CS Film Club

[shained]

It's not on instant but I've put the film at the top of my DVD list. Now just got to find where the ones I've had a or a month are to send back ha ha

[Hollywood]

I might have to sit this one out if cant find it. Netflix streaming and video rental store didnt have it.

[Nilade]

Originally Posted by Dracula

The film is available on DVD from Criterion, if you happen to be a Hulu Plus subscriber you should be able to stream it for free.

Yup. Found it on Hulu. I knew there was a reason I still payed $7.99 a month for that service.

[JBond]

The Earrings of Madame de... (1953)

In France of the late 19th century, the wife of a wealthy general, the Countess Louise, sells the earrings her husband gave her on their wedding day to pay off debts; she claims to have lost them. Her husband quickly learns of the deceit, which is the beginning of many misunderstandings, all involving the earrings, the general, the countess, & her new lover, the Italian Baron Donati.

This film wasn't really my cup of tea. It takes a hell of a compelling story to keep me interested in a movie that really only revolves around a love triangle. The husband is an interesting character. I found his calm demeanor, despite knowing about an affair, to be refreshing. And the fact that the wife knows he knows gives the story an unsettling (in a good way) twist. However the wife is such an unlikable character that it was hard to care about her.

Then there's the ending. Incredibly contrived. The whole movie I'm wonder what the wife's fainting spells are all about, so when she gets out of the carriage during the duel, I knew exactly how it was all going to go down. Having said that, it was still an interesting ending and well filmed. Though I'm a bit confused. They didn't hear a second shot and the general wouldn't have missed...did the bullet actually pass through them both? Damn. (Unless I'm completely misunderstanding the ending. She was shot, right?)

**/****

[shained]

Mines been sent today so should have something up in the next few days.

[Justin]

I have mine, just haven't watched it yet.

[PG Cooper]

Just picked it up from the library. About to give her a watch.

[PG Cooper]

The Earrings of Madame de... follows a woman named Louise (Danielle Darrieux), whose surname is never given. Faced with a high amount of debts, Louise decides to sell a pair of earrings her husband, General Andre (Charles Boyer), got her as a wedding present. Through a series of events, the earrings are transported across the continent and eventually return to the couple. Along the way, Louise enters an affair with Italian baron Fabrizio Donati (Vittorio De Sica).

On a technical level, Madame is excellent. The costumes all extravagant; they look great while also capturing the time period very well. The music is used to good effect, though the score itself is not very memorable. The cinematography is striking and where the film really shines. Every shot feels planned out and meaningful, and the camera work is consistently impressive. I also like how despite the skillful cinematography, it's done in such a way that the film never feels like it's showing off. The booklet that came with the DVD claimed the cinematography, "rivaled Orson Welles. I can't go that fair, but the film is very well shot.

The story doesn't live up to the film's technical merits. I had a hard time being drawn into the story and I think a major reason is the titular character. I didn't had Louise, but I found her boring and was overall apathetic to her. Her romance with Donati lacked passion and I didn't buy it. More time should have been spent with them falling in love. There is a dancing scene which is there to show them falling in love and while it is very well done, it's not enough. The male leads of the film, Boyer and De Sica, are both pretty good. Their performances aren't the type that will stick with me, but their enjoyable to watch.

The film's major theme is lying. Without going into too much detail, Louise lies about the earrings (many times) and it comes back to haunt her. The film does an accurate job basically showing that for every lie, there are consequences. While I did enjoy this theme while I was watching the film, it does amount to a pretty basic message of, "lying is bad!" The simplicity of it isn't really a bad thing, but this isn't the type of theme I'll still be pondering in a few months.

Overall, while I admire the film on a technical level, The Earrings of Madame De... left a lot to be desired emotionally. At the end of the day, I did not really care about the story, and no amount of great cinematography can change that. Even most of the things I did like, the male leads and themes, I only moderately enjoyed. Still, the film does enough right that I'm willing to cut it some slack. After all, it isn't bad. At the end of the day, The Earrings of Madame De... is a fairly average film that I doubt I'll remember in six months, but one where my time watching it was not unpleasant.

Rating: C

[JBond]

Well put.

[PG Cooper]

Originally Posted by JBond

Well put.

*Fist bump.

[morpheus1987]

I'm in for the next round...just got back to the states.

[shained]

Looking at your reviews and what the film is about I'm really not looking forward to this. Putting it on now......

[shained]

Madame De....

The film follows the exploits of Louise a Madame, married to a General, who to pay off a debt sells some earrings which over the course of the film always manage to return bringing different scenarios and emotions each time.

As has been well established in this film club cinematography is not a passion of mine and not something that I generally take notice of unless it is unbelievably good or shockingly bad, so reading that this was one of the films main draws didn't really get my blood pumped.

