Événement

From Mayerling to Sarajevo @ Robert Classic French Film Festival

Sunday, March 6, 7 p.m.
From Mayerling to Sarajevo/De Mayerling à Sarajevo
Max Ophüls, 1940, 89 min., B&W, 35mm projection source

A little-seen masterwork by Max Ophüls ("Lola Montes," "The Earrings of Madame de ") traces the roots of World War I to doomed romance. In the wake of the murder-suicide of Prince Rudolph and his 17-year-old lover at Mayerling, stiff but broad-minded Archduke Franz Ferdinand (played by American actor John Lodge) becomes the heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian empire. But a distinctly unhappy Emperor Franz Josef opposes both Franz Ferdinand's plans to reconfigure the empire and his courtship of Sophie Chotek (Edwige Feuillère) -- not only a mere countess but also a Czech. Made in France and premiering just before it fell to the Nazis, this was Ophüls' last picture before Hollywood and a surprisingly faithful, and lavishly produced, account of a Romeo-and-Juliet passion hindered not by family enmity but by levels of nobility.

The legendary film critic Robin Wood calls the film "one of Ophüls' most neglected and finest works," writing: "While its consciously defined political position falls within the bounds of progressive liberalism, its vision of love as in itself a revolutionary force is far more radical." The New Yorker's Richard Brody calls it "an exemplary political film, the counterpart to Jean Renoir's 'The Rules of the Game' (from 1939) as a work of vast historical vision in a quasi-operatic form."

With an introduction and post-film discussion by Robert Garrick, attorney, board member of the French-preservation nonprofit Les Amis, and former contributor to the davekehr.com film blog.

Sponsored by Les Amis