The Cinema of Ernst Lubitsch: Potpouri

. . . Five Ernst Lubitsch films have now been inducted into the U.S. Library of Congress' National Film Registry? The NFR was established in 1989 to preserve films deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important." To date, the Lubitsch films which have been preserved under the NFR program are: Lady Windermere's Fan (1925); Trouble in Paradise (1932); Ninotchka (1939); The Shop Around the Corner (1940); To Be Or Not To Be (1942). More info >

. . . The Hourglass Group Ltd. Theatre group adapted the 1932 classic Lubitsch film TROUBLE IN PARADISE to the stage? The world premiere took place in June 2006. They teamed with award-winning comedic writer David Simpatico and jazz composer/musician Steven Bernstein who created an original score for the production. More Info >

. . . "To Be Or Not To Be" premieres on Broadway Oct. 14, 2008? The new play, written by Nick Whitby is based on the 1942 Lubitsch film. More Info >

. . . The film "You've Got Mail" is based on the Ernst Lubitsch classic "The Shop Around the Corner?" More info >

. . . There is a movie theatre named after Lubitsch? It is called "Cinema Lubitsch" and is located in Palermo, Italy. More info >

. . . There is an award named after Ernst Lubitsch? Each year in Berlin, Germany the "Ernst Lubitsch Award" (also known as: Verleihung des Ernst-Lubitsch-Preises) is given by Germany's leading film critics. More info >

. . . There is a bar named after Lubitsch? It's called "Bar Lubitsch" and is located in West Hollywood, California. This popular and trendy bar has a Russian theme and is not so much a direct tribute to Mr. Lubitsch but a kind of homage to classic Hollywood. They do have a drink on the menu inspired by a Lubitsch film -- the "Ninotchka" made with vanilla vodka, muddled strawberries and champagne. More info >

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Quotes

By Lubitsch:

"At least twice a day the most dignified human being is ridiculous."

"I let the audience use their imaginations. Can I help it if they misconstrue my suggestions?"

"There is Paramount Paris and Metro Paris, and of course the real Paris. Paramount's is the most Parisian of all."

"I don't believe in reproducing a play on the screen exactly as it was done on the stage. Anyone can make a carbon copy. Carbons are always dull."

"I think I am possessed only of a fascination for the work I have chosen to do . . . I am so engrossed by the production of a film that I literally think of nothing else. I have no hobby, no outside interests and want none."

"I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I write and I understand."

"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."

"In Hollywood we acquire the finest novels in order to smell the leather bindings."

"Nobody should try to play comedy unless they have a circus going on inside."

"There are a thousand ways to point a camera, but really only one."

On Lubitsch:

"None of us thought we were making anything but entertainment for the moment. Only Ernst Lubitsch knew we were making art." -- John Ford

"A man of pure cinema." -- Alfred Hitchcock

"I worshipped him. I admired his work enormously. He went head and shoulders beyond everyone in the field of sophisticated high comedy. -- Joseph Mankiewicz

"In that Golden Age of Hollywood that everybody's always talking about there were only two directors whose names meant anything to the public and critics: Cecil B. DeMille and Ernst Lubitsch." -- Claudette Colbert

"Lubitsch was a prince."   -- Francois Truffaut

"Lubitsch was cerebrally way beyond the ordinary director."   -- J.J. Cohn

"I loved Lubitsch, mainly for his tremendous desire to make something funny with class . . .
It was strange -- he really should have been a Frenchman."   -- Edgar G. Ulmer

"He was the only great director out there. Ninotchka was the only time I had a great director in Hollywood. -- Greta Garbo

"Lubitsch was a giant . . . his talent and originality were stupefying." -- Orson Welles

"He could do more to show the grace and humor of sex in a nonlustful way than any other director I've ever heard of." -- Charles Chaplin

"Lubitsch had the greatest sense of humor of any individual I've ever met. The actors all loved him. He had a very . . . human quality about him. He was the type of man that became your friend after you met him once. A great man." -- Joseph M. Newman

"He was an imaginative, perceptive, mischievous and an altogether brilliant director."
-- Melvyn Douglas

"Lubitsch towered above anybody, creatively, that I met in Hollywood . . he was the greatest craftsman who ever lived . . . in the sense of knowing the most brilliant and original way to use the medium." -- Samson Raphaelson

"His life was an uninterrupted ribbon of film." -- Unnamed Friend

"Ernst Lubitsch was the complete architect of motion pictures. His stamp was on every frame of film -- from conception to delivery. For high style, romantic comedies and spicy musicals he set a standard that has not been equaled. The Lubitsch 'touch' was unique."
-- Frank Capra

"Ernst Lubitsch was truly the auteur of his films. He created a style of sophisticated comedy peculiarly his own, as well as a new style of musical, both unknown before his time. His films bore the recognizable and indelible stamp of the gay, clever, witty, mischevious master, whose delightful personality matched his work. I am proud to have known his as a friend and teacher. Lubitsch's films were truly Lubitsch's, possessive credit intended."
-- William Wyler

"His films were loaded with a kind of wit which was specifically the essence of the intellectual Berlin in those days. This man was so strong that when he was asked by Hollywood to work there, he not only didn't lose his Berlin style but he converted the Hollywood industry to his own way of expression." -- Jean Renoir

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