Purely Joyful Movie!

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This movie (a triptych) illustrates perfectly the universe and the themes of the great French writer Guy de Maupassant. The film is based on three of his stories: The Mask, The House Tellier and The Model. Guy de Maupassant is a master in analyzing the love (sex) life of the French bourgeoisie. Males spend their evenings in brothels ('maisons closes' in French), but, when these houses are really 'closed', they fight amongst themselves verbally and physically. Other themes in these stories are innocence and its loss and (the fight against) old age.The film explains clearly that the triggers which unmask the true nature and the real motives of the protagonists here are shocks, unexpected confrontations and reactions: the shock when the males find their brothels 'closed', the shock when the villagers are confronted with 'beautiful' people from the city, the shock of being remembered of one's innocent life as a young girl, the shock inflicted by an unexpected reaction of a mistress, or the shock when a real mask is taken off one's face. However, Max Ophüls doesn't explain very well why one of the 'city' girls triggers a general sobbing of all those who are attending a Holy Communion Service. Also, the title of the film doesn't cover the essence of its content.One should read the three stories of Guy de Maupassant after having seen the film.This film with its perfect casting and a Jean Gabin in great form is a must for all lovers of true French cinema, even if it is shot here by a German.

This trilogy of tales adapted from De Maupassant is such a vivid contrast to today's mainstream cinema of frenetic editing, overblown adventure and concurrent explosions; instead, it is an evocation of times gone by, three mood pieces enriched by incredibly complex but telling cinematography. A personal favorite is the middle story, The Teller House, relating how some Ladies of The Night close their beloved city brothel for a night in order to attend a niece's Catholic confirmation in a small town; Ophuls captures the contrast between the women dressed in their lavish best with the simplicity not only of the child but all the village in their working class blacks, as they attend the service in a local church and surprise themselves and the town folk with an emotional catharsis; the episode is incredibly rich in atmospherics, capturing everything from the baroque traceries of the tiny church to the rickety wooden train interiors; the tracking shots of the brothel exterior, creating a sense of voyeuristic benevolence are simply incredible! The remaining two stories offer pleasures of their own in this lovely film with a sadly ironic view of happiness

A trilogy of Guy de Maupassant stories, two short simple ones framing a long and impossibly rich one, and I don't know why everyone complains about the framing ones - everything is given exactly the weight that their narrative will support. An old man dressing up like a young dandy to relive the gavotting excesses of his youth, only to end in physical collapse, starts things off; and to close we have a beautiful young couple who go from romantic bliss to petty vindictiveness to resigned acceptance via an attempted suicide. This gives us a rather complex understanding of the meaning of 'pleasure', and the worst you can say is that one and three don't utterly embody pleasure the way number two does (although the swirling camera work in the dance scene comes damn close). The story of a troop of sex workers romping off to a country wedding is simplicity itself, but also incredibly rich - full of memorable human beings and interactions. Everyone sees happiness in the place that they're not, but this episode celebrates life wherever it finds it, and it's a joy to watch.

This is about something most illusory - pleasure, and various definitions of it. One man's pleasure is another's poison - personally the world depicted in such a wistful and playful way by Max Ophuls holds no attraction for me. Sex and dancing aren't everything except if you think so. But as a film this is supreme stuff, Art of a kind never witnessed outside of Ophuls and with a cinematic regard and feeling for 19th century France and the French that remains unsurpassed.Three of Maupassant's short stories are presented - he was sitting by me at the time - for me the most poignant being the first, Le Masque. The opening sequence is an incredible whirling bustling tour de force of camera, set and actor trickery, moving them all about with an astounding ease for 1952. Not once in the packed studio did something crunch into a balustrade or one of the dancers take someone's eye out - choreography so perfect as to make you gasp. We as the modern audience are constantly peeping through lattices, curtains, windows, holes etc at the action within from 1880, occasionally permitted to become part of it with the characters. The loving attention to period detail is constant and total. With so much being studio-bound, I've always wondered why the over-riding image I carry in my head of Le Plaisir is from the 2nd story, La Maison Tellier. With the jolly yokel Jean Gabin at the reins of the cartload of gaudy jolly whores including Danielle Darrieux dashing through the sunny French countryside full of life and happy at the prospect of a night off and more perfect choreography it's a joy to behold.The 3rd piece Le Modele has Simone Simon and Daniel Gelin reviewing their previous performances in La Ronde but with the ending somewhat different! Overall, a totally inconsequential ravishingly beautiful film to cherish, an ideal bookend for La Ronde - pleasure is hardly the word!