Directed by Max Ophuls • 1953 • France
Starring Danielle Darrieux, Charles Boyer, Vittorio De Sica
The most cherished work from French master Max Ophuls, THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE . . . is a profoundly emotional, cinematographically adventurous tale of deceptive opulence and tragic romance. When an aristocratic woman known only as Madame de . . . (Danielle Darrieux) sells a pair of earrings given to her by her husband (Charles Boyer) in order to pay some debts, she sets off a chain reaction of financial and carnal consequences that can end only in despair. Ophuls’s adaptation of Louise de Vilmorin’s incisive fin de siècle novel employs to ravishing effect the elegant and precise camera work for which the director is so justly renowned.
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A Man Escaped
Directed by Robert Bresson • 1956 • France
Starring François Leterrier, Charles Le Clainche, Maurice BeerblockWith the simplest of concepts and sparest of techniques, Robert Bresson made one of the most suspenseful jailbreak films of all time in A MAN ESCAPED. Based on the account of an impriso...
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Once Upon a Time in the West
Directed by Sergio Leone • 1968 • Italy, United States
Starring Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia CardinaleSergio Leone breathed new life into the western with this masterful epic, which stands as one of the genre’s most timeless artistic achievements. Henry Fonda, cast against his good-guy...
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Black Girl
Directed by Ousmane Sembène • 1966 • Senegal
Starring M’Bissine Thérèse DiopOusmane Sembène was one of the greatest and most groundbreaking filmmakers who ever lived, as well as the most renowned African director of the twentieth century—and yet his name still deserves to be better known in ...
