Eine Diva für alle (1934)

Eine Diva für alle: Directed by Max Ophüls. With Isa Miranda, Memo Benassi, Tatyana Pavlova, Friedrich Benfer. Gaby is expelled from school after a married teacher commits suicide after telling her he can’t live without her. Though she has done nothing, she is punished for his act.

“In Max Ophulsu0026#39;work,if you were born a woman,you were born to suffer.If there are exceptions,they are very rare : from u0026quot;Liebeleiu0026quot; where a womanu0026#39;s true love was only a u0026quot;liebeleiu0026quot; to u0026quot;Sans Lendemainu0026quot; where Edwige Feuillère was prisoner of a racy past to u0026quot;letter from an unknown woman u0026quot; where Joan Fontaine u0026#39;s love was in vain to the masterpieces of the fifties u0026quot;Madame deu0026quot; and u0026quot;Lola Montèsu0026quot; .Even in the much debated u0026quot;De Mayerling à Sarajevou0026quot; the historic Sophie Chotek (Feuillère again) character was also a humiliated woman.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;La signora di Tuttiu0026quot; actually predates u0026quot;Lola Montèsu0026quot; by twenty years:itu0026#39;s a long flashback after the heroineu0026#39;s suicide.The first sequences are nervy ,tense,the dialog begins with numbers and you soon realize theyu0026#39;re talking about money.Isa MIranda portrays with talent a woman whose biggest fault is to be all along the film the right woman in the wrong place.Every man she loves leads her to a dead end : the music teacher,the businessman,his son.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eGreat scenes:the opera ,an imaginary way for the lovers to escape ;Ophulsu0026#39;s great fascination for the trains (see also u0026quot;letter to an unknown womanu0026quot; u0026quot;De Mayerling à Sarajevou0026quot; and even the u0026quot;la maison Tellieru0026quot; segment in u0026quot;LE Plaisiru0026quot; in a comic way);Almau0026#39;s tragic death ,the shadow of the wheelchair on the wall,the radio which Gabriella smashes ; and above all,the final pictures when the press slowly stops .u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eA strong influence on Mankiewicz (u0026quot;Barefoot Comtessau0026quot; ),Louis Malle (u0026quot; Vie privéeu0026quot;)and on the melodrama genre (Sirk)u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe flashback was not so innovative after all(the year before,Stahl did the same in u0026quot;only yesterdayu0026quot; ) but the directing which sometimes has thriller accents (the scene when the heroine hears a radio nobody canu0026#39;t hear would not be out of place in a psychological suspense;ditto for the wheelchair scene in the night which is really awesome.”