Ophüls' "Letter from an Unknown Woman" is 75!

by Cláudio Alves

Born Maximillian Oppenheimer in 1902's Germany, Max Ophüls chose the pseudonym to avoid embarrassing his father as he pursued an acting career in theater. He'd change paths along the way, finding purpose in directing actors rather than reveling among them. Moreover, the paternal humiliation was never to be beyond the scandalous nature of theater since the man who would one day make tracking shots his calling card was a virtuoso. As the roaring twenties gave in to a new decade, Ophüls' ability would help him transition from the stage to the screen, where he began as a dialogue director at UFA.

But of course, being Jewish under the Nazi regime was deadly, so the director fled from Germany to France, stopping by Switzerland and Italy...

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1951: The women of "La Ronde"

We're revisiting the 1951 film year in the lead up to the next Supporting Actress Smackdown. As always Nick Taylor will suggest a few alternatives to Oscar's ballot.

Each writer here at The Film Experience has our checklist of cinematic fetishes. Those qualities we look out for whenever we watch a film, a list of glories we breathlessly recite the way Nicole Kidman talks about going to the movie theater in her Nobel Prize-winning AMC ad. Cinematography so elegant the camera moves like silk. Depictions of sex that recognize it as a real human connection, something that can be playful and disatisfying, and is worth as much consideration in the buildup and the comedown as when it’s happening. Beautiful, immaculately assembled people gliding around gorgeous locales and gleefully succumbing to their libidos. Actresses fulfilling roles that are equal parts familiar archetypes and fleshy, hot-blooded individuals (you know I’m a sucker for this one). And on that note, let’s kick off our look of 1951’s alternate supporting actresses miniseries with a belatedly imported joint from France herself: the lovely ladies of Max Öphuls’ sexy, ephemeral La Ronde...

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