Based on Arthur Schnitzler’s celebrated play about the vanity and fickleness of love in nineteenth century Vienna, La ronde presents a series of vignettes between two lovers, with episodes featuring one lover from the previous segment coupled with a new character. The daisy chain structure permits Ophuls to assemble a powerhouse cast of postwar French talent: Simone Signoret, Jean-Louis Barrault, Simone Simon, Gérard Philippe, Danielle Darrieux. Ophuls expressed his admiration for Schnitzler’s fearless vision of the ferociousness of sexual desire, a stark contrast to the romantic nostalgia of the author’s later work Liebelei.