Watch La Ronde For Free

Very best movie i ever watch

Perfect cast and a good story

The first must-see film of the year.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

"La Ronde" is the cinematic equivalent of a short story collection in which affairs of the heart are the central theme and one character from each story plays a part in the next. Almost by definition, movies like this feel less satisfying to me, because no one story is ever allowed to build to any kind of dramatic conclusion, but "La Ronde" is a pretty good example of the genre. I don't know that the film (which was based on a stage play) has much to say about love beyond generic platitudes, but it boasts some lovely little performances, especially by Danielle Darrieux, who would go on to captivate me a few years later in another and far superior Max Ophuls film, "The Earrings of Madame de...", and Simone Signoret, who plays a weary prostitute. The true star of the picture, however, is the production design, which alone makes the film worth watching. It looks sumptuous, and the camera glides around the spaces as smoothly and gracefully as the carousel that serves as a recurring visual motif in the film."La Ronde" was deservedly nominated for a Best Art Direction Oscar in the black and white category, and Max Ophuls and writing partner Jacques Natanson were nominated for adapting its screenplay.Grade: B+

The film is paced well - not too fast, nor too slow - and is paired with a nice waltzy ballad, sung here by the ever brilliant Anton Walbrook.It is sometimes difficult to relate to the characters in this film; one questions whether such casual infidelities and flings were as common - as they are portrayed here - back in 1800s Vienna. Perhaps among aristocrats and the military. Less so the middle-class and less so Austria in this present century... When preparing to watch this film, the viewer must not expect a serious or bleak tale about dysfunctional relationships. For this one is an airy, flowing, winking ode to love in its many forms (if one can call it love), lost in its own romance....When I was watching 'La ronde', i was thinking how exciting it would have been if this story of interconnected tales of love included a man with a philandering wife who himself is in love with another man... Surely if the 1950s audience could view a film depicting polyamory in positive light, they should be cool with homosexuality (on a side note, 'Les enfants terribles' released the same year makes clear the male hero's love for another man). Perhaps it is my 21st century mind that makes me notice the heteronormativity of this film. Or how about, if the story includes a person seducing another person but the recipient does not respond to it, and instead gets together with somebody else, thus continuing the 'love circle'?And also i thought the film would come to a neat conclusion with the last 'lover' finally putting an end to this circle by settling down and committing to another, by marrying him/her and saying those vows while MEANING it. But maybe such an ending would have gone against Max Ophuls' message that the ring of various loves is never ending, and instead goes on and on until death....

If we look at every particular story, this is just like any other romantic movie. But seeing it as a whole makes it a grand & poetic romantic charmer. Story is set in Vienna,1900. Starts with a street hooker falling for a young soldier and then begins a humorous chain of romantic affairs going through various personnel of different classes until the end of the circle. Every love affair is basically somewhat superficial and illegitimate in some aspect too. But the masterful story-telling of Max Ophuls don't let us think about anything else. The sets,music adds up into its mood of romance. The flowery conversations between the characters are like treat. Movie's main strength is its narration. Anton Walbrook brilliantly does that job. It flows through time and place, the narrator is all-knowing so there is no boundary in the story. He brilliantly appears in different looks and serves as a charming guide in this endless journey. Every character has its own personality, and within very small time they leave their mark. Affairs of different classes & professionals are brilliantly combined in the tremendously romantic city of Vienna. It is surprising how a movie entirely shot in one studio gives a ride through a whole city of different time and place. Overall this is a fascinating cycle of love, definitely worth going through. If you are in a bad mood, this movie can be a possible cure. Spellbinding and enormously pleasant.

I've just read all the previous comments on this and I'm surprised that none of them apparently grasped that the main thrust of the plot was the passing of venereal disease from one character to another. It's not just coincidence that the first coupling is between a prostitute and a soldier - prostitutes traditionally work near army barracks and are, or arguably were in 1900, more likely to be carriers of venereal disease than most other women simply because by definition they had sex with more men than the average woman, married or single, in 1900. The vastly overrated semi-Amateur film maker Jean-Luc Godard dismissed both the film and one of France's leading actors (Gerard Philippe) with the words 'France's worst actor in France's worst film', which in itself should be sufficient to send all intelligent people flocking to see La Ronde. It is, of course, dated. It has to be, it was made 54 years ago yet it still retains that quality that has always eluded and will always elude Godard, Style. What if not stylish should we call it when our self-appointed narrator, Anton Walbrook, discards his slightly down-market raincoat and dons an opera cape to lead us to a sleazy quarter of Vienna and make us privy to the initial sexual encounter, the first, of course, of many, between prostitute Simone Signoret and soldier Serge Reggiani (soon to play similar roles in Jacques Becker's 'Casque d'Or') and provide the first 'take' on love/sex which is indifference; even when Signoret is prepared to waive her fee Reggiani disdains free sex on the grounds that her room is a ten minute walk from where they met and only reluctantly does he finally agree to an al fresco coupling from which he hurries away with barely a 'thank you', let alone a cigarette. Cynicism is still rampant in the next encounter in which Regginani seduces Simone Simon's comely housemaid then hurries back to the dance where they had met. Cynicism of a different sort informs the next encounter when the young man of the house (Daniel Gelin) where Simon is employed practices his seduction technique on her before attempting it with the real thing in the shape of older, married Danielle Darrieux. This episode, together with its successor (Darrieux and her husband, Fernand Gravey) serves as a filmic equivalent of an interval in a theatre (the film is based, as is widely known, on a play by Viennese playwright Artur Schnitzler)and Gelin's initial impotence is metaphored subtly (for 1950) by the breaking down of the roundabout which allows Ophuls to cut away to Walbrook in mechanic mode and then back to a now successful Gelin consummating his infatuation for Darrieux. And so it goes on, brief encounters, longer liaisons, just like life in fact. Virtually all of the cast had or would appear in classic films, not least Jean-Pierre Barrault, so memorable in 'Les Enfants du Paradis', Gerard Philippe, the original 'Fanfan le Tulipe' with 'Les Orgueillex' still to come, Serge Reggiani, a veteran of 'Les Portes de la Nuit', laughed off the screen in 1946 and now regarded rightly as a masterpiece, and so on, arguably only Isa Miranda as the actress let the side down. All in all a triumph. 8/10