Ernst Lubitsch

[hearthesilence]

I wasn't sure if Cluny Brown was an exception, but it's the first Lubitsch film I've seen where there was barely a plot, much less a plot that could drive the film, it just sort of meanders. It may explain why it hasn't gotten much exposure, but it's also what makes it a pretty charming film.

[Drucker]

Cluny is definitely meandering. There are a few brilliant gags, maybe three or four truly laugh out loud moments in the movie, but otherwise it's just cute and nothing more.

[Matt]

David Bordwell mentioned this in a blog post:

So This Is Paris is less famous than Lubitsch’s earlier American comedies primarily because it has never appeared on DVD... A beautiful 35mm print is owned by the Library of Congress, so there is hope.

I saw the LOC print at my local museum several months ago. It was brilliant.

Said print is showing in Minneapolis (well, Columbia Heights, really) this Sunday at 7:30 PM.

[rockysds]

Blu-rays of One Hour With You, Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, Design for Living and If I Had a Million coming from Elysees in

[Michael Kerpan]

Is there any good quality release of Lady Windermere's Fan outside the unaffordable Treasures box set?

[Ann Harding]

The French DVD company "Editions Montparnasse" released a good print in 2010. It's still available at cheap price.

[Michael Kerpan]

The French DVD company "Editions Montparnasse" released a good print in 2010. It's still available at cheap price.

Thanks.

[therewillbeblus]

There doesn't seem to be a Lubitsch filmmaker thread, unless I glanced past it, so I'll just put this here even though many of these don't have DVD releases.

I've finished off the Lubitsch silents barring lost films obviously, and one that doesn't seem to have subs on backchannels. I wasn't thrilled with his dramatic epics and found some of the more celebrated (The Marriage Circle) to be booming with potential, and amusing, but not as great as I'd hoped. A few thoughts on some of the earlier works:

Als ich tot war is a pretty funny screwball short where Lubitsch plays himself as a man who coasts through an absurdist existence, only to be booted from his home, after which he senselessly dresses up in disguise for a scheme to get back in his house. Lubitsch shows a knack for physical comedy as an actor here and I found his character and the details of his pathetic lunacy more entertaining than any of the actual gags or storyline.

Schulpalast Pinkus: Lubitsch stars again as an undependable goon who repeatedly fails to meet the expectations of his teachers and employers until he falls into success. This one wasn’t as smart, but he clearly had fun making it and playing the part. Some of the socially unacceptable behavior fails hard but a few others, especially his awkward hugging and eccentric posture, is good for some physical comedy laughs.

The Merry Jail: More of silly consequential farce in a manipulative male hooligan, though this film finally gives its female actors meaty parts and plenty of moments to shine. They steal the film with strong silent perfs engaging in their own kind of male-typical manipulations, and the film satirizes toxic masculinity and becomes oddly feminist for a film made over 100 years ago. The lunacy of their husband’s reaction to his prison sentence is priceless, even if he doesn’t hold a candle next to the women- though my favorite line of maybe any early Lubitsch is when he rinses his face after a long night of drinking and proclaims, “I already feel worse.”

Madame DuBarry: Epic drama that also finds rhythm as a playful sex comedy part-time. A solid restoration from MoC helped me appreciate this one on a technical level as well as notice the spark in Pola Negri’s face throughout a diverse performance.

Die Flamme is a cryptic short segment about gossiping aristocracy descending into madness over the concept of infidelity. The tension builds well in that the film begins in media res of a conversation at its boiling point and leaves it up to us to immediately meet the film on its wavelength and dissect the meaning behind action based on facial expression. This appears to be part of an actual feature but the only copy I could find runs 14 minutes, though it functions well as a slice of the pie.

Meyer aus Berlin: The opening letter hysterically jumpstarts a film about social retreat, using perceptively awkward dynamics to highlight the humor. Lubitsch gives one of his best comic performances here because he’s rooted in some relatability as a goofy surrogate. The predicaments he finds himself in feel earned, and as everyone comes to rely on him in the final act I found myself consistently amused with respect for the weaving of quiet gags through narrative rather than loud horseplay.

Romeo und Julia im Schnee might be my favorite of all his silents (except So This is Paris)... it takes the feuding families from the Shakespeare play and interprets their mutual resentment as a slapstick comedy, rendering whatever motive pointless and accentuating the buffoonery from detached objectivity. I thought this was very amusing and at times hysterical, Lubitsch taking creative measures at pinpoints key scenes in the play and lampooning them by adding his own ideas to the mix (the early ‘thumb-biting’ moment turns into a cartoonish stockpile fight of twenty or so people, for example). The final ‘psyche!-suicide’ scene is a perfect culmination to this romp. Very inspired parody on the Bard’s tragedy, where is plays like one of his very own comedies! A transformation I’m surprised no one has really attempted since.

