Lola Montes -- What Makes This Movie Great? (Episode 15)

“Lola Montes“ is a lavish 1955 French movie by Max Ophuls, the last movie by the great German director. It’s a period piece, with an American circus framing flashbacks of Lola Montes’ life. The movie is at once about female celebrity in the modern world, fame and public spectacle versus a private life, individual dignity versus the need to put on appearances in society, and much more. I argue a bit that the movie has shades of Citizen Kane, and that it deserves close analysis in the way that Kane has been analyzed. See for more great movie criticism.