After ten years in Hollywood, where he made the acclaimed LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN, Max Ophüls returned to France. His first film, LA RONDE, is taken from Arthur Schnitzler's play REIGEN, which features a series of interlocking love stories set in Vienna at the turn of the 19th Century. Ophüls added the visual metaphor of the merry-go-round and a raconteur (Anton Walbrook), who comments on love as the characters move from one partner to another. A student seduces a chambermaid, then, filled with confidence, has an affair with a married woman who goes home to her husband, who then goes off to his mistress--and so on until the circle comes back to the beginning. The situations and dialogue were considered quite risqué at the time and the film was actually banned in America. Now, afternoon TV soap operas are more graphic, but not as witty or subtle in their approach to the vicissitudes of l'amour. Ophüls directs with a fluid grace and Simon Signoret, Danielle Darrieux, and Alfred Gelin give outstanding performances.

Schnitzler's work returned to popularity in the late 1990s with David Hare's play THE BLUE ROOM, another adaptation of REIGEN, staring Nichole Kidman. His short stories were also the source material for Stanley Kubrick's EYES WIDE SHUT.