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The exquisite circularity of the roundelay has always been an attractive cinematic device, but never has it been used with more delicacy and canny insight than in La Ronde, Max Ophüls's adaptation of the Arthur Schnitzler play Reigen. The camera glides, swirls, and delicately dances around fleeting moments between lovers, from chance meetings and secret trysts, to the sincere but hopeless courtship by a besotted admirer, to the relaxed banter of cuckolding married couples. Ophüls's wry glimpses behind closed doors and pulled curtains are both cynical and sweet, generous of character but suspect of motive. As one scene ends, we waltz along as the characters change partners and dance again and again; we follow streetwalkers and soldiers, courtesans and counts, until we come full circle. Returning to the superb metaphor of the carousel, where dapper Anton Walbrook wanders about as host and commentator (a sort of literary ringmaster, like Peter Ustinov in Lola Montes), Ophüls plays at the game of love with a cocked grim and a sly jab, though he never belittles or judges. What could easily have descended into farce is lifted into loving satire by Ophüls's elegant touch and sparkling wit. A huge success in Europe, its continental attitude wasn't embraced by American audiences at the time. But it has come to be regarded one of Ophüls's finest and most beautifully visualized films. Everyone is somebody's fool, and isn't it wonderful? --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A confection of naughtiness
A chocolate confection of a movie.
Set in Vienna circa 1900, based on a play by Viennese playwrite Arthur Schnitzler, it's a series of vignettes more about lust than love. The vignettes flow together by having one person appearing in the next -- generally being the seducer in one, the victim in the other.
As I understand it, Ophuls moderated the promiscuous tone of Schnitzler's play. There is definitely a sense of regret and loss over these random flings despite their inevitableness. ... Read More
Rating:  - What goes around comes around
Having seen the movie when it was first released, I was thrilled to find it available as a DVD. It is elegant, witty, but a little passe: Movies have come a long way since in "letting it all hang out". Some of the episodes are not fully developed and look more like first drafts. Still, watching skilled actors at work, especially Anton Walbrook as the master of ceremonies, is a delight.
Rating: - Controversial and very entertaining
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.
La Ronde based on Arthur Schnitzler's controversial play, Reigen, is one of Max Ophüls best known films. It is based on a 1897 play that was derided as obscene by critics. The story has lost its raciness over the decades as standards have changed and the film had few problems, if any, with the censors.
The story is about people and having love affairs with each other. A soldier meets a woman at a dance ball and has ... Read More
Rating: - An Alltime Favorite On DVD At Last.
This 1950 film was considered quite scandalous in its day especially in America. The essential premise of characters having sex without marriage shocked conservative moviegoers even though it was done with wit and style and doesn't show you anything improper. It was based on an 1897 play by Viennese doctor turned playwright Arthur Schnitzler called REIGEN which created even more of an uproar back then. Adolf Hitler considered it absolute filth.
I first saw this film back during my college days and ... Read More
Rating: - La Ronde is a wonderful mixture of anticipation, pleasure and rue. It might even make you think wisdom could be involved
"What is still missing for love to start its rounds? A waltz...and here it is. The waltz turns. The carousel turns...and the merry-go-round of love can begin turning, too."
If Le Plaisir is a clever study in how pleasure can lead to despair, hopelessness and, fortunately, more pleasure, and if Madame D... is a masterpiece of love's elegant sadness, perhaps La Ronde can be seen as a carousel of pleasure, where men and women's most natural instinct is celebrated with joy and infidelity.
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