Madame de
©1953 Gaumont - Rizzoli Films
Madame de was Ophüls' second-last film. He made two subsequent films, but died during the filming of his final film Les Amants de Montparnasse. Madame de is therefore, his final complete black and white film (his next film, Lola Montès, was his first colour feature, shot on Eastman colour).
Again seeking inspriation from the written word, this film was adapted from a novella by Louise de Vilmorin, a woman who lived a colourful life. At one point she was engaged to be married to writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. She and Cocteau frequently corresponded by letter. From a fairly well-to-do family of Eastern European origins, Vilmorin married a real estate heir and later had a string of prominent suitors.
Not surprisingly, her stories and poetry had libertine leanings.
In the case of Madame de, we are privy to the moral and physical downturn of a woman (played beautifully by Danielle Darrieux) who yields to frivolous urges. It's hard to blame her, since in doing so she has an affair with a dashing Italian gent (played by the dashing Italian actor/director himself: Vittoria de Sica).
The story revolves around earrings her husband bought her, which she is forced to hock in order to pay off debts. The debts themselves are a shameful secret, but the way in which she has to lie in order to cover up how she has tried to repay her debts results in a spiralling catastrophe.
She concedes later in the film, that she has been worn down by the succession of little lies. Indeed, her health has been severely compromised, and she ends up bed-ridden.
Madame de is quite the lady, and her social prominence ensures that her misdeeds become common knowledge around Paris.
The Ophüls trademarks are here in abundance: scrutinising close-ups, magnificent photography, and, of course, those cleverly crafted tracking shots. Then, of course, there's the character study: our protagonist is a bourgueois woman, who is stifled by her comfortable existence. Her flirtations with a more liberated life will prove costly. It is a theme that underpins some of the most impressive and psychologically intriguing films. Madame de is no exception.