Ernst Lubitsch (1892-1947) is one of the defining & most enduring figures of pre-WWII cinema. Starting as an actor in Max Reinhardt’s Deutsches Theatre, he quickly became a key figure of German cinema, moving dexturously between comedies of manners, exotic fantasias, & epic historical romances & adventures such as Madame DuBarry. Renowned as a director of elegant & sophisticated sexual comedies, his wonderfully balanced work is a marvel of intricate production design & expressive mise-en-scène. Leaving for America in 1923, Lubitsch quickly established himself as a stylish director of bittersweet, almost continental comic romances & Ruritanian fantasies of a vanishing Europe.

The truly musical quality of his cinema allowed him to move smoothly into the sound era. A multi-talented artist, Lubitsch was also a successful & expressive comic actor in the 1910s & became Production Manager at Paramount Studios in the mid-1930s, an appointment that recognised his extraordinary influence & mercurial “touch”. 13 years after the Melbourne Cinémathèque’s initial Lubitsch tribute, this season of specially imported 35mm prints travels from his early turns as the stereotypical Sally Pinkus (Schuhpalast Pinkus) to the heights of his gossamer-like sexual comedies (One Hour with You).

This season also includes the peak of his late silent work (The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg), the rarely-screened anti-war treatise, Broken Lullaby, & a fascinating recent documentary covering his career in Germany (Ernst Lubitsch in Berlin).

7:00 - SCHUHPALAST PINKUS
Ernst Lubitsch (1916) 60 mins

Before Mordecai Richler’s Duddy Kravitz & Budd Schulberg’s Sammy Glick there was Sally Pinkus (played by Lubitsch himself), a venal & entrepreneurial young German-Jewish boy who takes a job as a shoe store clerk after being expelled from school. Soon fired for trying to court the owner’s daughter, Pinkus lands another job in a more upmarket shoe salon, only to be fired again, before charming a rich benefactress to fund his ultimate fetishistic dream: Pinkus’ Shoe Palace. This key early Lubitsch work is also notable for being an early collaboration with regular writer Hans Kräly.

35mm print courtesy of Transit Film

8:10 - ONE HOUR WITH YOU
Ernst Lubitsch (1932) 80 mins

This musical remake of the justly famous The Marriage Circle, the film that fully introduced Lubitsch to American cinema in 1924, was made at the peak of the director’s career & features a characteristically playful & risqué story of a happily married couple whose relationship is upset by the arrival a flirtatious other woman. Started by George Cukor & completed by Lubitsch, this is one of the director’s drollest & most airy explorations of the nature of romance, starring the incomparable Maurice Chevalier & Jeanette MacDonald. With Roland Young & Charlie Ruggles.

35mm print courtesy of UCLA Film & TV Archive.

9:40 - CARMEN
Ernst Lubitsch (1918) 80 mins

Loosely based on Bizet’s opera & the story by Merimée, Lubitsch’s second film with the libidinous Pola Negri, released as Gypsy Blood in America, is a lavish vehicle for the great silent star that is often regarded as the director’s “first important film” (Georges Sadoul). Released at the time of Germany’s final defeat in WWI, this a formative work that points towards the director’s preoccupation with sexuality & historical subject matter in such important films as Madame Dubarry & Anna Boleyn. Scripted by Hans Kräly.

35mm print courtesy of Transit Film.

7:00 - THE STUDENT PRINCE IN OLD HEIDELBERG
Ernst Lubitsch (1928) 105 mins

The Crown Prince (Ramon Novarro) leaves his cloistered life at court to attend Heidelberg University & falls in love with a young barmaid (Norma Shearer). Lubitsch’s extraordinarily “musical” silent adaptation of Sigmund Romberg’s operetta is one of the director’s great American films & a peak of late silent cinema. An important precursor to Lubitsch’s subsequent Ruritanian musicals, this bittersweet tale of star-crossed lovers is a wonderfully boisterous, energetic, cinematic & emotionally poignant work that embodies the director’s famed “touch”.

35mm print courtesy of Photoplay Productions.

8:55 - MADAME DUBARRY
Ernst Lubitsch (1919) 119 mins

One of the milestones of silent cinema, Lubitsch’s epic – though often quite dark & explicit – historical pageant was one of the key films to introduce the sensibilities of European cinema to post-WWI American audiences. The romanticised private life of the mistress (the indelible Pola Negri) of Louis XV (Emil Jannings) is given a lush but probing treatment in this early Lubitsch spectacular. This is perhaps the most successful melding of an historical subject with the director’s characteristic light “touch”. Features brilliantly expressive sets by Max Reinhardt.

35mm print courtesy of Transit Film

7:00 - BROKEN LULLABY
Ernst Lubitsch (1932) 76 mins

Wracked with guilt after killing an adversary on the battlefield of WWI, a French musician travels to Germany to find the dead man’s family. Taken in by the family – headed by Lionel Barrymore – he feels unable to reveal his secret. One of Lubitsch’s very few dramatic talkies, this rarely screened anti-war statement is “a nakedly sincere ode to the power of sympathy” (Time Out). Retitled The Man I Killed, this intermittently sentimental & compassionate ode to brotherhood is one of Lubitsch’s most curious & atypical works. With ZaSu Pitts.

35mm print courtesy of UCLA Film & TV Archive.

8:30 - KOHLHIESELS TÖCHTER
Ernst Lubitsch (1920) 58 mins

Amongst the most commercially successful films of Lubitsch’s German period, this is a comic adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew transposed to 19th century Bavaria. The film follows two sisters; Gretel is pretty & agreeable; Liesel is plain & obstinate (Henny Porten plays both). Tradition dictates that the younger sister cannot marry before the older & something must be done before both sisters are condemned to spinsterhood! Theodor Sparkuhl’s innovative camera techniques add extra punch to this underrated Lubitsch film.

35mm print courtesy of Transit Film.

9:40 - ERNST LUBITSCH IN BERLIN
Robert Fischer (2006) 110 mins

This comprehensive feature documentary covering Lubitsch’s formative years in Berlin features copious clips of his early acting career & from across the full range of his work in escapist social comedy (Ein fidele Gefängnis), risqué sexual farce (I Don’t Want to be a Man), fantasy (Die Puppe), & large-scale historical epics (Madame Dubarry, Anna Boleyn). Includes informative interviews with Lubitsch’s only daughter, directors such as Tom Tykwer & Wolfgang Becker, & key critics, archivists & historians (Jan-Christopher Horak, Enno Patalas). A great insight into the director’s emerging style in this period.

Print courtesy of Transit Film.