This Anna Karenina-like tale of a woman's love thwarted by male power is actually Ophulsian in theme: desire over time equals more desire. Shimmering lighting and fluid camerawork, objects and textures, looks and gestures tell the story of the pampered mistress of an upper-class Russian general who gives it all up-the villa, the diamond bracelets-for love of a lowly lieutenant whom she first spots from her balcony. One of the many marvelous things about The Wonderful Lie is the way the film itself gives over its elegantly appointed sets for stark realism and never regrets it. Brigitte Helm's transfixed and transfixing looks contribute to a carefully wrought study of gazes: the gaze holds desire, and it is a look, rather than a lie, that sets the tragedy in motion. An extraordinarily beautiful score by Maurice Jaubert, written for the film's French release, accompanies our print.