As a film this was pretty dull and non eventful. The only character that I didn't hate was the general. Louise just irritated me through the entire film, her character was not very likeable or relateable and th whole affair between her and the baron wasn't really built up very well and she's suddenly in love....

With all that said the film is pretty inoffensive. There's nothing in it that makes me hate the film, I just couldn't care for it and was happy for the relative sort running time.

3/10

Originally Posted by JBond

The Earrings of Madame de... (1953)Incredibly contrived. The whole movie I'm wonder what the wife's fainting spells are all about, so when she gets out of the carriage during the duel, I knew exactly how it was all going to go down. Having said that, it was still an interesting ending and well filmed. Though I'm a bit confused. They didn't hear a second shot and the general wouldn't have missed...did the bullet actually pass through them both? Damn. (Unless I'm completely misunderstanding the ending. She was shot, right?)

**/****

Spoiler!!! Click to Read!:

I didn't get the impression she was shot! I just thought she died of "unhappiness" or something as cheesy as that as they keep mentioning how I'll she gets which always seems to be effected by her mood.

I was happy with the ending though. I had a sneaky feeling we would hear a second shot and they'd live happily ever after.......

[shained]

In for the next round.

[Hollywood]

Same for me, im in for next round

[Justin]

It seems pretty much everyone--myself included--felt the same way about the film. It's contrived and a little....empty. There's nothing really remarkable about it; it's ultimately just a melodrama with no core. I also saw what was coming from a mile away. A little disappointing, really.

Rating: C

[Nilade]

Wow... just scanning most of your reviews makes me really look forward to this cinematic treat tonight. Regardless, I'll have it posted by Monday night (if not tonight).

[JBond]

I wonder if we should do a octuple-blind study next time.

[Justin]

I'm in for the next round of course.

[Hollywood]

Originally Posted by JBond

I wonder if we should do a octuple-blind study next time.

What is that

[JBond]

What I mean is, maybe we should share all of our reviews at once so negative or positive reviews won't influence people's desire to watch it or rate it in a certain way.

[Dracula]

The Earrings of Madame De… (1953)
Martin Scorsese once said in an interview with Co.Create.com: “There are certain styles I had trouble with at first, like some of Max Ophuls’ films. It took me till I was into my thirties to get The Earrings of Madame de…, for example.” This gives me hope that in ten years or so, I too will understand why The Earrings of Madame De… is viewed not just as a decent story but as a cinematic masterpiece. As it is, I think this is a good film to be sure, but a great one? Perhaps not.

To the film’s credit, I think that it is most certainly a technical accomplishment. The camera movements in the film are really fluid and ahead of their time, Ophuls is a known influence on the films of Stanley Kubrick and I can see why. Of course the problem with being ahead of your time is that your accomplishments will eventually be copied ad nausea and, sixty-some years later, they just sort of blend in rather than jumping out at the audience. There are individual scenes in the film, like its opening shot or another moment in which a torn letter tossed from a moving train ends up blending in with falling snow, that really impressed me and more or less made the film worth watching.

However, this story didn’t really do it for me. It seemed like pretty standard costume drama material and I’ve got to say that I didn’t have a lot of sympathy for these one percenters and their petty first world problems. It might not be a coincidence that Martin Scorsese was himself quite rich when he was in his thirties and suddenly began to appreciate the film. I feel like I’ve given the films of Max Ophuls a pretty fair shake, but I don’t think I’m ever going to connect with the guy. This is in fact the best of the four Ophuls films I’ve seen recently (the other three being La Ronde, Lola Montes, and The Reckless Moment), but it remains rather unremarkable outside of its slick and influential camera work.
*** out of Four

[Nilade]

The Earrings Of Madame De...

Since everyone has already pretty much seen it, I'm not going to summerize the whole plot over again. What I will say was that it wasn't as nearly as bad as or slow paced as what was indicated or insinuated in prior reviews.

What kept me interested was the actual (and highly improbable) multiple boomerang journeys of the earrings and the reactions of all parties involved everytime they showed up, more so than the story of the love triangle.

I found the Madame a quite shallow and ungrateful character, so found it hard to have any sympathy or any cares for what her eventual outcome was to be. The Baron was just another man caught up in the deceitful web of a drama queen, but the General was by far the most interesting character. A man's man. Always kept his cool and played the gentleman no matter how hard of a situation he was in, right down to the final gentleman's duel. As for the ending, I don't think she was shot, but I suspect the General killed the Baron with a singe shot. They did say that the offended party shoots first, and the General was an excellent marksman, so... but I do believe Louise did meet her demise due to a broken heart.

As for the direction, the film was beautifully shot. The transitions from scene to scene were amazing, and Ophuls simply catches the intimacy of almost every object presented on the screen. This is what mainly saves a forgettable story and annoying characters (with the exception of the General) and elevates it a little higher than what it ultimately was.

6.5/10

[Nilade]

I'm in next round.

[PG Cooper]

In next round.