Le Plaisir

Le Plaisir (1952) is Max Ophüls' classic drama you can watch online on iFILM. The film weaves together three tales adapted from Guy de Maupassant, each measuring pleasure against something else — youth, innocence, and death.

In the first story, an old man hides his age behind a mask and dances himself ragged at a ball. The second and longest segment follows Madame Tellier, who shuts her brothel for a day and takes her working girls to the countryside for a niece's first communion. The third watches a painter fall hopelessly for his model until the affair becomes a snare for them both. The cast reads like a roll call of French cinema: Danielle Darrieux, Jean Gabin, Simone Simon.

Ophüls was famous for a camera that seems to glide through walls, and here it drifts across ballrooms and country lanes until the three separate tales settle into one meditation on what joy costs. It's for viewers who love old European cinema and don't mind the sadness underneath the smile. Stream Le Plaisir (1952) online on iFILM.