Earrings of Madame de...

What a sad, elegant film this is. The Earrings of Madame de... takes us into the fin de siecle Parisian world of the mannered rich, where the act of amorous intimacy is as much an expected social obligation as it is a personal pleasure, where a serious discussion about serious things is considered as indiscrete as loving one's spouse.

"Madame de... is a most elegant lady," we are told, "distinguished, received everywhere. She seemed destined to a delightful, untroubled existence. Doubtless nothing would have happened but for the jewels." She (Danielle Darrieux) is married to the rich and assured General Andre de... (Charles Boyer). When she realizes she has debts she cannot pay and does not want her husband to learn of, she sells a pair of diamond earrings her husband gave her the day after they were married. She tells her husband a little lie, that the earrings were stolen. The jeweler, not knowing of the little lie, soon goes to the general, assuming he will want to buy them back. He does, but rather than embarrass his wife, he gives them to a mistress he is saying farewell to as she departs for Constantinople. And there, she sells the jewels to cover her gambling debts. The jewels soon appear in the window of an elegant Constantinople jewelry store where Baron Fabrizio Donati (Vittorio De Sica), an Italian diplomat soon on his way to Paris, buys them. And since fate and convenience work in mysterious ways, Donati meets Madame de in Paris and they fall into what passes for love by their class. Donati gives the earrings to Madame de as a sign of his love, not knowing they were originally given to her by her husband. And Madame de must now tell a few more little lies. When her husband, the General, sees them, she must tell even more. From a story of amusing deceptions and brilliant social manners, the movie becomes a much darker and sadder story. Donati may be in love, but he understands the limits of their social class. Madame de may be in love, but for the first time in her life she moves beyond those limits. And the General? He may be worldly to a fault, he may even love his wife, but even he cannot accept becoming an object of smiles behind fans without taking some sort of action.

Ophuls immediately captures us with the elegance of both his camera and the dialogue, a mix of oblivious self-centeredness and matter-of-fact moral amusement. This was a time, for those who could afford it, before trophy mistresses learned to first demand gold wedding rings, before trophy wives required community property laws, prenuptial agreements and slick lawyers in custom-bought silk suits. Madame de lives in this world and thrives. Her downfall may be the result of the diamond earrings her husband gave her, but the real cause certainly is that she actually fell in love. Not just in love, either, but in love with the memory of love.

What a pleasure it is to see subtle and experienced actors as Charles Boyer, Danielle Darrieux and Vittorio De Sica take their roles and bring them to life in such a way that we are forced to continually readjust our feelings toward their characters. When Boyer as the General comments to his wife that "a liar should have more sangfroid," he manages without effort to show amusement, indulgence, perhaps love, but also a little distaste, all in one line reading. All three expertly show us a class of society it's more satisfying to be amused by than to take seriously, yet all three succeed in making us take their characters not only seriously, but each one with a good deal of sympathy.

Please note that the Criterion release is not scheduled until September 2008, nearly three months from now. My comments on the movie here are based on watching the Region 2 release which I have. I think so much of this film I plan to buy the Criterion release as soon as it's issued. I'll add a paragraph to these comments concerning the Criterion extras and transfer quality after I watch it.

Director Max Ophüls is known for his brilliant tracking shots and elaborate camera movements (which influenced Stanley Kubrick). He is also well known for the dazzling beauty of his 1953 black-and white film, The Earrings of Madame de . . ., which is based on a novel by Louise Leveque de Vilmorin. Set in Vienna in the late 19th century, the film tells the story of an elegant aristocratic woman, Countess Louisa (Danielle Darrieux) who, unbeknownst to her husband, General Andre (Charles Boyer), sells her earrings to cover her personal debts. The General gave her the diamond earrings as a wedding gift. Remy the jeweler then sells them back to the General who, in turn, gives them to his mistress, Lola (Lia Di Leo). She gambles them away in Constantinople. The Countess then falls in love with an Italian, Baron Donati (Vittorio De Sica), who gives her the same earrings as a sign of his love. She must then deceive the General about how she got the earrings back. This film is like a rare, evanescent gem. From a technical standpoint it is brilliantly cut and the cinematography sparkles, which is reason enough to experience this of a film. Roger Ebert calls this film "one of the great pleasures of the cinema."

The new Criterion edition features a newly restored high-definition digital transfer; audio commentary featuring film scholars Susan White and Gaylyn Studlar; interviews with Ophuls collaborators Alain Jessua, Mar Frédérix, and Annette Wademant; a visual analysis of The Earrings of Madame de . . . by film scholar Tag Gallagher; an interview with novelist Louise de Vilmorin on Ophuls's adaptation of her story; new and improved English subtitle translation; and a new essay by Molly Haskell, Louise de Vilmorin's novella Madame de, upon which the film is based, and a reprinted essay by costume designer and longtime Ophuls collaborator Georges Annenkov.

G. Merritt