Max Ophüls
France – 1953
Screenplay: Marcel Achard, Max Ophüls, Annette Wademant
Cinematography: Christian Matras
Production: Franco London Films, Indusfilms, Rizzoli Film
Language: French, Turkish
Duration: 100 min
Color: Black and White
Synopsis: In the Paris of the late 19th century, reckless Countess Louise, wife of General André, sells the earrings her husband gave her as a wedding gift to the jeweler M. Rémy to pay her debts. She lies to her husband that they were lost in the theater and he is about to call the police when M. Rémy visits his client and discloses the truth about the earrings. The General secretly buys the earrings again and gives them to his mistress, Lola, who is about to depart for Constantinople. Over there Lola gambles them away and they are picked up by an Italian diplomat, Baron Donati, who sees them in a shop window. Back in Paris, Donati meets Louise and they become lovers. He gives her the earrings, and Louise offers her husband another lie as an explanation: they were not lost in the theatre, she had misplaced them in a drawer. Seeing his mistresses’ earrings mysteriously reappear back in his wife’s possession, along with Louise’s blatant deceits, arouses the General’s jealousy and pride with tragic consequences.