Werther

Le roman de Werther

France

1938

85 Min

Black and White

1.37:1

French

Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
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SCR Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Hans Wilhelm, Fernand Crommelynck, Max Ophüls

DP Fédote Bourgasoff, Paul Portier, Eugen Schüfftan

CAST Pierre Richard-Willm, Annie Vernay, Jean Galland, Jean Périer, Henri Guisol, Roger Legris, Georges Vitray, Jean Buquet, Philippe Richard, Geno Ferny, Léonce Corne, Denise Kerny, Edmond Beauchamp, Charles Nossent, Paulette Pax

ED Gérard Bensdorp, Jean Sacha

From Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther, Ophuls’ version moves from the 18th to the 19th century, and transforms the dramatic tale of a doomed young man’s loss of his true love (Annie Vernay) to a friend (Jean Galland) into a romantic tragedy that focusses—in typically Ophulsian style—on the sorrows of the woman the poet Werther (Pierre-Richard Willm) cannot seduce away from her strait-laced judge-fiancé. —filmlinccom.siteprotect.net

Director

Max Ophüls

Max Ophüls (born Maximillian Oppenheimer, 6 May 1902, Saarbrücken, Germany – 25 March 1957, Hamburg, Germany) was an influential German-born film director who worked in Germany, the United States and France. He made nearly thirty films.

He started his career as a stage actor in 1919 but moved into theatre production in 1924. Two years later, he became creative director of the Burgtheater in Vienna and, having had 200 plays to his credit, turned to film production in 1929, when he became a dialogue director under Anatole Litvak at UFA in Berlin. He worked throughout Germany and directed his first film in 1931, the comedy short Dann schon lieber Lebertran (literally In This Case, Rather Cod-Liver Oil).

Of his early films, the most acclaimed is Liebelei (1933), which included a number of the characteristic elements for which he was to become known: luxurious sets, a feminist attitude, and a duel between a younger and older man.

Predicting… read more

Max Ophüls (born Maximillian Oppenheimer, 6 May 1902, Saarbrücken, Germany – 25 March 1957, Hamburg, Germany) was an influential German-born film director who worked in Germany, the United States and France. He made nearly thirty films.

He started his career as a stage actor in 1919 but moved into theatre production in 1924. Two years later, he became creative director of the Burgtheater in Vienna and, having had 200 plays to his credit, turned to film production in 1929, when he became a dialogue director under Anatole Litvak at UFA in Berlin. He worked throughout Germany and directed his first film in 1931, the comedy short Dann schon lieber Lebertran (literally In This Case, Rather Cod-Liver Oil).

Of his early films, the most acclaimed is Liebelei (1933), which included a number of the characteristic elements for which he was to become known: luxurious sets, a feminist attitude, and a duel between a younger and older man.

Predicting the Nazi ascendancy, Ophüls, a Jew, fled to France in 1933 after the Reichstag fire and became a French citizen in 1938. After the fall of France to Germany, he travelled through Switzerland and Italy to the USA in 1941, only to become inactive in Hollywood. Fortunately, he was rescued by a longtime fan, director Preston Sturges, and went on to direct a number of distinguished films.

His first Hollywood film was the Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. vehicle, The Exile (1947). Ophuls’ Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), derived from a Stefan Zweig novella is the most highly regarded of the American films. Caught (1949), and The Reckless Moment (1949) followed before his return to Europe in 1950.

Back in France he directed and collaborated on the adaptation of Schnitzler’s La Ronde (1950), which won the 1951 BAFTA Award for Best Film, and Lola Montès (1955) starring Martine Carol and Peter Ustinov, as well as Le Plaisir and The Earrings of Madame de… (1953), the latter with Danielle Darrieux and Charles Boyer, which capped his career. Though he died from rheumatic heart disease in Hamburg, Ophüls was buried in Le Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. —Wikipedia

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