72nd San Sebastian Festival - 20/28 September 2023
71SSIFF - 22/30 September 2023
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Z365" or "Festival all year round" is the new strategic point of the Festival in which converge investigation, accompaniment and development of new talents (Ikusmira Berriak, Nest); training and cinematic knowledge transfer (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Zinemaldia + Plus, Filmmakers' dialogue); and investigation, disclosure and cinematic thought (Z70 project, Thought and Discussion and Research and publications).
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Ernst Lubitsch
Films
Films
Ernst Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch
Germany
37 min.
Short film
Ernst Lubitsch stars with two parts in this comedy about a marriage threatened by a meddling mother-in-law. When the wife files for divorce, the husband fakes suicide and reappears as the new butler. Although Lubitsch tried a more dramatic acting style, he soon slipped back into the comedy of his earlier days.
Ernst Lubitsch
Germany
60 min.
Young, libertine and insolent, Pinkus is thrown out of school and lands a job in a shoe shop, doing away with all convention. Perhaps Lubitsch?s most characteristic performance (with a Jewish humour typical of the time, subsequently considered to be controversial) and his first big hit as a director. It was also his first collaboration with the screenwriter Hanns Kräly, a regular in his silent movies.
Ernst Lubitsch
Germany
11 min.
Short film
The only fragment still remaining of one of Lubitsch?s movies demonstrating his clownish acting talents as an apprentice in a Berlin tailor?s shop who causes chaos with his disastrous actions.
Ernst Lubitsch
Germany
42 min.
Short film
The daughter of a widower who?s girlfriend works in a bookshop falls in love with one of the shop assistants. Lubitsch shows a more serious and emotional side, helped by the complicity of actor Emil Jannings, who with this petit-bourgeois part already gave a glimpse of what was to become the character of his life, the schoolmaster in Josef von Sternberg?s Der Blaue Engel (The Blue Angel, 1930). A detailed description of city life at that time, with a key scene in the ballroom.
Ernst Lubitsch
Germany
54 min.
A dreadful husband who drinks and parties constantly is sentenced to a night in jail. Instead of doing his time, he heads for a dance at which he meets his own wife, not recognising her in disguise and giving rise to a different relationship between the two. One of the eleven collaborations between Lubitsch and the actress Ossi Oswalda, extremely popular in the Germany of the time.
Ernst Lubitsch
Germany
45 min.
Making the most of her uncle?s absence, a young girl decides to live like a man. Dressing like one, she finds a new tutor and falls in love... still in man?s attire. The actress Ossi Oswalda, in a daring part toying with sexual ambiguity and showing a feminist spirit well ahead of its time, discovers that being a man also has its downside.
Ernst Lubitsch
Germany
58 min.
An explorer tries to save a woman from the clutches of an evil Egyptian. A cursed tomb, an obsessive love, a desert chase... Lubitsch?s first collaboration with the big star of the time, Pola Negri, packed to the hilt with exoticism and fantasy.
Ernst Lubitsch
Germany
88 min.
The tale of Don José, madly attracted to the cigar-selling gypsy, Carmen, as per Prosper Merimée?s immortal creation, maintains the original structure in the shape of a lasting flashback in this version by Lubitsch lavishing glory upon a sensual, seductive Pola Negri. With sets worthy of Hollywood at its most splendorous, the director, already popular in the Germany of the time, was highly acclaimed throughout Europe.
Ernst Lubitsch
Germany
51 min.
A man wishing to spend a weekend far from his wife pretends to be ill. Sent to the countryside for two days by his doctor, he dons Tyrolese costume and launches into a series of disastrous amorous conquests. Penultimate film by Lubitsch as an actor.
Ernst Lubitsch
Germany
63 min.
First exponent of Lubitsch?s tremendously genuine social satire portrayed through the problems of a big tycoon who lives in a fabulous mansion obsessed with the thought of marrying his daughter. Enter the down-and-out aristocrat trying to find a solution to his life. Here Lubitsch started marking his style with a basic outline of what was later to become American screwball comedy.
Ernst Lubitsch
Germany
111 min.
First of Lubitsch?s historical movies, based on the work by Alexander Dumas about the mistress of Louis XV. Although the massive crowd scenes of the French Revolution astounded at the time, Lubitsch?s talent is most obvious in the Paris Opera or guillotine scenes.
Ernst Lubitsch
Germany
57 min.
A craftsman makes a mechanical doll to take the place of a young girl who doesn?t want to marry the man she is betrothed to wed. Lubitsch endows refined humour upon the fairytale based on a story by E.T.A. Hoffman and Ossi Oswalda once again makes the most of a supplantation. Lubitsch himself considered this to be one of his three best German films.
