Max Ophuls was the ultimate virtuoso of 20th-century filmmaking. Born in Germany in 1902, he fled to France in 1933 and to the United States in 1940. Ophuls' films have a sense of style that creates meaning. His camera sways and dances, speeds up and slows down. A maestro of visual splendor, he captures rhythm, mood, and tempo in a single exquisite shot.