Madame De... DVD

It was her vanity that destroyed her.

Madame de... was, according to film critic Andrew Sarris, "the most perfect film ever made." Nominated for an Oscar® in 1955, Madame de... displays the romance, irony and tragedy prevalent in so may of Ophuls' films.

When the aristocratic woman known only as Madame de sells the earrings given to her by her unsuspecting husband in order to pay personal debts, she sets off a chain reaction, the financial and carnal consequences of which can only end in despair. Travelling across Europe from husband to mistress, lover to wife, the hypocrisy and infidelity which exists beneath the veneer of respectability are skillfully exposed.

With his graceful camera work serving as an ironic counter to the rotten hypocrisy of his central characters, Max Ophuls once again proves why critics and filmmakers such as François Truffaut have labelled him "the best French filmmaker."