Ernst Lubitsch
December 1, 2004 to January 9, 2005
Starting on December 1, the Film Museum will present the complete oeuvre of one of cinema's great originals. This show marks the first time that a Retrospective of Ernst Lubitsch's films will be shown in Austria. At the same time, the show is rather unique on a global level – rarely, if ever before have so many rediscovered and restored films and rare prints been assembled in one place for a full presentation of Ernst Lubitsch‘s artistry.
Born in Berlin, Lubitsch (1892-1947) is known above all for the masterful, airy comedies he created in the 1920s, 30s and 40s. To this day, nobody has been able to equal the legendary Lubitsch Touch. "If we were lucky, we sometimes succeeded in making a film like Lubitsch. Like a Lubitsch film, not a real Lubitsch," as Billy Wilder, one of his great admirers, put it. On his office door Wilder had placed a sign which read: "How Would Lubitsch Have Done It?"
The famous Hollywood comedies, from the ménage-à-trois masterpiece Trouble in Paradise (1932) to the classic Nazi farce To Be or Not to Be (1942), are considered to be the epitome of Lubitsch films, with their effortlessness, technical brilliance, and audio-visual „double talk“. There is much more to be discovered in his artistic output, however: the sassy silent comedies made in Germany between 1916 and 1920 (such as Die Puppe/The Doll and Die Austernprinzessin/The Oyster Princess); the historical epics which helped establish his international reputation (such as Madame DuBarry/Passion); the American silents from the 20s, which hover between humour and sorrow, including the "Viennese Comedy" The Marriage Circle and the definitive Oscar Wilde adaptation, Lady Windermere's Fan; and finally, his deft switch to sound film with a cycle of captivating musicals built around Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette McDonald. This consistent development and refinement of the Lubitsch aesthetic culminated in the buoyant and at the same time highly artificial classics of the 30s and 40s, in films like Ninotchka, Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife, The Shop Around the Corner, Heaven Can Wait and Cluny Brown.
The son of a Jewish tailor first came into contact with the theatre while in high school, and was immediately enthusiastic. When his family insisted on his pursuing a solid middle-class profession, Lubitsch began a double life. By day he worked as an accountant in his parents' business, by night he performed in cabarets. In 1911 he joined Max Reinhardt’s ensemble, and as of 1913 he started performing in film comedies, usually playing an impertinent apprentice. The popularity he soon achieved enabled him to start his own film company and take up directing. He remained an "actor" for his whole career, however, often acting out entire scenes on the set for his stars.
The success of Lubitsch's comedies opened the door for large-scale film projects, most of them starring Pola Negri and Emil Jannings. Despite the large casts and huge stets involved in his costume dramas, there are many moments of intimacy – a true Lubitsch characteristic. His credo was to „take the opera out of films“ and bring his historical figures to life. This also applies to the musicals and the erotic comedies which he shot in the USA from 1923 on. Most of these films were satires on the American fascination for sex and money, even if they are usually set in Europe. Lubitsch once said: „I prefer Paris, Paramount to Paris, France“, highlighting his penchant for artifice and the great art of studio filmmaking. He was a cosmopolitan entertainer, for whom geography (and interior design) had a lot to do with fantasy (and desire).
The majority of Lubitsch's sound films were shot for Paramount, where, for a certain period, he also took on the role of studio production head. His work tempo slowed in the 1930s due to poor health, but his films with Marlene Dietrich (Angel), Gary Cooper (Design for Living), Greta Garbo (Ninotchka), James Stewart (The Shop Around the Corner) and Charles Boyer and Jennifer Jones (Cluny Brown) show once again, more than anything else in the classic Hollywood era, to what heights a "star system" can aspire – as long as the stars in question are prepared to become accomplices, to be the „raw material“ for an artist of outstanding intelligence.
The cinema of Ernst Lubitsch deals with the power of seduction and illusion, with mascerades, mascara and various “uncertain feelings“. It is always sharp, often romantic (in a truly enlightened way), and sometimes quite melancholic. These films are well versed in matters of psychology, sociology and politics: they are of their time – and timeless all the same.
Some of the silent screenings will be accompanied by Gerhard Gruber at the piano. On December 14, Stefan Drössler, director of the Munich Film Museum, will present selected rarities and fragments from Lubitsch's oeuvre. The Retrospective is supported by the Austrian Film Institute, the Audiovisual Industry Association and the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung in Wiesbaden, Germany.
