How Did Lubitsch Do It?
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- $28.99
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- $28.99
Publisher Description
Orson Welles called Ernst Lubitsch (1892–1947) “a giant” whose “talent and originality are stupefying.” Jean Renoir said, “He invented the modern Hollywood.” Celebrated for his distinct style and credited with inventing the classic genre of the Hollywood romantic comedy and helping to create the musical, Lubitsch won the admiration of his fellow directors, including Alfred Hitchcock and Billy Wilder, whose office featured a sign on the wall asking, “How would Lubitsch do it?” Despite the high esteem in which Lubitsch is held, as well as his unique status as a leading filmmaker in both Germany and the United States, today he seldom receives the critical attention accorded other major directors of his era.
How Did Lubitsch Do It? restores Lubitsch to his former stature in the world of cinema. Joseph McBride analyzes Lubitsch’s films in rich detail in the first in-depth critical study to consider the full scope of his work and its evolution in both his native and adopted lands. McBride explains the “Lubitsch Touch” and shows how the director challenged American attitudes toward romance and sex. Expressed obliquely, through sly innuendo, Lubitsch’s risqué, sophisticated, continental humor engaged the viewer’s intelligence while circumventing the strictures of censorship in such masterworks as The Marriage Circle, Trouble in Paradise, Design for Living, Ninotchka, The Shop Around the Corner, and To Be or Not to Be. McBride’s analysis of these films brings to life Lubitsch’s wit and inventiveness and offers revealing insights into his working methods.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Prolific film historian and biographer McBride (Writing in Pictures) delivers his best book yet with this study of Ernst Lubitsch, who helped invent the movie musical with The Smiling Lieutenant and The Merry Widow and perfected the romantic comedy in films such as Ninotchka and The Shop Around the Corner. Though McBride notes that this is "not a biography but a critical study," he does trace Lubitsch's life story, from his 1892 birth and middle-class upbringing in Berlin and early success in the German film industry as a comedian and director, to his arrival in Hollywood at star Mary Pickford's invitation in 1922 and career there as a director and producer up until his fatal heart attack in 1947. However, narrative takes a backseat to explaining to contemporary viewers what made Lubitsch's work unique, since McBride believes that Lubitsch's star has waned in recent years in comparison to other Hollywood auteurs. He emphasizes the urbane and wry "Lubitsch touch," placing the filmmaker's irreverent but subtle treatment of sex and infidelity within the context of an era of increasingly stringent censorship (in The Merry Widow, the king comes out of the royal bedroom fastening a belt that is too small, and one that obviously belongs to someone who has just visited the queen). Censors "knew what Lubitsch was saying, but they couldn't figure out how he was saying it." McBride has created a nuanced, thorough look at an important artist and his art.
