This article accompanies the fable
Life as Opera


Lola Montes was Max Ophuls' last film (in 1955) and though some critics love it, I don't think it compares well with his earlier masterpieces, Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) and La Ronde (1950) being my two favorites. The biggest problem is that there is no sense of the erotic hold that Lola Montes had over her lovers and admirers; she is reduced to a statue.

Below is a still from the film, with Martine Carol as Lola and Adolf Wohlbrück (aka Anton Walbrook) as King Ludwig I.