Max Ophüls

Max Ophüls (May 6, 1902 – March 25, 1957) was a German-born film director. He was born Max Oppenheimer in Saarbrücken, Germany. For his work in the German theatre and film industry he used the pseudonym Ophüls, but later the umlaut was dropped occasionally when he worked in France and the United States. The credits of Letter from an Unknown Woman from 1948 list him as Max Opuls.

He started his career a stage actor but moved into theatre and then film production in the late 1920s. In 1927 his son Marcel Ophüls was born. He worked throughout Germany. He directed his first film in 1931 with the comedy short Dann schon lieber Lebertran. A Jew, he emigrated to France in 1933 and on through Switzerland and Italy to the USA in 1941. He returned to Europe in 1950. He died from rheumatic heart disease in Hamburg and is buried in Le Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. He had made just over twenty films.

Works

His first Hollywood film was the Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. vehicle The Exile (1947); once established, he went on to direct Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), Caught (1949), and The Reckless Moment (1949) before his return to Europe.

Back in France he directed and co-wrote his two best works: La ronde (1950), which won the 1951 BAFTA Award for Best Film, and Lola Montes (1955), as well as two other fine films: (Le plaisir (1951) and Madame de... (1953)) which capped his career. All his works feature his distinctive smooth camera movements, complex crane and dolly sweeps and tracking shots. His most widely-imitated technique involves the camera moving in a circle about a stationary subject, something which influenced the young Stanley Kubrick at the beginning of his filmmaking career.

Filmography

His most popular movies are as follows (a complete list can be found on his IMDb Page):

References

External links

German film directors

Jewish film directors | Natives of Saarland

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Works

Filmography

References

External links