Earrings Of Madame De, The (DVD)
The most cherished work from French master Max Ophuls, The Earrings of Madame de . . . is a profoundly emotional, cinematographically adventurous tale of deceptive opulence and tragic romance. When an aristocratic woman known only as Madame de . . . (Danielle Darrieux) sells a pair of earrings given to her by her husband (Charles Boyer) in order to pay some debts, she sets off a chain reaction of financial and carnal consequences that can end only in despair. Ophuls’s adaptation of Louise de Vilmorin’s incisive fin de siècle novel employs to ravishing effect the elegant and precise camera work for which the director is so justly renowned.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- New, restored high-definition digital film transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Audio commentary featuring film scholars Susan White and Gaylyn Studlar
- Introduction by filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson
- Interviews with director Max Ophuls’s collaborators Alan Jessua, Marc Frédérix, and Annette Wademant
- Visual essay by film scholar Tag Gallagher
- Interview with writer Louise de Vilmorin about Ophuls’s adaptation of her novel
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Molly Haskell, an excerpt from costume designer Georges Annenkov’s 1962 book Max Ophuls, and Vilmorin’s 1951 source novel, Madame de
New cover by David Downton