#16: La Ronde (1950)
Dear Max Ophuls,
I have no idea who you are or where you've been all my life, but man do you ever know how to make a romantic comedy. Directors today could learn a lot from you since not only do most romantic comedies today have very little originality and skill, they also know nothing about the heart. I say heart instead of love because I think we both know there's very little real love involved in La Ronde. That's not a criticism of your work though. No, it's one of the many miracles in this film. The characters are all so sleazy and selfish that they wouldn't even feel comfortable in an episode of Seinfeld. In yet it's still such a sweet and tender tale.
One of my favorite scenes is the bedroom scene with the husband and wife. It's just so funny and real. We know he's cheating on her and it's so fun to see how he deludes himself into still seeing minor faults in others. We must both know people like that for us to find that funny. Or maybe we're looking at our own hypocrisy.
There are many other hilariously cute additions to the story that stuck out to me. Such as when the carousel breaks down due to a lover's inadequacies. Or when the ringmaster sings the word "censored" after interrupting a love scene.
Your movie truly is as charming as an ill-moralled movie can be.
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