Writer
Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria clashes with his father, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, over implementing progressive policies for their country. Rudolf soon feels he is a man born at the wrong time in a country that doesn't realize the need for social reform. The Prince of Wales, later to become Britain's King Edward VII, provides comic relief. Rudolf finds refuge from a loveless marriage with Princess Stéphanie by taking a mistress, Baroness Maria Vetsera. Their untimely demise at Mayerling, the imperial family's hunting lodge, is cloaked in mystery.
Novel
アリアーヌは、探偵である父の調査書を盗み見て、フラナガンというハンサムな男性に憧れを抱く。彼女は、素性を隠してフラナガンに接近。彼が愛人の夫に殺されそうになるところを助け、そのことをきっかけに憧れが本気の恋に発展。フラナガンもチャーミングなアリアーヌを忘れられなくなる。
パリを舞台にしたオードリー・ヘップバーンとゲーリー・クーパー共演作。好奇心旺盛なアリアーヌを演じるオードリーは可憐な魅力を振りまき、その魅力を惜しみなく発揮している。憧れの人と恋に落ちても、自分の正体を知られたくないアリアーヌと彼女のことを知りたいフラナガンの恋の駆け引きもスリリングで見応え十分。テンポよくイキな演出はビリー・ワイルダー。1957年のモノクロ映画だが、いつ観ても色あせないスイートなラブストーリーだ。
Novel
Mayerling is the name of a notorious Austrian village linked to a romantic tragedy. At a royal hunting lodge there, in 1889, Crown Prince Rudolf--desperate over his father's command to put away his teenage mistress, the Baroness Marie Vetsera--shot her to death and killed himself. The misfortune may indeed have been a murder-suicide, but perhaps it was a political assassination, or even the result of a lunatic family vendetta: scholarship is still catching up with the facts.
Novel
Rudolf, the only heir to Emperor Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary, is trapped in a loveless marriage to a Belgian princess. As he seeks to flee his stifling environment, he meets the beautiful Maria, and the two enter into a scandalous affair. Despite the interference of the Emperor, the couple refuse to give each other up.
Screenplay
Arianne, a young Russian maid living in France, meets a man twice her age she falls in love with.
Novel
Ariane was Hungarian director Paul Czinner's first talking picture. Starring in the title role is Czinner's charming wife, Elizabeth Bergner, likewise making her talkie debut. Young, naive Ariane sets herself for an emotional fall when she falls in love with Konstantin (Rudolf Forster), a much older and very married businessman. For his part, Konstantin regards the girl as just another harmless fling -- until he realizes a shade too late that he's really in love with her after all. Filmed in German, Ariane was simultaneously lensed in an English-language version, The Loves of Ariane.
