Ernst Lubitsch: laughter in paradise

Abstract

When movie buffs speak of Lubitsch touch, they refer to a sense of style and taste, humour and humanity that defined the films of Ernst Lubitsch. Born in Berlin and trained first in the German theatre and then in the post-World War I cinema, Ernst Lubitsch brought to Hollywood a level of sophistication and subtlety previously unknown to American movie audiences, especially when it came to sex. In films such as The Love Parade, Trouble in Paradise, and The Merry Widow, sex was a game whose rules were understood by all parties, and an automatic part of the social contract. Ironically, his own life was more conventional, and in the ways of romance, Lubitsch seemed woefully naive. Yet not only was Ernst Lubitsch an innovative maker of movies whose career spanned almost three decades, he was also the only director in Hollywood history to run a major studio, Paramount. His success in the industry paved the way for the arrival of many other European filmmakers. This is a biography of Lubitsch.

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