One of the best films I've seen this year. I've had a sketchy past with director Ophuls up to now. The only film of his that I had previously seen and liked was Liebelei, though I don't remember it well. I found La Ronde slight, and I found The Earrings of Madame de... detestable (I recall the former, which I saw about a decade ago, well enough, but don't recall the latter, which I've seen much more recently, whatsoever). Both are now on my revisit list after Le Plaisir. I can't believe I could miss this in those other two, more famous films, but Le Plaisir reveals Ophuls to be one of the great masters of cinematic invention. His shots are incredibly impressive. They look so effortless, but probably required hundreds of hours of planning. The sets are unbelievably complex. There are three stories in the film, all by Guy de Maupassant. The central story comprises probably two thirds or more of the film's running time. It is about a group of prostitutes who abandon their whorehouse on a busy Saturday night to visit the Madame's brother's family, as her niece and nephew are to be Christened on Sunday morning. The first half of this tale has to do with the enormous group of men who find the house empty and don't know what to do with themselves. The rest of it is about the women's bucolic one day vacation. The first story is a short one about an old man who wears a mask to disguise his age. In an amazing single shot, he enters a rocking ball and parties his butt off until he faints. The doctor takes him home and his wife tells him the old man's story. The final story is about the tumultuous love affair between an artist and his model (Simone Simon, the most beautiful woman to have ever lived, I think). This story is pure energy, with the couple falling in love in the course of a single take and off camera (!). Things start to go afoul, and there's this outrageously great sequence where Simon locks the artist indoors and he searches madly for the key. The two end up smashing everything in the house in what has to be one of the most emotionally draining fights in film history, and with very few actual words. All three of the tales are simple, but somehow deeply affecting. My only real complaint has to do with the picture quality of the Criterion DVD, which seems below their normal standard. The film itself is a masterpiece, or pretty close, anyway.
Review of Le Plaisir