Ernst Lubitsch
Germany
61 min.
First of two adaptations of Shakespeare started by Lubitsch in 1920, this is a free interpretation of The Taming of the Shrew, with a clumsy, scatterbrained brewer (a comic Emil Jannings), and his two very different daughters (although both are played by Henny Porten): the beautiful Gretl and the stay-at-home Liesl. The movie was such a success that a new version, also with Henny Porten, was made on arrival of the talkies.
Ernst Lubitsch
Germany
48 min.
A buffonesque version of Shakespeare?s creation, with the Capulet?s and Montague?s converted into rude, vulgar Bavarians, almost all of the characters on the verge of delirium and a masked ball as its culminating point. This was Lubitsch?s last short comedy.
Ernst Lubitsch
Germany
103 min.
Yeggar, a hunchbacked clown and travelling carnival manager, falls in love with one of his dancers. Although she gives in to his desires, she is also unfaithful to him. Based on a theatre pantomime created by Max Reinhardt, this is a new version of fairytales shot in exotic settings. Lubitsch?s last work as an actor.
Ernst Lubitsch
Germany
124 min.
Sumptuous historical recreation qualified as ?the greatest film of all times?. A robust, brutal and cruel Henry VIII played by Emil Jannings contrasts with the innocence of Henny Porten?s Anne Boleyn. Two architects directed construction of the replicas of the Tower of London, Windsor Castle and Westminster Abbey and 5,000 extras were hired to participate.
Ernst Lubitsch
Germany
85 min.
The daughter of the leader of a gang of mountain bandits falls in love with the head of the military outfit in charge of arresting her father. Lubitsch proceeds to create a plot constantly satirizing militarism and war, leading to its cold reception in Germany and its non-release in the USA.
Ernst Lubitsch
Germany
68 min.
Devotion to a beautiful sclave causes war between Pharoah Menes and the King of Ethiopia. But the girl loves Ramphis. This was the most spectacular film produced till then in Europe, with an impressive reconstruction of the pyramids, temples, deserts and even the Nile at the Ufa studios in Germany.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
98 min.
The King of Spain falls for Rosita, a street singer in love with Don Diego, a penniless nobleman who defends her when she is arrested for singing a song jibing the King. Rosita and Don Diego are thrown into prison and he is sentenced to death. The King has Rosita and Don Diego blindfolded for marriage before he dies, but the Queen saves him by slipping blank cartridges into the executioner's guns.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
18 min.
Short film
A Montmartre cocotte falls madly in love with a composer and succeeds in marrying him. But the young girl can?t adapt to her husband?s quiet, ordered life and looks for a way out of her complicated situation. Lubitsch chose drama for what was to be his last film in Germany. In America the film was mutilated and its ending changed.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
85 min.
Professor Stock sees the chance to divorce his wife when she starts flirting with her best friend Charlotte?s husband, Dr. Braun. Dr. Mueller, Braun's partner, is in love with Charlotte. But Charlotte and Braun show little interest in their admirers and they finally turn their attention to one another.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
89 min.
Although the heavily indebted Edmund Lamont is courting wealthy widow Mabel Wilton, he soon turns his affections to her daughter, Jeanne. Despite marrying the latter, he proceeds to have an affair with a flapper called Harriet. Jeanne is in love with Dr. Fred Armstrong and Lamont?s refusal to divorce her earns him death at her mother?s hands.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
69 min.
Having earned the Czarina?s love after having saved her small kingdom from revolutionary conspirators, young officer Alexei leaves his sweetheart Anna, the regent?s lady-in-waiting. Pushed by spite to join her conspirators when the Czarina is unfaithful to him, Alexei is arrested on her orders as the chancellor nips the revolution in the bud.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
98 min.
Mrs. Erlynne, a woman of dubious reputation, summons Lord Windermere on her return to London, revealing that she is his wife?s mother, believed dead, and demanding money for her silence. She also asks for an invitation to his wife's birthday party, but the latter refuses. Mrs. Erlynne mistakes the letter of refusal for an invitation and turns up at the party, setting Lady Windermere off in a fit of jealousy.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
70 min.
Young dancing couple Georgette and Maurice flirt constantly. One day, Dr. Paul Giraud comes to their apartment, angry with Maurice in the conviction that he?s trying to attract his wife, Suzanne. However, recognising a former sweetheart in Georgette, he tells Suzanne a cock and bull story to cover his affair with the girl. Maurice, in turn, begins his own philandering with Suzanne, finally telling her about her husband?s relation with Georgette.
Ernst Lubitsch, (John M. Stahl)
USA
103 min.
