The life of famous courtesan Lola Montes is presented in the form of a circus attraction. In a garishly colored circus, the suckers line up at a buck a kiss with celebrated adventuress Lola, as the ringmaster starts his spiel and the flashbacks begin. In 1955, "Lola Montes" was the biggest-budgeted French film to date, with its always-mobile camera gliding, tilting, and craning amid dazzling sets and costumes. The oscillation between the tawdriness of the circus and the romanticism of the flashbacks underscores the difference between reality and memory, each flashback with its own color scheme.