Francois Truffaut on Max Ophuls

On May 15, 1957, Arts published François Truffaut's article "You are all witnesses at the trial, French cinema is breaking apart under false legends" and the following week it published his article "Cannes: a failure dominated by failure, schemes and faux pas". These two articles at that time were probably more responsible for his notoriety as a film critic. Because of these two articles, he was not invited to the Cannes Film Festival in 1958. What follow here is the opening of "You are all witnesses..." which actually is a paean to Max Ophuls. It is my translation and that article was reprinted in "Le Plaisir des yeux" on page 212.

Is cinema an art?
In the majority of cases the conclusion is summed up in the word, "yes". There are always exceptions which prove the rule.. And in that case, the conclusion is this: cinema is not an art, since films are the result of a collective work, film is the work of a team.
One could declare quite clearly that, contrary to what is written in all film histories, contrary to what is asserted by directors themselves, film is no more the work of a team than a novel, a poem, a symphony or a painting.
The great directors, Jean Renoir, Roberto Rossellini, Alfred Hitchcock, Max Ophuls, Robert Bresson and a great many others write the films that they themselves direct, even when they find inspiration in a novel, a play, or a true story, the point of departure is only a pretext. A filmmaker is not a writer, he thinks in images, in terms of mise-en-scene and writing bores him.
The role of the scenarist/dialogue-writer compared to the director is limited to that of technician -- the finishing touches on the dramatic design, a trick to "clinch" a complicated plot, some guidelines for the dialogue. The screenwriter talks with the director and "passes the ball back to him"; in the end, the titles mean nothing and that is so. Cécil Saint-Laurent and Annette Wademant who are, respectively, credited with the screenplay and adaptation of Lola Montès aver to me that Max Ophuls preserved nothing of their work. Both are no less great admirers of the film in question and of Max Ophuls.
If I cite Lola Montès, it is because this film constitutes a perfect example of a film whose director is the unique responsable (the only one in charge).
and One day, I visited Max Ophuls. He welcomed me to view the "rushes"; This was a lengthy shot of the Nice road, artificially reddened by Ophuls, the leaves themselves had been tinted. Max Ophuls was not in the projection room and Christian Matras, the first-class cinematographer of the film, did not conceal his disgruntlement, "You never see a red road, and these leaves, they aren't natural". The cinematographer of Lola MontèsOphuls' closest collaborator was in the dark on the film-maker's intention. He did not even know why Ophuls had him paint the road and the leaves. (Each episode in Lola Montès corresponds to a season, the sketch of the adventure with Litz had to be autumnal.)
Thus, it is no exaggeration to claim that Max Ophuls was his own cinematographer, in as much as you find the same style of photography in all his films while Christian Matras shot for Till L'Espiègle, as an example, color photography which was first-rate but very different.

Another time, i went to the studio to see Ophuls: he was preparing a shot which he would film that afternoon. The setting portrayed was the apartment of Martine Carol in Nice where Peter Ustinov came to ask her to re-enact her life in his circus. Along the staircase -- Ophuls work is loaded with staircases since the action of climbing steps is much more physical than walking -- there were small clear tiles. Ophuls was arguing with the production-manager, his old friend, Ralph Baum. "Ralph, I want colored tiles, in different colors, in place of these tiles." The production-manager does his job by conciliating the artistic desires of the director with the financial imperatives of the producer.
"Max, we don't even see these tiles on the screen since the crane's movement is so rapid that we very quickly see Ustinov appearing at the top pf the stairs."
"Ralph. I absolutely need these tiles to be colored."
In my mind, Ralph Baum was justified as it seemed evident that this detail was unimportant.
On the day that I saw the film for the first time - a day to mark with a red-letter - I noticed that after my departure from the set, Ophuls had won his point.
I saw Ustinov's silhouette, profiled behind colored tiles, climbing the stairs with a heavy thread - like an elephant - accompanied by circus music and I understood Ophuls' intention. Ustinov is a man of the circus and his arrival in Lola's life had to evoke the ambiance of the circus, not only, through the music, but also, through the different colors, the multicolored ambiance of the circus ring, the tinted spotlights.
The directors whom I have already said think in images are averse to explaining themselves in words. They as modest as the scenarist is not, whence Ophuls refusal to explain his his intentions to his closest collaborators.

Some unrealized film projects of Max Ophuls

From the April 15 1963 issue of Avant-Scene Cinema (page 46)
A list of unrealized projects of the film director Max Ophuls.

"The scripts of some of these projects exist in advanced state and count among Ophuls' best."

Before World War II

Le Scandale -- from a play by Henry Bataille
Derrière la façade -- screenplay by Yves Mirande, (finally directed by Mirande and Georges Lacombe)
Maria Tarnowski -- screenplay by Jacques Companeez to star Kate de Nagy
untitled propaganda film for the French Foreign Legion in which Ophuls would have film a sequence at the Franco-Spanish border.
La Grande traversée -- dialogue by Marcel Archard to star Victor Francen

World War II -- Hollywood

Sentimental Journey -- to star Martha Eggerth and Jan Kiepura (directed eventually by Walter Lang starring John Payne and Maureen O'Hara)


Post World War II
The Knights of the Round Table -- in England to star Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Giigi -- from Colette
La Duchess de langeais -- to star Greta Garbo and James Mason
Autumne -- original screenplay by Max Ophuls and Peter Ustinov to be filmed during a Mozart festival at Salzbourg
L'Amour des quatre colonels -- from a Peter Ustinov play
The Blessing (Ce Cher ange) -- from a Nancy Mitford novel
Mam'zelle Nitouche -- finally filmed by Yves Allégret starring Fernandel
Carmen -- starring Sophia Loren
Modigliani -- from Henri Georges-Michel's novel "Les Montparnos" adapted by Henri Jeanson, Jacques Natanson, Albert Valentin and Max Ophuls. To star Yves Montand and then Mel Ferrer and finally Gérard Philippe. (direction entrusted at Ophuls' suggestion to Jacques Becker and released as "Montparnasse 19")

Vaguer projects
Adolphe -- from Benjamin Constant
L'Ami Fritz -- from Eckmann-Chatrian to star Jean Gabin
Bertha Garlan -- from Arthur Schnitzler to star Daniele Darrieux
Egmont -- from Goethe and with music by Beethoven
Histoire d'amour -- from Louise de Vilmorin
Le Lys dans la vallée -- from Balzac
Les Mille et un nuits -- project in advanced state around June 1954
Six Characters in Search of an Author -- from Luigi Pirandello
Une vie de Catherine de Russie -- to star Ingrid Bergman
Une vie D'Isadora Duncan -- advanced project, adaptation written and lost
Yvette -- from Guy de Maupassant

Max Ophuls on Arthur Schnitzler

In the April 15 1963 issue of Avant-Scene Cinema which was dedicated to Max Ophuls' film La Ronde, Claude Beylie wrote the introduction. This is taken from that introduction.

"La Ronde (1950) is, like Liebelei drawn from Schnitzler. Strange predilection of Ophuls for this dramatic author of scandal who cast on the mystery of physical love the most cynical of expressions. But the filmmaker idealized his model. 'Schnitzler,' he confided to Pierre Lephoron, 'is Musset on the banks of the Danube. In his work "everything rolls on" like a river, birth, life and the end of human relations, as well as of love, and all that to the rhythm of a waltz'."