The Earrings of Madame de...

The Earrings of Madame de French Madame de ma.dam d is a 1953 drama film directed by Max Ophls, adapted from Louise Leveque de Vilmorins period novel by Ophls, Marcel Archard and Annette Wadement. The film is considered a masterpiece of the 1950s French cinema. Andrew Sarris called it the most perfect film ever made. Ophls said the storys construction attracted him, stating there is always the same axis around which the action continually turns like a carousel. A tiny, scarcely visible axis a pair of earrings.

Louise Danielle Darrieux is an aristocratic woman of Belle poque Paris, married to Andr Charles Boyer, both a count and a highranking French army general. Louise is a beautiful, but spoiled and superficial, woman who has amassed debts due to her lifestyle. She arranges to secretly sell her costly heartshaped diamond earrings, a wedding present from her husband, to the original jeweler, Mr Rmy Jean Debucourt. Relations between Louise and Andr are companionable, but they sleep in separate beds, have no children, and Andr has a secret mistress, of whom he has recently tired. Louise disguises the disappearance of the earrings by pretending to have lost them at the opera. The search for them eventually reaches the newspapers Theft at the Theatre which in turn prompts Rmy to go to Andr and discreetly offer to sell them back. He accepts cheerfully and, rather than confront his wife, coolly gifts the earrings to his mistress, Lola Lia Di Leo whom he happens to be seeing off permanently to Constantinople.At her destination, however, Lola soon sells the earrings herself to settle gambling debts and they are later purchased by an Italian baron, Fabrizio Donati Vittorio De Sica, who is on his way to a high diplomatic post in Paris. Through a series of encounters, Donati becomes infatuated with Louise, later dancing with her long into the night at a ball. Andrs long absence on maneuvers facilitates the couples affair. With each passage of time, the Baron asks Louise if she has heard from her husband. Andrs return prompts Louise to stop seeing Donati, but during a hunting excursion where all three are present, she witnesses Donati fall from his horse and faints. She is said to have a weak heart, but Andr sees this behavior as an affectation, and the event makes him suspicious. ........

Source: Wikipedia