The virtuosity of his camera technique enables [Ophuls] to present complex, many-layered material so fast that we may be charmed and dazzled by his audacity and hardly aware of how much he is telling us.

| Sep 11, 2023

The love story is movingly tender, interspersed with appealing humor. The suspense built up through complications over a pair of earrings is engrossing.

| Oct 8, 2021

...a lifeless, all-too-theatrical period piece that's hardly able to engender the lush, romantic vibe that Ophuls is clearly striving for.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Mar 2, 2019

Max Ophls' French 1953 production is widely regarded as one of the German-born director's best, and Criterion's presentation lives up to that reputation.

| Original Score: 7.5/10 | Sep 8, 2014

Such movement is what influenced a young Stanley Kubrick, whose visual structure -- graceful tracking shots and medium coverage punctured by rare but arresting inserts -- is a descendant of Ophls.

| Jan 14, 2014

The cyclical nature of chance and coincidence takes on epic proportions here, as Ophuls masterfully transforms what initially seems like a borderline bedroom farce into a full-blown tragedy.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 21, 2013

Ophuls didn't make it look effortless; he simply made it look flawless. Perfection that produces a sense of awe and the (accurate) impression that nobody else could have made it.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Sep 9, 2013

...exquisite, both in its lavish craftsmanship and in the way it captures the acute joy (and pain) of romantic love.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 28, 2013

It's full of characteristically graceful tracking shots, the editing is superb, and in her third consecutive Ophls film Darrieux has never looked more entrancing.

| Feb 17, 2013

Deliciously blending Sacha Guitry's The Pearls of the Crown and Ophls's own La Ronde, this is just about as polished as European cinema gets.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 15, 2013

A superb film and a matchless trio of performances.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 14, 2013

Because it's Ophls, there's an aching sense of genuine heartbreak and loss beneath the sumptuous decor and poised, urbane ironies.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 4, 2013

Elegant.

| Original Score: A | Feb 10, 2012

Slighter and more emotionally distant than Ophls's masterpiece 'Letter from an Unknown Woman', but filled with a similar mood of romantic despair and desperation.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 17, 2011

The tracking shots effortlessly glide down corridors, into rooms, through gardens. They particularly shine during two dancing scenes, where the smooth movements of the partners are echoed by the graceful camera capturing every move in perfect sync.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 21, 2009

Ravisihing classic made at the height of Ophuls' career (La Ronde, Lola Montes), this much admired film is flawless in subtle narrative and lavish style as an indictment of socio-sexual mores of European aristocracy splendidly acted by Darrieux and Boyer

| Original Score: A | Sep 27, 2008

[Filmmaker Max] Ophuls choreographs as much as he directs and his camera is both an intimate part of the dance and a distant observer of inevitable tragedy.

| Sep 20, 2008

Haunting romantic tragedy.

| Aug 8, 2008

Rich in story and character.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 15, 2007

The brilliance of "Earrings" is in the precision with which Ophuls carefully strips away all the luxury until what we see is not the extravagance, but the wounded, tragic marriage that the extravagance is meant to hide.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 1, 2007