Unmoved

I just saw this movie for the first time and I loved it, but I understand your response. Like another of my favorites movies, "Barry Lyndon," this film is gorgeous, but detached and ironic. The kind of emotional involvement you're looking for would turn the film into a typical period costume soap opera. In a way the movie is very French; you see the same thing in "Madame Bovary" (the novel not one of the movies). Try watching it again some time, but don't try to "connect" emotionally, but intellectially and visually, and you may have a different response.
I do see your point, though. I don't think you're a Philistine. Different people have different tastes. I love the detached, ironic style. You may not.

I found it very moving - it's a rather stunning indictment of sexism to me. Louise is considered a "flirt", a silly woman obsessed with baubles and given to faux fainting spells yet she ultimately proves herself more honorable than either of the men in her life - her hypocritical husband who has a mistress yet becomes sadistic when she has a chaste romance, the "lover" who proves despite her feigning love he was quite detached and could it get over it quite quickly.

The lighting was beautiful and the music very romantic - perhaps you just don't like French films or movies of this genre - of which this film is considered a masterpiece.

I have exactly the same reaction as Danusha, except I think the lighting is good. But that incessant waltz, and the repeated scenes, sheesh!

Vittorio de Sica is horribly miscast. Maybe Louis Jourdan?

I have seen only one Ophüls movie I loved, "Letter from an unknown woman." But Madame De, La Ronde and Lola Montes are like whole meals consisting of only meringue.

And don't misjudge me as a young action-movie person. I love some very similar movies, such as "All this and Heaven too" for instance.

Ha ha! Thank God someone else shares my sentiments on this movie...I could not stand it. I DID see Paul Blart Mall Cop, didn't like that one either.
I sat through the whole movie, and the voice inside my head kept going, "I know you can't stand this movie, why do you keep watching it?" Sorry....I guess one can't like every movie....Like Goska (above), I felt no 'connection' to the characters, although I did admire the camara work.
Someone above mentioned "Barry Lyndon", a movie that many people can not stand, and oddly, I love that movie...even though I see similarities to "The Earing of Madame De"....go figure....

I have to say I was unmoved as well, although I'm definitely impressed with Ophuls' skill (this is the first Ophuls film I've seen). You can clearly see the influence he had on Kubrick, my favorite director.

Maybe someday I'll watch it again and enjoy it more. After all, I was unmoved after my first viewing of Eyes Wide Shut.

There is an element of camp to this over-decorated, over-acted film. Like "von" Stroheim, Ophüls loved to overdo it.

As things get more serious half-way through though, I do find it moving, especially the ending.











Snobbery is a form of romanticism, the chastity of the perfectionist

I very rarely say this, and believe me, I'm not one of those who complains about every aspect of a film. In fact, I can't even recall a movie that I detested so much. Even if I see an awful movie, I rarely resort to descriptive words as "I hate," "mediocre," "pretentious," so I'm surprised to say that I though this film was complete rubbish. It's so melodramatic that I just hated it. I don't know why I'm saying this. I feel guilty...oh, man, I need to shower.

Rah rah ah ah ah, roma roma ma, ga ga ooh la la!

I was unmoved as well, but I loved all the elements you complained about. The music was great, and I enjoyed the mannered, distant feel as that was the point: to subtly show how all of that was just a veneer to hide the couple's unhappiness. I liked that as the movie wore on, we were meant to peel away all that glitz and realize how things really were. I also liked the characters. They felt like three dimensional human beings to me. The husband had an air of detachment and cynicism that masked deep jealousy and caring. Louise is one of the great, contradictory females characters in cinema. Donati was a bit bland, but that was the point. He was a lonely, by the numbers diplomat who was finally outside of his comfort zone during the romance.

(Spoilers follow.) However, the film disappointed and unmoved me for one, simple reason: it was just too predictable. I knew as soon as Louise had her first fainting spell and it was obvious she had some sort of ailment that she would die, especially since this was an Ophuls film and he liked to kill off his main women. I also knew that Donati and the husband would eventually fight a duel, especially as this was an Ophuls film. And I was certain that the husband, being a military man, would win that duel. So, not even halfway through the film, I had this ending playing in my mind: the husband killing Donati, and Louise either watching and collapsing to her death, or finding out and collapsing to her death. I was dismayed to find out that that was exactly how the movie did end. Too predictable, otherwise a perfectly made film.