[Michael Kerpan]

How did you find the non-DVDed films?

[therewillbeblus]

Well here is Romeo and Juliet in the Snow on YouTube with English subs, in great quality (better than the copy I watched!) and that's the best of the bunch.

I know you've championed it before, Michael, but So This Is Paris is also up on YouTube for free, though it's a rough VHS rip. It's one of Lubitsch's best and funniest films, with a surreal strange opening that in its slow reveal becomes what WIlder has interpreted as the Lubitsch Touch. The early joking about infidelity and sexual adventures are also quite bold even for pre-Code! I had more fun with this in one hour than most silent films, period. Worth checking out even with the rough shape the print is in, I can't imagine many people here not loving it.

[DarkImbecile]

There doesn't seem to be a Lubitsch filmmaker thread, unless I glanced past it, so I'll just put this here...

Sir, I'll have you know that this IS the Lubitsch filmmaker thread!

[Shrew]

There's also a decent (english intertitled) copy of Kohlhiesels Tochter on Youtube, Lubitsch's adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew. I voted for it over Romeo and Juliet in the Snow for the Shakespeare list, mainly because I think it's the adaptation that best navigates the source's tricky sexual politics (and is also very fun). It's a bit meatier than Romeo and Juliet as well (after all, it has Emil Jannings!), and anchored by a pretty great dual performance by Henny Porten

But if we're talking best silent Lubitsch, there's no beating The Oyster Princess and Lady Windermere's Fan.

And yeah, Die Flamme is a lost film, and I think all that exists is that fragment.

[therewillbeblus]

I've now finished off the sounds films, though I still need to complete the silent MoC set before I can call myself a completist (of non-lost films with subs).

Broken Lullaby was a surprisingly moving tale of guilt amended through carrying the unmanageable burden whilst infiltrating the harmed with empathic intent and action. I enjoyed how this action mimicked a re-traumatization of facing the battle of one's psyche walking through a metaphorical minefield of triggers for his accountability, while also reinforcing the idea that living in accordance with one's conscience promotes positivity divorced from history. The narrative leads to an extraordinary call for actualization without depending on moral growth - rather that this comes from within and doing the best one can, for his morals were always in place- it's the realization of this that becomes the key in self-acceptance. What we are left with in the final moments are a celebration of white lies and anti-catharsis, allows for the message to remain in the area of one of my favorite beliefs: that rehabilitation can also come without retribution. The ending is just lovely enough to bypass whatever implications the refusal to be honest may have on audiences- and the pre-Code qualities are clear here. Otherwise the pacing wasn't that great and neither were the performances aside from the parents. I can't say the film itself is a great one, but the concepts strung together work in hindsight, though I realize that's not a motivating recommendation to seek it out for most.

That Lady in Ermine was just awful. This is worlds apart from the other Preminger rescue job, with the only similarity being a 'period piece.' Nothing, absolutely nothing, worked here for me, not even the signature Preminger objectivity or 'beautiful' mise en scene.

That Uncertain Feeling was more in the familiar Lubitsch wheelhouse of social mannerist scheming comedy out of both time and place. Unfortunately, it's missing the laughs and charm of his other works of this period, and something just feels off. There are plenty of opportunities to deliver his auteurist strengths but the delivery beyond the already curious script just falls flat. It's an amusing little film but ultimately a failure compared to what could be a great platform for another masterpiece. The lost potential overpowered anything good about it, of which there were definitely a few cute moments.

[Michael Kerpan]

Supposedly Uncertain Feeling was a remake of a (reportedly) much superior silent Lubitsch film.

[Rayon Vert]

I've now finished off the sounds films, though I still need to complete the silent MoC set before I can call myself a completist (of non-lost films with subs).

Pretty much the exact same feelings here about That Uncertain Feeling - it just never really shines. Maybe it's because I'm not the biggest silent film buff, but Sumurun and The Wildcat I really found hard to get through. (Like others here, I thought The Doll and especially The Oyster Princess were great.) I'm curious about what your opinions will be.

[therewillbeblus]

Maybe it's because I'm not the biggest silent film buff, but Sumurun and The Wildcat I really found hard to get through. (Like others here, I thought The Doll and especially The Oyster Princess were great.) I'm curious about what your opinions will be.

