The only film that Ophuls made in Italy, La Signora Di Tutti features Isa Miranda as a film star who reaches the depths of personal despair as she hits the peak of her popularity. As the film opens, she has attempted suicide. Under ether on the operating table, her life unfolds for her (us) in a series of fragmented flashbacks. Andrew Sarris writes: “(I)n the bravura directness of its acting (the film) is unique in an oeuvre characterized everywhere else by the subdued and subtle effects of the performances.... But though La Signora Di Tutti stands somewhat alone as Ophuls' Italian Rhapsody, its fragmented flashback structure...clearly foreshadows...Tender Enemy, Letter from an Unknown Woman and Lola Montes.... Seen in retrospect, Isa Miranda's full-bodied and warm-blooded incarnation of (the actress) Gaby Doriot should have been hailed as one of the iconographical landmarks of the Thirties....”
*As we go to press, the availability of La Signora Di Tutti is not confirmed. Please phone PFA at 642-1412 closer to the show-date for confirmation of this or another Ophuls film in its place.