Review of Lola Montès (1955) by Stanley A — 18 Feb 2010

Little thought is usually given to a movie's framing device, as it is normally just a jumping off place to tell the story.("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" being a particular exception to this rule.) What the mesmerizing "Lola Montes" does is reverse that by staging most of its action in its lavishly decorated present while skipping around in the past. This is still not as unusual as Peter Ustinov speaking French.

Trapped in the present as the main attraction in a circus, Lola Montes(Martine Carol) spends each night reliving the events of her scandalous life, starting with her mother(Lise Delamare) abandoning her after the death of her father, a British colonial officer. Lola ends up making her way from one end of Europe to the other, as an actress and dancer. In the meantime, she romances some of the most renowned men of her time including Franz Liszt(Will Quadflieg).

I thought at first the circus might be in hell but it turns out only in a figurative, not a literal sense, as she answers questions from the paying customers while trying to maintain her dignity. While questioning who is the real freak, the movie says quite a lot about those of us sitting in the peanut gallery who live our lives vicariously through somebody like Lola who lived life to the fullest and had lots of fun. That's not to mention that the sex was probably pretty good, too. While in the present, Lola might not be on top anymore, at least the film's director Max Ophuls went out on top with "Lola Montes," his exemplary final film.