Resurrecting a star
Restored version of Max Ophüls’ 1955 film brings new life to ‘Lola Montes’

Before the Lola who got whatever she wanted or the one who drank champagne that tasted just like Coca-Cola or the one who was dancing at the Copacabana, there was another Lola whose scandalous life became her most marketable talent.
A newly restored 35mm. version of Max Ophüls’ 1955 film “Lola Montes” (recently the spotlight retrospective at the Film Forum in New York and an official selection of this year’s New York, Telluride and Cannes film festivals ) opens Friday in Pasadena at the Laemmle Playhouse 7.

Born Elizabeth Rosanna Gilbert in Ireland, Montes eloped at 16, then remade herself into a Spanish dancer under her adopted stage name, had an affair with Franz Liszt and was the mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who made her Countess of Landsfeld.

Montes also traveled to the United States, where she married and then quickly abandoned a San Francisco newspaperman, then left to take a burlesque show to Australia. She later returned for an 1858 lecture tour, but died in poverty at 42 in 1861.

The conceit of German-born Ophüls’ French-language movie about her life is not a vaudeville show, but a circus. Late in life, Lola has become a curiosity who, after her performance, will be available for men wanting to touch the hand of the once-mistress of European royalty. Warned to give up smoking and drinking, then-sickly Lola (Martine Carol) gulps down liquor and puffs away in between scenes from her life, including a final plunge from a height — meant to represent her fall from countess to carnival side show — without the benefit of a net. In between acts we survey her life via flashbacks, starting with the breakup of her love affair with Liszt (Will Quadflieg).

Peter Ustinov plays the ringmaster, exciting the circus audience while speaking to Lola under his breath. He is a little bit in love with her, but both are driven by a greedy circus owner (Friedrich Domin), who collects extra money (claiming it will go to help other fallen women, though it likely ends up in his pockets), using buckets the shape of Lola’s head.

“Lola Montes” was Ophüls’ first film in color and widescreen, but was also his last film and a terrible flop. The producers butchered the movie by restructuring it into chronological order, but in 1969 producer Pierre Braunberger bought the rights and issued a restored version. This latest restoration has fixed scratches and tears, improved colors and hues and offers re-mastered sound. Images were also restored to the widescreen ratio of 2.55 to 1 from 2.35 to 1, which had cut off some of the images at the left and right ends.

“Lola Montes,” as it was meant to be seen, is considered Ophüls’ masterpiece by some. Roger Ebert wrote “One of the signs of a great director is his ability to sustain a consistent personal tone throughout a film. The work of certain directors can be recognized almost at once; a few hundred feet of Godard or Fellini are sufficient. Max Ophüls was such a director, and his ‘Lola Montes’ has as much unity of tone as any film I can remember.”

Carol’s performance, however, is stiff — making her a foil for better actors — but it’s believed that Ophüls needed to use Carol, a sex symbol of her time, to find financing for the film. Luckily, the restored chronology of newer versions brings a little more balance between her and her co-stars.