Nephew and heir to the King of a small country, Karl Heinrich is taken to Heidelberg to study by his tutor, Dr. Jüttner. There he falls in love with Kathi, niece of the man who owns the inn at which Jüttner and the Prince are lodging. Karl Heinrich?s happiness is cut short when the King dies and he has to return and occupy the throne.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
6 min.
Short film
Czar Paul of Russia is a lunatic who trusts no-one but Count Pahlen. While Pahlen wishes to protect the Czar, he is compelled by the horror of his acts to remove him from the throne. Stefan, a guard humiliated and whipped by the regent, joins him in the plot. One night, Stefan shoots the Czar before turning against the Count and firing again.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
73 min.
Marcus Paltram, a hunter in a Swiss village, loves Ciglia, although he in turn is in the sights of her dire enemy, a local girl called Pia. Seduced one night by Pia, Marcus is forced into marriage by the girl?s mother. Ciglia marries Lorenz Gruber, who has always been sweet on her. Furious because Ciglia still hankers after Marcus, Gruber offers him a bribe to leave the village.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
115 min.
The ministers of Sylvania are worried because Queen Louise still doesn?t have a husband. When Count Alfred returns from Paris, where he has had a string of affairs, the Queen invites him to demonstrate his romantic skills and they soon marry. But Alfred doesn?t like having to take orders from his wife, although he is forced to keep up appearances because the country has started financial negotiations with a foreign power.
Ernst Lubitsch, Dorothy Arzner, Otto Brower, Edmund Goulding, Victor Heerman, Edwin H. Knopf, Rowland V. Lee, Lothar Mendes, Victor Schertzinger, Edward Sutherland, Frank Tuttle
USA
102 min.
Musical revue including various numbers, three of which were directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Origin of the Apache: a man and a woman dance in a bedroom. A Park in Paris: a Parisian gendarme patrols a park. The Rainbow Revels: Maurice Chevalier and a girls' chorus appear as Parisian chimneysweeps.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
90 min.
Countess Vera is on the point of marrying stuffy Prince Otto when she decides to call the whole thing off and head for Monte Carlo. She enters the casino, catching the eye of the extremely wealthy Count Rudolph, who tells her that if he touches her hair it will bring her luck. Allowing him to do so, she magically starts reaping in the winnings. Vera is so struck by her change of fortune that, not realising who he is, she hires Rudolph as her hairdresser.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
88 min.
Lieutenant Nikolaus "Niki" von Preyn falls for a violinist called Franzi in Vienna and they become lovers. When the King of Flausenthurm arrives to the city with his plain daughter, Anna, Niki has to stand guard in the street. Standing across the road from Franzi, he smiles and winks at her just as the carriage passes, leading Anna to believe that the gestures were meant for her.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
77 min.
At the end of WWI, young Frenchman Paul Renard is haunted by the memory of Walter Holderlin, the young German soldier he killed. Having read and signed Walter's last letter, he heads to Germany with the intention of confessing to the soldier's family and begging their forgiveness. However, once there, he is unable to come clean and pretends to have been Walter's friend. Paul and Elsa, Walter's fiancée, fall in love as he becomes more familiar with the Holderlin family.
Ernst Lubitsch, George Cukor
USA
80 min.
Dr. André Bertier and his wife Colette live happily until her flirtatious school friend, Mitzi Olivier, comes to visit them. Mitzi schemes to get André alone by pretending to be ill and trying to seduce him, but her husband, Professor Olivier, has hired a detective to gather evidence of her affairs.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
83 min.
In Venice, Lily, a pickpocket pretending to be a countess, meets the famous thief Gaston Monescu, who is posing as a Baron, and they fall in love. Gaston robs aristocrat François Fileba and flees with Lily before he is found out. Almost a year later, in Paris, Gaston steals a diamond-studded purse from widow Mariette Colet, but gives it back to her, charming her to such an extent that she hires him as her secretary.
Ernst Lubitsch (The Clerk), Norman Taurog, Stephen Roberts, Norman McLeod, James Cruze, William A. Seiter, H. Bruce Humberstone
USA
88 min.
In the episode filmed by Lubitsch (The Clerk), a tycoon decides to leave his fortune to people who appreciate him more than his heirs. He randomly chooses names from the phone book. Office clerk Phineas V. Lambert receives a million dollars. He calmly leaves his desk, walks to the company president?s office and blows a raspberry at him.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
90 min.
Painter George Curtis and playwright Tom Chambers, flatmates in a Paris apartment, meet fellow American and commercial artist Gilda Farrell on a train bound for the French capital. While both men are immediately smitten by the girl, she can?t make up her mind which one of them she likes and they decide to move in as a menage à trois.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
103 min.
