La Ronde *** (1964, Marie Dubois, Claude Giraud, Anna Karina, Jean-Claude Brialy, Jane Fonda, Maurice Ronet, Catherine Spaak, Francine Bergé) – Classic Movie Review 4306

Director Roger Vadim’s starry and atmospheric 1964 film adaptation of the classic Arthur Schnitzler play, now re-set in Paris during the summer of 1914, tells the same ten circular thematically interlinked tales of love and seduction.

Alas, gold, like lightning, doesn’t strike twice, but this remake of Max Ophüls’s 1950 classic La Ronde is still in the interesting category. Vadim, or even his distinguished screen-writer Jean Anouilh, apparently does not have the taste for high art, or at any rate the need to show it on screen, or the ability to deliver the kind of elegance that effortlessly poured off the work of original director Ophüls.

And, while some of the actors are intriguing in themselves, they just do not have the special kind of acting style or ability that are needed to interpret this kind of piece, apart that is from Catherine Spaak and Francine Bergé, who give the film’s most notable performances.

Besides, this La Ronde is out of its time in the Swinging Sixties and the merry-go-round of love isn’t so merry this time. However, Henri Decaë’s colour, widescreen cinematography is a knockout.

Also in the luminous cast are Marie Dubois, Claude Giraud, Anna Karina, Jean-Claude Brialy, Jane Fonda, Maurice Ronet, Bernard Noel and Jean Sorel, and just their presence brings a kind of elegance and style.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4306

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