Le Plaisir (1952) • Blu-ray [Arrow Academy]

Three separate stories about the same thing: pleasure.

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written by Remy Dean.

Max Ophüls is recognised as the father of French New Wave cinema, cited as a major influence by Éric Rohmer and Jean-Luc Goddard. He’s the director’s director; a favourite of Todd Haynes, Martin Scorsese, and Stanley Kubrick. Le Plaisir was the penultimate film of a career that spanned two decades, and is probably the best example of his characteristic kinetic camera work.

When Marcel Duchamp unveiled Nude Descending a Staircase, the viewers of 1912 could not make out the subject of the stunningly original painting. One US newspaper even offered a cash prize to anyone who could point out the figure. Duchamp’s early cubist approach had split the figure into fractured movements, in the same way as a multiple-exposure photograph does. To the modern eye, the figure is quite obvious, but when first unveiled, its audience hadn’t yet developed the visual literacy to discern the forms. 40 later, Le Plaisir met with similar derision from critics of the time, who found the continual movement of stage, set, and actors, very disconcerting. And the ever-restless point of view seemed nauseating.