Ernst Lubitsch

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#101 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed May 06, 2020 1:36 pm

Rayon Vert wrote:
Mon May 04, 2020 8:36 pm
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
SpoilerShow
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

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Michael Kerpan
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#102 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue Jul 07, 2020 1:16 pm

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. ;-)

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Matt
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#103 Post by Matt » Tue Feb 02, 2021 2:17 am

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.

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Michael Kerpan
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#104 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue Feb 02, 2021 11:41 am

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

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Red Screamer
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#105 Post by Red Screamer » Tue Feb 02, 2021 2:49 pm

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

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senseabove
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#106 Post by senseabove » Tue Feb 02, 2021 3:01 pm

Matt wrote:
Tue Feb 02, 2021 2:17 am
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...)

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Matt
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#107 Post by Matt » Wed Feb 03, 2021 12:59 am

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.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#108 Post by FrauBlucher » Wed Feb 03, 2021 1:45 pm

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

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Matt
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#109 Post by Matt » Thu Apr 15, 2021 6:04 pm

Matt wrote:
Tue Feb 02, 2021 2:17 am
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
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#110 Post by Calvin » Fri Apr 16, 2021 1:53 am

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

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Michael Kerpan
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#111 Post by Michael Kerpan » Fri Apr 16, 2021 9:19 am

Alas, no DVR ability anymore (change of cable provider, meant this is a too-expensive extra cost).

One of my very favorites also. Calvin.

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The Elegant Dandy Fop
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#112 Post by The Elegant Dandy Fop » Fri Apr 16, 2021 11:42 am

This is incredible news. I had the pleasure of seeing this at UCLA back in 2018 on a gorgeous print for their small Lubitsch retrospective that coincided with the release of Joseph McBride’s book on Lubitsch. Back then, I thought it was the best of all his silent period films I’ve seen. I was struck about how even a silent film can sort of exude the feeling of musicality and rhythm just through its images in thst major party sequence. It’s pure Lubitsch and just an absolute delight!

Even without a DVR, I’m sure it’ll end up somewhere! :wink: If it doesn’t, I hope being on HBO Max means that Warner Archive will release it. I’ve been wanting to see this again, and the one copy floating around channels online is an abysmal VHS rip.

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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#113 Post by Michael Kerpan » Fri Apr 16, 2021 1:06 pm

STIP is the noisiest silent film I've seen (along with Ozu's I Was Born But). ;-)

I've long treasured that VHS rip...

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domino harvey
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch on DVD

#114 Post by domino harvey » Mon Oct 04, 2021 3:23 pm

Drucker wrote:
Fri Jun 09, 2017 11:43 am
Saw Angel last night. A fun movie that clearly showcases two things Lubitsch does extraordinarily well. The first is that he takes his time outlining the central plot of a film. We really have no idea where the film is going until we're into the second reel. I often go to films after work, and so sometimes I'm restless/tired/hungry. With his films however, I'm transfixed, and totally glued to the screen, eager to see what happens next. His ability to put surprising plot points (Angel's desertion of Halton) and film them in unique ways is so simple, but works so well. That moment called into my mind another point, which I really noticed during Cluny Brown and the last scene of Ninotchka. Lubitsch's films are tremendously musical even though there are not a large amount of musical cues. Moments like the one I just mentioned fall completely silently, and make the viewer feel that all the air has been sucked out of the room. I keep thinking music stopped playing, but there hadn't necessarily been music in the previous scene, but the way his films move and progress is so musical that the silent moments feel accented.

Not a laugh out loud film, but certainly top rate and on par with most of his classics I've seen from the 1930s. Certainly calls to mind the maturity of The Shop Around The Corner.
I caught up with this last night and enjoyed it too-- I can see why it hasn't had a great critical reputation over the years, given how portentously much of the film plays out, but I thought the (mostly) self-serious tone worked well with the material. And how constantly Lubitsch finds ways to undercut the familiar melodramatic beats by skillful elision is fascinating: this is a film where almost every key emotional scene is either elided completely (in a welcome show of faith in the audience) or relayed and experienced by bystanders, all the way to the final shot, where the actors turn their backs to the audience, putting us in the same position at the emotional climax.

