A dazzling Max Ophuls film which consists of a series of episodes about the nature of physical love. Turn-of-the-century Vienna is the setting for a linked series of “amours,” first a soldier and a streetwalker, then the same soldier and a housemaid, and so on, until the circle of love, inscribing Viennese society from top to bottom, is completed. A perfect example of Ophuls' wit and elegant amorality, as well as of his unmatched mastery of fluid mise-en-scene.
“(In this) legendary lovers' rondelay and 1952 Supreme Court cause célèbre...Max Ophuls has transformed Schnitzler's nine harsh, sardonic blackout sketches of linked syphilitics into one swirling merry-go-round of destiny and desire. A masterpiece of stylistic distancing long before distancing became a dull synonym for self-conscious artifice, La Ronde is exquisitely served by a once-in-a-lifetime cast.” --New York Film Festival, 1969