Knowra Max Ophüls Max Ophüls Max Ophüls (1902–1957) was a German-born film director whose fluid tracking shots and intricate mise-en-scène shaped European and Hollywood cinema. His films include Letter from an Unknown Woman and The Earrings of Madame de....
Letter from an Unknown Woman : A 1948 romantic drama directed by Max Ophüls, adapted from Stefan Zweig’s novella about an unrecognized love. Its retrospective letter and carefully moving camera exemplify Ophüls’s treatment of memory and unrequited love.
Tracking shot : A moving-camera shot in which the camera travels through space, often on tracks, a vehicle, or a handheld rig. Ophüls’s long tracking shots carry the viewer through rooms and crowds without breaking the scene.
German cinema : The body of films produced in Germany, including traditions formed during the silent era and the Weimar Republic. Ophüls began directing features in Germany before political exile redirected his career.
Marcel Ophüls : A French documentary filmmaker, son of Max Ophüls, known for works including The Sorrow and the Pity. His son continued the family’s film career in a markedly different documentary mode.
Stanley Kubrick : An American film director whose work includes 2001: A Space Odyssey, Paths of Glory, and Barry Lyndon. Kubrick cited Ophüls’s moving camera as an influence on his own approach to cinematic movement.
The Earrings of Madame de... : A 1953 French drama directed by Max Ophüls about a pair of earrings passing through aristocratic hands. Its circular plot turns an accessory into a measure of desire, status, and marital deception.
Mise-en-scène : The arrangement of setting, lighting, costume, and actors within a filmed scene. His moving compositions coordinate actors and décor as the camera passes through elaborate spaces.
Weimar cinema : German cinema produced during the Weimar Republic, from 1918 to 1933. Its theatrical traditions and stylistic experimentation formed part of the environment of his early work.
Stefan Zweig : An Austrian writer whose novella Letter from an Unknown Woman was adapted by Ophüls into a 1948 film. Zweig’s story supplied the source material for one of Ophüls’s most celebrated films.
Jacques Rivette : A French New Wave film director and critic whose films include Paris Belongs to Us and Céline and Julie Go Boating. Rivette’s criticism helped secure Ophüls’s stature among postwar French cinephiles.
Show all 26