1952, France, Max Ophüls, 97 min, French with English subtitles 

Introduced by author Ian Buruma

Roving with his dazzlingly mobile camera around the decadent ballrooms, bucolic countryside retreats, urban bordellos, and painter's studios of late nineteenth-century French life, Max Ophüls brings his astonishing visual dexterity and storytelling bravura to this triptych of tales by Guy de Maupassant about the limits of spiritual and physical pleasure. Featuring a stunning cast of French stars, Le Plaisir pinpoints the cruel ironies and happy compromises of life with a charming and sophisticated breeziness.

"Ophuls' fluent camera does a lot of lively roving in this film and picks up a deal of pungent flavor in the rococco environmental spheres. Peter Ustinov's off-screen narration as the voice of de Maupassant is droll. On the whole, 'Le Plaisir' affords such pleasures as are few and unrestrained in this hard world. " 

- Bosley Crowther, New York Times