Retro Reel: The Earrings of Madame de...


By Julia Szabo

Retro Reel: The Earrings of Madame de ...
Criterion Collection, 1953, 100 minutes

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If a dog loves, it's obvious in the wagging of his tail when he greets his favorite person. It can be much harder to tell the temperature of a fickle human heart, but just as in dogs, there are unmistakable physical signs. This astonishing masterpiece of a movie gets to the heart of how it looks and feels to love someone truly, madly, deeply, beyond reason.

Louise (Danielle Darrieux) is the beautiful Countess of the title; we never get to learn her surname. Madame is introduced to us as a heartless expert in games of flirtation, with an impressive collection of expensive jewels. Her husband the Count (Charles Boyer) expresses irritation at his wife's many "suitors," yet he keeps a mistress. Ah, the double standard of marriage!

It can be tragic indeed if the object of one's passion is not one's spouse, but especially so at a time and place (in this case, turn-of-the-twentieth-century Europe) when duels were routinely fought by "honorable" men with bruised egos. Mere affairs could be overlooked, after all, but actually falling in love? Simply not acceptable.

A practiced liar, Madame is also a skillful actress, and whenever it serves her purpose, she pretends to faint. While out hunting one day, Louise peers into a spyglass and sees her latest love interest, Baron Donati (Vittorio De Sica) falling off his horse - then she promptly passes out.

Only she's not faking it - she has nothing whatsoever to gain by such a public display of sincere feeling. This time, she's really in love. How do we know for sure? Because director Max Ophuls punctuates the scene - quite effectively - with a sizeable pack of hunting hounds. And those dogs thunder onto the screen with the breathless pace of a pounding heart.

Presence of dogs: reel
Respect for dogs: reelreelreelreel
Canine star quality: reelreelreelreel
Family friendly: 0

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