Max Ophuls' Films

Each evening, before saying their prayers, some children swallow their cod liver oil. One evening, the youngest child makes a daring request in his prayer. "Why must it always be children who have to obey their parents ?" God is off duty and St. Peter is tired but, just before he falls asleep, he grants the prayer

Die verliebte Firma was Max Ophüls' first feature film. The story follows a movie crew who is filming a musical in a small and idyllic alpine village. After their temperamental leading lady drops out of the film, they decide to replace her with the village's young post office clerk Gretl, who returns to Berlin with them. There she has to struggle with the movie's all-male crew, who all try to woo and win her.

Bohemia in the 19th century, stage-coach driver Hans, loves the mayor's daughter Marie, but she is promised Wenzel, the son of another wealthy farmer. Marie refuses to marry Wenzel because of Hans, but the marriage arranger tries to "buy" Marie from Hans. But when Wenzel tells Hans, that he doesn't want to marry Marie, either, because he loves circus director Brummel's daughter, Hans decides to accept the offer of money for not interferring in the relations of Hans and Marie. But when Marie hears about this, she doesn't want to see Hans again.

Vienna in the beginning of the twentieth century. Cavalry Lieutenant Fritz Lobheimer is about to end his affair with Baroness Eggerdorff when he meets the young Christine, the daughter of an opera violinist. Baron Eggerdorff however soon hears of his past misfortune...

A young salesman may inherit a wine-estate on one condition: he can't drink a drop of alcohol for at least a month.

A young German officer's (Wolfgang Liebeneiner) life is turned upside when he tries to end his affair with a married baroness (Olga Tschechowa) after falling for an innocent young singer (Magda Schneider).

A businessman about to ruin his competitors is whisked away to a villa to keep him out of trouble, where a young woman watches over him. The two soon fall in love and work on making an escape.

Gaby is expelled from school after a married teacher commits suicide after telling her he can't live without her. Though she has done nothing, she is punished for his act.

A country girl starts to work as a chorus girl in Paris and then finds true love with a good-looking milkman.

One of two music shorts Ophuls made in France in the mid 1930s, for a planned series called Music and Cinema.

One of two mid 1930s musical shorts made in France by Ophuls, part of a planned series called Music and Cinema.

Two ghosts attend an engagement party, unseen by the other guests. One ghost, Dupont, is the father of the bride-to-be. He looks back on his marriage to her mother. His wife Annette was always very unhappy; business kept him away from home. The doctor recommended indulging her whims for furs and jewels. Then Uncle Émile suggested a trip to Paris. All went well until the day they went to the circus and saw the lion-tamer, Rodrigo the Conqueror. Rodrigo becomes Annette's lover ... and the second ghost... But wait a second. There's a third ghost at the party!

When bank messenger Brand realizes that 50,000 pounds sterling have gone missing in Amsterdam, it is a catastrophe for him. Imagine his surprise, then, when he is suddenly re-hired as the bank's director.

The film is set in Yoshiwara, the red-light district of Tokyo, in the nineteenth century. It depicts a love triangle between a high-class prostitute, a Russian naval officer and a rickshaw man.

Herr Werther, a new magistrate to the Grand Duchy of Walheim who is a violinist and poet, seems to have fate on his side as he meets and pursues a beautiful local woman, Charlotte. But as Werther sets to propose marriage, Charlotte reluctantly tells him she has been promised to another, Werther's superior, Judge Hochstätten. Werther and Charlotte decide to keep their romance from the judge and each descends into depression. Will they be able to keep their feelings a secret?

A man's clumsy attempts to marry his young naive ward. Ophuls' idea was: show the Louis Jouvet theater troupe, which had decamped to Geneva, playing for an audience and show things like the actors getting made up, and going behind stage.

After an unhappy marriage, a woman of the world is forced to become a dancer in a cabaret in order to raise her young son.

In the late 1800's, Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, falls for Sophie Chotek, a Czech countess. He's already a problem to the Crown because of his political ideas; this love affair with someone not of royal blood breeches protocol. The Crown allows the union only after the couple agrees to a morganatic marriage. The emperor further neutralizes Franz by making him inspector general of the army, sending him afield for months at a time. In June of 1914, fearing for his safety, Sophie seeks permission to accompany Franz to Sarajevo; protocol dictates that no army troops attend Franz while she is present. An assassin strikes. Their deaths spark World War I.

Charles II, the King of England, finds himself in exile in Holland, where he falls in love with a beautiful farm-girl.

A pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember, who may hold the key to his downfall.

An ambitious young LA department store model gets her wish of marrying a millionaire but she eventually discovers that rich life isn't always a happy one.

After discovering the dead body of her teenage daughter's lover, a housewife takes desperate measures to protect her family from scandal.

Soldiers, chambermaids, poets, prostitutes, aristocrats-all are on equal footing in this multi-character merry-go-round of love and infidelity.

The daughter of a slain man pushes her brother toward vengeance in 19th-century Corsica.

Three separate stories about the same thing: le plaisir (pleasure).