The Lecture & Film series is dedicated to Ernst Lubitsch and his films, with lectures by experts and a thematic accompanying program until July 2017 at the Deutsches Filmmuseum.
Thursday, 9. February, 8:15 pm
Champagne Mood with a Safe Distance Lubitsch's Film Operettas
Lecture by René Michaelsen
<x>.BR</x> "Filmed operettas are a staple of early cinema, and Ernst Lubitsch in particular repeatedly draws on operettas as models in both his silent and sound films. As a stage genre, however, operetta follows a very specific performative framework that does not automatically conform to the needs of the film medium: It realizes itself scenically and musically, incorporating a sphere of ironic distance and self-disclosure that opera and musical do not necessarily possess. The lecture focuses on Lubitsch's film adaptation of Franz Lehárs ‚The Merry Widow', in order to pursue from there the question of how Lubitsch adapts the specific illusionary agreement of the operetta in his films, and to what extent it is possibly the operetta that qualifies as the blueprint of the famous Lubitsch Touch.
René Michaelsen did his PhD on the self-reflexivity of Robert Schumann's music. Since 2016 he has been a dramaturge at the Theater im Bauturm in Cologne. In his publications he has devoted himself to Jacques Offenbach, Richard Wagner, Siegfried Kracauer and "Tintin.
Film starts: approx. 9:15 p.m.
THE MERRY WIDOW
USA 1934. R: Ernst Lubitsch. D: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Edward Everett Horton. 99 min. 35mm. OF
The fictional dwarf state of Marshovia is on the verge of ruin. Only the wealthy widow Sonia would be able to replenish the state's empty coffers. But the country's biggest taxpayer to date has emigrated to Paris. In desperation, the king commissions the womanizer Count Danilo to travel to Paris: He is to capture Sonia's heart, marry her and take her back to her homeland. The plan seems to succeed. Unfortunately, however, the young woman gets wind of the royal plan with disastrous consequences for Danilo. THE MERRY WIDOW won the 1935 Academy Award® for Best Production Design.
Admission free! Reservations are recommended.
Saturday, February 11, 6pm; Wednesday, February 15. February, 6 p.m.
THE THREE FROM THE TANK STATION
Germany 1930. dir: Wilhelm Thiele
d: Lilian Harvey, Willy Fritsch, Heinz Rühmann. 99 min. 35mm
World economic crisis 1930: The three friends Willy, Kurt and Hans return from a three-month journey. Arriving home, they are surprised to discover that they are almost broke. The remaining money is just enough to set up a petrol station together. But then all three fall in love with their best customer, the rich and young Lilian Coßmann. Singing and dancing, they flirt with each other. DIE DREI VON DER TANKSTELLE was a crowd puller, the hit song "Ein Freund, ein guter Freund" became a hit. The film paved the way for the career of the dream couple Willy Fritsch/Lilian Harvey.
Saturday, February 18, 6 p.m.</ b>
THE CABINET OF DR. LARIFARI
Germany 1930. dir: Robert Wohlmuth
d: Max Hansen, Paul Morgan, Erik Ode. 78 mins. 35mm
The main actors Max Hansen and Paul Morgan were considered stars of the Berlin cabaret scene in 1930, performing in the 1920s in the self-founded "Cabaret of Comedians as well as their own Berlin theatre. With DAS KABINETT DES DR. LARIFARI they created an anarchic-self-ironic parody of filmmaking during the Weimar Republic. In the film, the two are broke and therefore found a production company. Immediately they start working on their first film, but without having a suitable script. When shooting begins, the carefree producers cause complete chaos in the studio.
STUMMFILM-MATINÉE on Sunday, 19. February, 6 p.m.
THE EYES OF THE MUMY MÂ
Germany 1918. dir: Ernst Lubitsch
d: Pola Negri, Emil Jannings, Harry Liedtke. 58 min. 35mm. Dt. ZT
On a trip through the Orient, painter Alfred Wendland wants to see the tomb of the mummy Mâ. He looks in vain for someone who knows the place to take him there, finally sets out alone and meets the guard Radu in the burial chamber, who keeps a beautiful Egyptian woman hidden there. The young woman looks deceptively like Mâ. Wendland manages to rescue the young woman and bring her to Europe, where she performs as a dancer. But the pharaohs' revenge is not long in coming.
Piano accompaniment: Uwe Oberg
Supporting film: EBERT BEI ANNA BOLEYN, newsreel excerpt. DE 1920. 2 min. 35mm
Wednesday, 22. February, 6 p.m.
MORITZ MAKES HIS LUCK
Germany 1931. dir: Jaap Speyer
d: Viktor Schwanneke, Willy Prager, Siegfried Arno. 85 min. 35mm
Moritz Meier, the film's protagonist, is an apprentice in a Berlin fashion shop and head over heels in love with the mannequin Lisa, who doesn't give him a second glance. When rumour has it that he is the heir to millions, the situation changes. The parallels to Ernst Lubitsch are obvious: Jaap Speyer delivers an unleashed comedy of mistaken identity with wry humour and snappy hits, in which Siegfried Arno parodies Al Jolson, the leading man of the first talkie THE JAZZ SINGER (US 1927, dir: Alan Crosland), with a gramophone strapped to his back.
A series of events by the Deutsches Filmmuseum, the Institute for Theatre, Film and Media Studies at Goethe University and the Cluster of Excellence "The Formation of Normative Orders within the framework of the Hessian Film and Media Academy (hFMA), with financial support from the Association of Friends and Sponsors of Goethe University and the Cultural Office of the City of Frankfurt.
Source: Deutsches Filminstitut