OPHULS, MAX

born May 6, 1902, Saarbrcken, Ger. died March 26, 1957, Hamburg, W.Ger. Ophls also spelled Opuls German motion-picture director whose mastery of fluid camera movement gave his films a characteristic lyrical flow. He was one of the first truly international directors, sensitive to national differences and to the human qualities common to all his characters. Ophls was an actor, stage director, and producer in Germany and Austria from 1921 to 1930. His first famous film was Liebelei (1932; Love Affair). A bittersweet love story set in Vienna, it exemplified the narrative excellence that characterized his subsequent films. In Italy he directed La signora di tutti (1934; The Mistress of All); for French audiences he made La Tendre Ennemie (1936; The Tender Enemy), Sarajevo (1940), and a French version of Liebelei. Between 1947 and 1949 he was in the United States (where he was billed as Opuls) and made four Hollywood films: The Exile (1947), Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), Caught (1949), and The Reckless Moment (1949). Between 1925 and 1941 Ophls was also a writer and producer for German and French radio stations. Returning to France in 1950 he directed the stylishly witty La Ronde (1950; The Round) and Le Plaisir (1952; Pleasure), considered two of his finest pictures. His last film, Lola Monts (1955; The Sins of Lola Monts, or Lola Montez), is also highly regarded, despite the fact that it has rarely been seen in Ophls' original version.