MADAME DE... is set in the glittering world of Paris high society in the dizzy days before World War One. Madame de...(it is one of the films running jokes that we never learn her name) is played by Danielle Darrieux, a beautiful, charming woman married to Andre (Charles Boyer) a worldly Army General. She is pursued by numerous men in hope of an illicit affair. She doesn't say yes, but never quite says no, preferring, as her suitor Baron Fabrizio (Vittorio De Sica) says, "torture by hope."

When she takes off the earrings her husband gave her and sells them in order to pay off a debt, the jeweler sells them back to the General, who gives them to his mistress, who gambles them away. They are unknowingly purchased by Baron Fabrizio, who gives them to Madame de... as a sign of his love. But to wear them she must lie to her husband about how she got them back and to her lover about where they came from. Here, as in LETTER FROM AN UKNOWN WOMAN, Ophüls shows his skill in depicting the world of European society. His sense of staging and camera movement perfectly capture not just the mood and feel of the time, but also the emotions of the characters.

In this masterful film centered around a pair of diamond earrings, a woman lies to her husband about having sold the baubles, which were a gift from him. She is ultimately forced to reckon with her deception and the penalties of living a shallow life.

THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE... received an Academy Award nomination for Best (Black-and-White) Costume Design.

The film is based on the novel by Louise De Vilmorin.

DVD Features:

Keep Case
Full Frame 1.33
Audio:
Dolby Digital 1.0 - French
Subtitles - English - Optional
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentery - Susan White, Film Scholar; Gaylyn Studlar, Film Scholar
Highlights - Visual Analysis of The Earrings of Madame de . . . - Tag Gallagher,
Film Scholar
Interview - 1. Ophuls Collaborators Alain Jessua, Marc Frederix, and Annette Wademant
2. Louise de Vilmorin, Author
Text/Photo Galleries:
Essay - Molly Haskell, Critic; George Annenkov, Costume Designer

Distributor Notes: French master Max Ophuls's most cherished work, The Earrings of Madame de . . . is an emotionally profound, cinematographically adventurous tale of false opulence and tragic romance. When the aristocratic woman known only as Madame de . . . (the extraordinary Danielle Darrieux) sells her earrings, unbeknownst to her husband (Charles Boyer), in order to pay personal debts, she sets off a chain reaction, the financial and carnal consequences of which can only end in despair. Ophuls adapts Louise de Vilmorin's incisive fin de siecle novella with virtuosic camera work so elegant and precise it's been called the equal to that of Orson Welles.

Source: Image Entertainment Inc.

Charles Boyer: Known as "The Great Lover"
Vittorio De Sica: Italian Director/Actor
Danielle Darrieux: French Actress
Jean Debucourt: Actor/"The Golden Coach"

Max Ophuls: Director/Screenwriter

Marcel Achard: FRENCH WRITER/DIRECTOR
Annette Wademant: FR. SCREENWRITER/ACTRESS
Marcel Ophuls: Director/producer, THE SORROW AND THE PITY

"...It glitters and dazzles....The film is famous for its elaborate camera movements, its graceful style, its sets, its costumes....We sit in admiration of Ophuls' visual display, so fluid and intricate..."
"[T]his 1953 study of obsessive love shows Max Ophuls at the height of his directorial powers."
"A socialite hocks her diamonds to pay her shopping debts, sparking a series of lies, heartbreak, and tragedy....Savage and mesmerizing..." -- Grade: A
"...An elegant, visually opulent piece of work....One of the high points of French romantic cinema as well as a sublime piece of filmmaking..."
"...This elegant, ironic and wise romantic tragedy has quite a cult..."