Like you, Sumurun didn’t do much for me. While I love silent films, I have a difficult time enjoying the period dramas and opera epics (outside of Abel Gance films, and not including long films that are epic in scope - Les Vampires, Mabuse, etc.), which may be why a bunch of the other silent Lubitschs that fit this framework didn’t spark for me. Anne Boleyn fared about the same, though I appreciated the performances and found it to be more aesthetically appealing, it was overlong and simmered out in the second half.

The Wild Cat, however, was an absolute delight. I can’t say I enjoyed it the most in the set, but the relentless lampooning across a cast of characters, groups, and setpieces never failed to make me smile. Similar to other films in this set that featured characters chaotically running around (the best being the extended one-shot at the beginning of The Doll), this animated running gag didn’t get old. The musings of puzzled bodies even from afar in their idiosyncratic expressions was constantly exciting and funny. The score was also easily the best in the whole set, imbuing extravagance and grand tones to elevate the comic pandemonium into something greater.

Ich möchte kein Mann sein was similar to The Merry Jail, in how Lubitsch takes gender roles and perversely manipulates them to both show the ridiculousness of their rigid associations as well as the ridiculousness of the behaviors themselves (watching the father drink away his troubles following Ossi’s play-acting of this is a wallop of a dis on the coping skill itself). Ossi is phenomenal here and the physical comedy from her sells this one hard. Even though the film loses some steam as she integrates herself into the main plot as a cross-dressing trick, her performance still held my attention while the comedic beats hit less frequently.

The Doll was a cute and light romp, as promised, but it was The Oyster Princess that rose far above all the others as the ultimate farce. The film manifests as both a misunderstanding-inspired partner swap a la So This Is Paris and an absurdist comedy that wallows in a range of dry to manic reactions, an interplay between father and daughter that feels right out of a Looney Tunes cartoon. There are some very clever bits, my favorite being

Spoiler

the group of women cheersing, “Down with dipsomania!” with wine glasses in hand, which is perhaps my new favorite silent gag.

All around a madcap comic masterpiece, though in many ways The Wild Cat has this one beat in that department. This winds up getting the edge as a consistent, lean piece of perfection without any fat, like a less-great Sherlock Jr.. Also, I take back my previous comments about Lubitsch hitting the ceiling on his sensual perversions - this film's ending is maybe the most twisted implication I've seen in a pre-Code film. "NOW I'm impressed" - What a sick way to end a movie!


And because now I can do this,

Top 5 silents

1. The Oyster Princess
2. The Wild Cat
3. So This Is Paris
4. The Doll
5. Romeo and Juliet in the Snow

Top 5 sound

1. To Be or Not To Be
2. Heaven Can Wait
3. Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife
4. Trouble in Paradise
5. Cluny Brown

[Michael Kerpan]

Finally saw the BluRay of Madame Dubarry. What great cinema -- what an insane mangling of history! I never before realized that the French monarchy was overthrown within days of Louis XV's death.

[Matt]

TCM is showing So This is Paris late night Sunday the 22nd. It’s not listed as a premiere, but I don’t remember it ever airing before.

[Michael Kerpan]

If only this would get a nice Blu-Ray release.

[Red Screamer]

We have two more major Lubitsch restorations in the works @MoMAFilm, which should be ready by the Time Things Get Back to Normal.

[senseabove]

TCM is showing So This is Paris late night Sunday the 22nd. It’s not listed as a premiere, but I don’t remember it ever airing before.

Where do you see that listed? I don't see it on the Monthly Schedule. (Also the 22nd is a Monday...)

[Matt]

Well, I’m not sure what’s going on. It’s on the “Weekly Showcases” list under Silent Sunday Nights on the February highlights calendar. I think it would actually be scheduled for 12:45 AM on Monday, Feb. 15, but they’ve got City Lights scheduled in that slot. I originally assumed it would be 12 AM on Feb. 22 because they’re showing Design for Living at 10 PM just before. Very disappointed if it turns out it’s not airing at all.

[FrauBlucher]

Does anyone know or remember seeing a 2k or 4k restoration of Trouble in Paradise?

[Matt]

TCM is showing So This is Paris late night Sunday the 22nd. It’s not listed as a premiere, but I don’t remember it ever airing before.

This will now be showing up May 9 as part of the TCM Film Festival. A new restoration premiere with a new organ score by Ben Model. It will also apparently be available on HBO Max (as will much of the other TCMFF programming).

[Calvin]

So This is Paris may well be my favourite Lubitsch so I hope that if they've went to the effort of a new restoration that Warner will also see fit to put it out on disc