Sonia is an immensely wealthy widow from Marshovia, a small country where she controls half the wealth. The country depends on her spending her money there and when she moves to Paris in the quest to find a husband, the King sends Prince Danilo to court her and bring her back with the warning that failure will earn him a court-martial.
Frank Borzage, (Ernst Lubitsch)
USA
99 min.
Madeleine steals a magnificent pearl necklace in Paris and flees to Spain, meeting Tom, an American, and using him to cross the border with the stolen jewel in his jacket. They meet in San Sebastian and again in Aranjuez. Tom falls in love with Madeleine, while she, pretending to be a countess, tries to recover the booty. The film was directed by Frank Borzage, but as he was supervisor at Paramount, Lubitsch stamped the film with his ?touch? to a large extent.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
98 min.
Bored and neglected by her husband, the British nobleman Sir Frederick Barker, Maria angrily sets off to Paris without telling her husband. There she meets Anthony Halton, an American with whom she dines and visits the Parisian sights. But when Maria thinks that Halton is getting serious, she bows out and heads back to England, where her spouse has barely noticed her absence.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
85 min.
Michael Brandon is a spoilt millionaire who has had seven wives, all attracted to his fortune. Visiting a shop in the Riviera, he meets and is rebuffed by Nicole de Loiselle, the daughter of impoverished French parents with noble origins. Urged by her father, Nicole finally accepts Brandon's proposal, making it absolutely clear that she?s only doing it for the money.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
110 min.
Comrades Iranoff, Buljanoff and Kopalski are sent to Paris to raise money for the Russian government by selling the confiscated jewels of the Grand Duchess Swana, who lives in the French capital. The three men move into a luxury hotel while the French courts determine who is the rightful owner of the jewels. The Russian government sends Nina "Ninotchka" Ivanovna Yakushova to put things right.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
97 min.
Alfred Kralik is the timid headclerk at a Budapest shop named Matuschek and Company. Each morning, the employees wait together for the arrival of their boss, Hugo Matuschek. Following an ad in the newspaper, Alfred has started to exchange letters with a lady friend. Against Alfred?s wishes, Matuschek hires Klara Novak. The two quarrel constantly at work, not suspecting that Klara is Alfred's secret correspondent.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
84 min.
Larry Baker loves his job and married life, not realizing that his wife, Jill, is bored to tears and wishes that he would pay more attention to her. While trying to make Larry react, an eccentric piano player called Sebastian moves into their home and soon starts courting Jill. Furious when he discovers what?s going on, Larry pretends that he doesn?t care if he loses his wife, claiming that he too has another woman.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
99 min.
Joseph Tura and his wife Maria top the bill at a Warsaw theatre company. Young aviator Lieutenant Sobinski is madly in love with the girl and the two arrange to meet in her dressing room during the play they are putting on (Hamlet). He leaves the theatre to see her just as Joseph starts the "To be or not to be" soliloquy. Germany invades Poland and Sobinski has to leave for England, although he will have to return to Warsaw to disarticulate a conspiration against the underground movement.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
112 min.
When he dies at 70, Henry Van Cleve goes to Hell, where he is met by His Excellency, a well-dressed gentleman who demands to know his crimes. Henry begins his tale. Ever since he was born, the wealthy Van Cleve family had provided him with every luxury, permitting him to drink his way through life and chase women until he eventually found the girl of his dreams, Martha Strabel. At the end of his story, His Excellency informs him that Hell doesn?t take people like him.
Ernst Lubitsch
USA
100 min.
Czech author Adam Belinski has escaped from the Nazis, taking refuge at the country home of the rich, snobbish English Carmel family. The maid is Cluny Brown, who is also a bit of a plumber. Adam and Cluny become friends. After several misunderstandings between the Carmel?s son, his bride-to-be and Adam, the writer decides to leave. Realising that she loves Adam, Cluny follows him to the station, where she accepts his offer of marriage.
Robert Fischer
110 min.
This documentary, presented as a world premiere at San Sebastian Festival, throws new light on Lubitsch?s Berlinese epoch through filmed documents and testimonies. His daughter, Nicola Lubitsch, takes us through the period with the help of film historians, specialists on his work and some of today?s most outstanding German directors; personalities like Tom Tykwer, Michael Hanisch, Hans Helmut Prinzler, Enno Patalas, Jan-Christopher Horak, Wolfgang Becker, Amanda Goodpaster and Dani Levy. Numerous film extracts, unknown photographs and interviews with Lubitsch, the actress Henny Porten and other first-hand witnesses complete this exhaustive portrayal of one of cinema?s true geniuses.
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