Moving Images:
The American Films of Max Ophüls
 Widely considered one of Europe's greatest filmmakers, Max Ophüls (né Oppenheimer, 1902-1957) began his career in the German film industry in 1931, and over the next 24 years directed 22 feature films in five different countries. Known for his baroque camera movements, circular narratives (which often rely on flashbacks), and cynical wit, Ophüls explored the ephemeral nature of romance, love, and morality (often with strong, yet flawed female characters). Having screened eight of Ophüls's European films in the fall, we now turn to his small but important body of films he made in Hollywood. These four films - made within a two year period - are considered to be among Hollywood's greatest melodramas
Special thanks to Todd Wiener (UCLA), Helena Brissenden (Sony), and Jonathan Birkhahn (CBS-TV).
Saturday, January 24, 7:30 p.m.
The Reckless Moment
USA, 1949, 35mm, b/w, 81 min.
Directed by Max Ophüls
With James Mason, Joan Bennett, Geraldine Brooks
A masterpiece of melodrama and mood, The Reckless Moment stars Joan Bennett as Lucia Harper, a mother of an affluent family who discovers the dead body of her daughter's lover. Assuming her daughter is at fault, she tries to conceal the body, but soon finds herself mired in a blackmail scheme. James Mason stars as the conflicted extortionist who develops feelings for the target of his blackmail.
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Saturday, February 7, 7:30 p.m.
Caught
USA, 1949, 35mm, b/w, 88 min.
Directed by Max Ophüls
With James Mason, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Ryan
A young charm school graduate (Bel Geddes) realizes her dream of marrying into money, only to discover that her psychotic millionaire husband (Ryan, who modeled his performance on Howard Hughes) sees her as nothing more than a trophy wife. Dissatisfied and unhappy, she seeks the affections of a sympathetic doctor (Mason), with whom she becomes pregnant. "A key American melodrama: draw a line between Citizen Kane and Written on the Wind, and you'll find Ophüls's noir classic" (Time Out).
Preservation funded by the Film Foundation.
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Saturday, February 21, 5:00 p.m.
Only Yesterday
USA, 1933, 35mm, b/w, 105 min.
Directed by John M. Stahl
With Margaret Sullavan, John Boles, Edna May Oliver
While Mary's love for tenor Jim Emerson is as pristine as when she first surrendered, he does not even recognize her when they meet again after 12 long years. This hopelessly romantic 1933 film (by John M. Stahl, master of the "woman's melodrama") marks Margaret Sullavan's screen debut. The film was remade by Max Ophüls as Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) which will be shown at 7:30pm.
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Saturday, February 21, 7:30 p.m.
Letter from an Unknown Woman
USA, 1948, 35mm, b/w, 87 min.
Directed by Max Ophüls
With Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan, Mady Christians
Turn-of-the-century Vienna is the setting for this fatalistic story of a woman's (Fontaine) life-long obsession with a promising concert pianist who barely recognizes her existence. Ophüls's cinematographic wizardry is on display in this heartbreaking melodrama, which may well be the apogee of what used to be known as "the woman's picture." A film possessed of grace both in the spiritual and stylistic sense, "[the film] is a masterpiece made by a man who made more than several" (L.A. Times).
Preservation funded by the Film Foundation.
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Saturday, February 28, 7:30 p.m.
The Exile
USA, 1947, 35mm, b/w, 95 min.
Directed by Max Ophüls
With Maria Montez, Paule Croset, Henry Daniell
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. wrote, produced, and starred in this swashbuckling story of King Charles II during his exile in Holland. When the monarch learns that Oliver Cromwell's "Roundheads" plan to cross the Channel to assassinate him, he flees to the countryside where he impersonates a laborer and falls in love with a farm girl. "A poetic and pictorially lovely costume picture" (The Village Voice), the film is an unjustly neglected film in Ophüls's oeuvre.
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