La Ronde (1950)

La Ronde (1950), directed by Max Ophüls, was based on the 1897 play Reigen by Arthur Schnitzler. The play provoked outrage and was banned at one stage.

The movie follows the structure of the play. It is a round dance, although the movie also employs a carousel as a metaphor. It begins with a sexual encounter between a soldier and prostitute. The prostitute them moves on to another encounter with another man. That man in turns moves on the the next partner in the dance. She will go from him to another liaison. And so the dance continues.

It is the dance of love, and also the dance of sex. All of the encounters involve both love and sex, in varying amounts.

Each encounter is just a brief vignette but enough to tell us just how much each partner’s heart is engaged. Even when love is involved, it is still a game.

The structure could have made for a rather stagey film. It is theatrical, but also (thanks to the genius of Ophüls and his production designer) very very cinematic. It is deliberately and ostentatiously artificial. Anton Walbrook acts as a kind of master of ceremonies, leading us from one chapter to the next but he also plays multiple characters in the various chapters. And even when playing a character he breaks the fourth wall.

The setting is Vienna in 1900 but not for one second are we expected to believe that this is the real Vienna. This is the Vienna of Strauss waltzes and light opera, the Vienna of romance. The Vienna of the imagination.

Our attention is continually being drawn to the fact that this is not real life. Ophüls makes no concessions at all to realism. We are being told a delightful story but even if not a word of it is true we’re still going to be charmed by it.

This is a visually sumptuous, gorgeous movie. It was shot in black-and-white and could only have been shot in black-and-white. There’s a certain combination of glamour, style and artificiality that would never quite work in colour.


The difference between this movie, made in France in 1950, and Hollywood movies of the same period is staggering. There is a lot of sex in La Ronde. We don’t see it but we’re not left in the slightest doubt that every one of these encounters culminates in sex. No American studio would have dared even to contemplate making this movie. And it’s not just the amount of sex - it’s the movie’s cheerful immorality.

All of the characters are to some degree guilty of hypocrisy or deception but not one could be described as a villain or villainess. The philandering husband, the unfaithful wife, the professional whore and the part-time whore - they’re all basically decent sympathetic people. In a Hollywood movie the whore at least would have to be punished at the end but no-one gets punished here.

It’s a game, but the players know it’s a game. Nobody gets seduced unless they want to get seduced.

It’s a frivolous game, but the reason that the game of love and sex is so important is that it’s frivolous. Pleasure serves no purpose. That’s why it’s so important. That’s why we can’t live without it.

Ophüls has a dazzling cast with which to work. Simone Signoret, Simone Simon and Danielle Darrieux all stand out. Anton Walbrook was a major star at the time and he turns on the charm, with a twinkle in his eye.

Watching La Ronde is like drinking vintage champagne. If you want to see it as offering a commentary on sexual hypocrisy you can but my advice is to just enjoy its intoxicating pleasures. Very highly recommended.

The Bluebell Films Blu-Ray looks lovely. It’s in French with English subtitles.

The film was remade in 1964 by Roger Vadim as La Ronde (or Circle of Love). Critics love to sneer at Vadim. I don’t care. I like his movies and his version is worth seeing as well. While Ophüls offers us fin-de-siecle decadence Vadim goes for a feel of 60s decadence. I like both.

Arthur Schnitzler was also the author of the fascinating 1926 short novel Traumnovelle, the source for Stanley Kubrick’s movie Eyes Wide Shut.