La Ronde

Released Mar 16, 1954

1h 37m

Comedy

List

95%

Tomatometer

19 Reviews

84%

Audience Score

500+ Ratings

This Academy Award-nominated French film presents a series of interconnected romantic entanglements. Narrated by an omniscient guide (Anton Walbrook), the movie has a large cast of characters that includes a prostitute (Simone Signoret), who meets up with a soldier (Serge Reggiani), who later becomes involved with a maid (Simone Simon). This merry-go-round continues until it circles back to the beginning, making for an intriguing tale of love and infidelity.

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Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

The film passes like a strange and tantalising dream.

Rated: 5/5

Sep 7, 2023

Full Review

Walter Goodman

New York Times

The performers are as seductive as the script. It's quite an affaire.

Jan 9, 2018

Full Review

Dan Callahan

Slant Magazine

Each vignette conforms to a tight, outgrowing pattern, so that they each have equal weight, even if Danielle Darrieux's first segment is the one that lingers in the mind.

Rated: 3.5/4

Sep 12, 2008

Full Review

Rich Cline

Shadows on the Wall

The script is knowingly meta, while performances ripple with witty banter, deep discussions and lusty chemistry as the narrative circles through romantic entanglements between 10 characters.

Rated: 5/5

Sep 12, 2023

Full Review

Jean-Luc Godard

La Gazette du Cinéma

Simone Signoret [walks] the streets as though born to it, and it is no fault of hers that she meets two of the worst actors in the French cinema there.

Sep 16, 2021

Full Review

Anton Bitel

Projected Figures

Its whole outlook on human desire is jaded and cynical, and yet the tone is breezily charming throughout. Here, love is bittersweet all round.

May 27, 2019

Full Review

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Audience Member

Great. What poetry ! Bitter sweet feelngs. Memories, regrets...

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

andrey k

Bravo! What a movie! It's a pure delight to watch such French movies. The French people do know how to make love, they are world experts in this matter. Max Ophuls so exquisitely shot his movies, with such extraordinary charm - it envelopes you completely. This movie about love affairs told in short interconnected stories puts its characters in quite familiar situations which play out with a different flavor. All that is happening in the old Vienna, the director's beloved place with its still present code of honor.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Max Ophuls has made a classic with La Ronde because of its unique script structure and always interesting takes on themes such as love, marriage and happiness. Humorously narrated by a man that understands that he is telling a story for a picture which is more than fascinating it is avant-garde. Every new character shows a new perspective and a charm that captures one, but drives away the next. Like the characters the camera sets the mood in each scene creating a fluid and glamorously shot film.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Ophuls is able to recreate much of the romanticism and humor from his other films, but fails to create something distinctively different or better than those previous efforts.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

john m

It's sweeping in its own unique way and takes the classic romance genre into interesting ways especially in its format which must have jarring at the time. Ophuls is also a genius with his cinematography and following his characters around a room which works marvelously here.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A fun, memorable film

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

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Max Ophuls

Director

Anton Walbrook

Raconteur

Simone Simon

Marie, the Housemaid

Daniel Gélin

Alfred

Serge Reggiani

Franz, the Soldier

Simone Signoret

Leocadie, the Prostitute

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Synopsis

This Academy Award-nominated French film presents a series of interconnected romantic entanglements. Narrated by an omniscient guide (Anton Walbrook), the movie has a large cast of characters that includes a prostitute (Simone Signoret), who meets up with a soldier (Serge Reggiani), who later becomes involved with a maid (Simone Simon). This merry-go-round continues until it circles back to the beginning, making for an intriguing tale of love and infidelity.

Director: Max Ophuls
Screenwriter: Jacques Natanson, Max Ophuls, Arthur Schnitzler
Distributor: Criterion Collection
Production Co: Films Sacha Gordine
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: French (Canada)
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 16, 1954, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 14, 2017
Runtime: 1h 37m
Sound Mix: Mono

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