Thursday, May 5, 2011

La Ronde (1950)


La Ronde (in English it probably means Roundabout, although in my mind I see a merry-go-round, which also appears in the movie) is an interesting movie by director Max Ophüls. It's adapted from a play and this can be seen in the movie, with a presence of a narrator to explain to and communicate with us, the audience.

La Ronde consists of several love stories which connects one to another with the same personage from previous chapter, and in the end we are taken back to the first personage who appears in the first chapter.

In the first chapter, we meet Simone Signoret, a prostitute, who is told by the narrator to wait on one of the soldiers - the 6th soldier who passes by will be hers. As the narrator knows all the stories, he knows best. The soldier, Serge Reggiani, soon leaves her to romance another woman, who will work as a maid and is seduced by her young master. This merry-go-round of love goes on until we meet an actress who makes love with a young comte, Gérard Philipe, who will miss his appointment with her again and wakes up drunk in Simone Signoret's place.

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