1953 / 105m - France
Drama, Romance
0.5*/5.0*
The Earrings of Madame De... poster

Watches

November 28, 2022

0.5*/5.0*

My least favorite Ophuls so far. The Earrings of Madame De ... is a very straightforward costume drama draped with some romance. It's quite stuffy and oldskool, the setting and direction fully mimic that. I'm certain there's an audience for films like these, but I'm pretty certain I'm not it.

Louise is a wealthy woman, but her gambling habits are putting her in debt. To cover some of that debt, she sells the earrings that she got from her husband on her wedding day. She pretends to have lost them so he doesn't find out, but the more she tries to cover things up, the bigger her problems become.

The cinematography was dull and lifeless, the performances were quite wooden, and the setting and plot didn't appeal to me at all. The pacing is also glacial, though that's probably a direct result of the critiques I already highlighted. Just not my type of film, at all, I'll be leaving Ophuls alone for a while.