However, unlike you, I did laugh out loud several times and I think the film had more than enough comic relief to cause temporary confusion about whether this was a drama or comedy-- I think Lubitsch knew his hand was getting a bit heavy in the dramatics elsewhere and did his magic to compensate! Edward Everett Horton is hilarious as always, and I loved his debates with the other valet on matters of propriety (though I thought Marshall's cheap laff line at his expense late in the film was an unusually cruel misstep from Lubitsch and Raphaelson).

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L.A.
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#115 Post by L.A. » Wed Nov 03, 2021 10:55 am

Coming to Blu-ray January 18th from the George Eastman Museum and Kino Classics!

Three Women (1924)
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Starring May McAvoy, Pauline Frederick, Lew Cody, Marie Prevost

With his third American film, Three Women (made just after The Marriage Circle) Ernst Lubitsch continued to endow Hollywood studio films with the European sophistication and graceful storytelling that had become his hallmark while working as a director in Germany. Pauline Frederick and May McAvoy star as a mother and daughter who find themselves competing for the attention of George, a handsome opportist (Lew Cody) who yearns to lay hands on the women’s $3 million fortune. Marie Prevost stars as George’s mistress, a sultry femme fatale who threatens to sabotage any romance that may transpire, further testing the strength of the primal mother/daughter relationship. Lavishly produced, Three Women became one of Warner Brothers’ most popular films of the 1924-25 season, and is presented in a 4K restoration performed by the George Eastman Museum, with an orchestral score by Andrew Earle Simpson.

Special features:
*4K restoration performed by the George Eastman Museum
*Audio commentary by film historian Anthony Slide
*Orchestral score by Andrew Earle Simpson

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Caligula
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#116 Post by Caligula » Fri Aug 12, 2022 5:17 am

Last edited by Caligula on Fri Aug 12, 2022 8:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#117 Post by 4LOM » Fri Aug 12, 2022 7:14 am

„The request contains an invalid URL!“

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Caligula
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#118 Post by Caligula » Fri Aug 12, 2022 8:08 am

Apologies, fixed faulty link in post

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Red Screamer
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#119 Post by Red Screamer » Tue Aug 15, 2023 1:26 pm

There's a fascinating new interview with Dave Kehr on the podcast How Would Lubitsch Do It?. He talks about Lady Windermere's Fan (which he placed on his 2022 Sight & Sound ballot) and the behind-the-scenes work on these silent restorations. When asked about home video releases of MoMA's Lubitsch silents (Rosita, The Marriage Circle, Forbidden Paradise, and Lady Windermere's Fan), he says this:
Dave Kehr wrote:It's not easy. It would have been easier twenty years ago but the market has pretty much dried up. It's a very small group of hardcore collectors who are interested in these things. If we sold two or three thousand units of something like Rosita, I would be, happily, surprised...I'm still hoping to place a box set of our four Lubitschs with one of the DVD companies. Everyone's kind of interested but no one really wants to pull the trigger because it's not a moneymaker. I think it'll happen sooner or later.

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Matt
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#120 Post by Matt » Sun Aug 27, 2023 1:06 am

Matt wrote:
Tue Feb 02, 2021 2:17 am
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.
I hope you all got a chance to watch this on TCM or [HBO] Max. It is now no longer available on the latter and there is no physical release extant or announced.

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hearthesilence
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#121 Post by hearthesilence » Sun Aug 27, 2023 1:55 am


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Matt
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#122 Post by Matt » Sun Aug 27, 2023 1:53 pm

Yeah, but no score if that matters. I often prefer silent films in…silence.

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Maltic
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#123 Post by Maltic » Sun Aug 27, 2023 2:39 pm

Matt wrote:
Sun Aug 27, 2023 1:53 pm
Yeah, but no score if that matters. I often prefer silent films in…silence.

Me too, although live piano accompagnement can be fun (perhaps mostly if it's a film a know well already).

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Michael Kerpan
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#124 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sun Aug 27, 2023 2:59 pm

The French play that this was credited as being based on is the very same one that was turned into Strauss's Die Fledermaus. But the music from that wouldn't be jazzy enough for THIS adaptation.

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hearthesilence
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Re: Ernst Lubitsch

#125 Post by hearthesilence » Sun Aug 27, 2023 6:32 pm

To be fair, if you do end up relying on a rip of that link, it could give you the freedom to match up any score you want. Synch may not be perfect due to differences in transfers, but it could still be acceptable.

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