Film Details

Never before shown at the Cinematheque (or any place else in Cleveland for at least the past 30 years), this rarity by the great Max Ophüls (Madame de…, Lola Montes) was the last film the exiled German director made in France before emigrating to the U.S. during WWII. The movie chronicles the love affair between Archduke Franz Ferdinand (John Lodge), reluctant heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and the Czech Countess Sophie Chotek (Edwige Feuillère), whom many regard as unworthy of him. The star-crossed relationship begins with the two of them defying the Austro-Hungarian court and ends with their assassination and the start of the First World War. “[Finds Ophüls] relishing the sort of thing he did best—casting an ironic eye on the extravagances and absurdities of the aristocracy and portraying a bittersweet romance against a background of operas, balls, and rides through the woods.” –Holt Foreign Film Guide.