The Earrings of Madame De... (Criterion Collection)

The most cherished work from French master Max Ophuls (La ronde), THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE... is a profoundly emotional, cinematographically adventurous tale of deceptive opulence and tragic romance. When an aristocratic woman known only as Madame de (LE PLAISIR'S extraordinary Danielle Darrieux) sells a pair of earrings given to her by her husband (GASLIGHT'S Charles Boyer) in order to pay a debt, she sets off a chain reaction of financial and carnal consequences that can end only in despair. Ophuls's adaptation of Louise de Vilmorin's incisive fin de sihcle novel employs the elegant and precise camera work for which the director is so justly renowned, to ravishing effect.