| |
|
Ernst Lubitsch |
|
Director / Producer / Screenwriter |
 |
|
1892 - 1947 |
|
Born January 28,
Berlin, Germany |
|
Key
Production Countries: USA, Germany |
|
Key Genres:
Comedy, Sophisticated Comedy, Romantic Comedy, Romance, Drama, Comedy
Drama, Farce, Musical, Period Film |
|
Key
Collaborators: Hans Dreier (Production
Designer), Hanns Kraly (Screenwriter), Samson Raphaelson
(Screenwriter), Victor Milner
(Cinematographer), Edward Everett Horton (Leading Player), Ernest Vajda
(Screenwriter), Theodor Sparkuhl (Cinematographer), Werner R. Heymann (Composer), Maurice Chevalier
(Leading Player), William Shea (Editor) |
|
|
Highly
Recommended:
Broken Lullaby (1932),
One Hour with You (1932),
Design
for Living (1933)*, Angel (1937)*, Ninotchka (1939)*, The
Shop Around the Corner (1940)*, To Be or Not to Be (1942)*, Heaven Can Wait (1943)* |
|
Recommended: The
Oyster Princess (1919), The Marriage Circle (1924), Lady Windermere's
Fan (1925), The Student Prince
in Old Heidelberg (1927), The Smiling Lieutenant
(1931), Trouble
in Paradise (1932)*, The Merry Widow (1934) |
|
Worth a Look:
Madame DuBarry (1919), Die Puppe (1919), Kohlhiesel's Daughters (1920),
Die Bergkatze (1921), Forbidden Paradise (1924), So This is Paris (1926), The Love Parade
(1929), Monte Carlo (1930), If I Had a Million (1932) [co-directed by
James Cruze, H.
Bruce Humberstone,
Norman Z. McLeod, Stephen Roberts,
William A. Seiter
& Norman Taurog],
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938), That Uncertain
Feeling (1941), Cluny Brown (1946) |
|
* Listed in TSPDT's
1,000 Greatest Films
section. |
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
Links: [
Amazon
] [
IMDB ] [
TCMDB ] [
All-Movie
Guide ] [
Film Reference ]
[
The Cinema of
Ernst Lubitsch ] [
Interview
with Louella Parsons (1922) ] [
Film
Forum: The Lubitsch Touch ] [
German Culture Article ] [
Close-Up Retrospective ] [
Peter Bogdanovich Article (1972) ]
|
|
Books: [
Herr Lubitsch Goes to Hollywood: German and American Film after World
War I ] [
Ernst
Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise ] [
Passions
and Deceptions ] [
Ethics
and Social Criticism in the Hollywood Films of Erich von Stroheim, Ernst
Lubitsch and Billy Wilder ] [
Ernst Lubitsch's American Comedy ] [
Romantic Comedy in Hollywood: From Lubitsch to Sturges ]
[
Master Space: Film Images of Capra, Lubitsch,
Sternberg, and Wyler ] |
|
|
    |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
"As
Hollywood recedes, Lubitsch's role as a creative entrepreneur and
as the germ of European sophistication becomes more fascinating.
Considering the way he was rebuffed by Mary Pickford on his first
American film, Rosita, and so wittily mocked for his
Teutonic stubbornness, it is remarkable that he achieved such
eminence in Hollywood and that his reputation rested on the
supposed delicacy of "touch"." -
David
Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2002)
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
"After
joining Warner Brothers, he directed five films that firmly
established his thematic interests. The films were small in scale,
dealt openly with sexual and psychological relationships in and
out of marriage, refrained from offering conventional moral
judgments, and demystified women. As Molly Haskell and Marjorie
Rosen point out, Lubitsch created complex female characters who
were aggressive, unsentimental, and able to express their sexual
desires without suffering the usual pains of banishment or death."
-
Greg
S. Faller (The St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia, 1998)
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
"Lubitsch
was always the least Germanic of German directors, as
Lang
was the most Germanic. The critics were always so obsessed with
what Lubitsch naughtily left off the screen that they never fully
evaluated what was left on... Lubitsch was the last of the genuine
continentals let loose on the American continent, and we shall
never see his like again because the world he celebrated had died
- even before he did - everywhere except in his own memory." -
Andrew
Sarris (The American Cinema, 1968) |
|
| |
|
|
| |
"The man with the cynical, delightful touch created an
aristocratic world of yesteryear, then poked fun at it. Lubitsch
could say volumes by implication and innuendo." -
William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978) |
|
| |
|
|
| |
"I sometimes
make pictures which are not up to my standard, but then it can only
be said of a mediocrity that all his work is up to his standard."
- Ernst Lubitsch |
|
| |
|
|
| |
"I let the
audience use their imaginations. Can I help it if they misconstrue
my suggestions?" - Ernst Lubitsch |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Please
note that the rating given for this director (see top-right) is based
only on the films we have seen (listed above). Films by this director
that we haven't seen include That Lady in
Ermine (1948). |
|
|
|
9 |
| |
|
"Ernst
Lubitsch was the director most closely identified with the
genre of romantic comedy during the Studio era. He was known
for the "Lubitsch touch," the ineffable combination of
gloss, sophistication, wit, irony, and, above all,
lightness, that he brought to his material... If Lubitsch’s
reputation has not held up as well as some of his studio-era
contemporaries, it may be because his stylish comedies fail
to deal with serious issues, even serious issues of love or
romance. But one film at least cannot be dismissed in this
way. To Be or Not to Be (1942) is a romantic comedy
set in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. Although the making of a comedy
set in war-torn Europe troubled many at the time, the film
may be Lubitsch’s most enduring work."
-
David R. Shumway, Schirmer
Encyclopedia of Film |
| |
 |
| |
|
●
Top 250 Directors |
|
●
Pantheon
Director |
| ●
100 Essential Directors (Pop
Matters) |
|
●
The
25th Most Influential Director of All Time (2002 MovieMaker
Poll) |
|
●
Survey
of Filmmakers: Top 25 Directors (2005 poll by The Film
Journal) |
|
●
Jean-Pierre Melville's 64 Favourite Pre-War American Filmmakers
(Cahiers du Cinema, October 1961) |
|
●
501 Movie Directors: A
Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers |
|
|
|
See Also |
|
| |
|
|
|
|