Sica
b/w, 100', 35mm Italian dubbed version
A pair of earrings, sold by a woman from Parisian high society, fall into her husbands' hands  and then into her lover's, only to end up with her again. But this strange carousel is doomed for a  tragic ending. One of director Max Ophuls' last masterpieces, the film spins the characters' destinies using both cynicism and intelligence. The camera and the lights are choreographed with Ophuls' celebrated bravura, the inimitable style of the only film director that Stanley Kubrick ever acknowledged as his cinematic influence.