OrgaNova Cinema Symphony / The Doll / Ernst Lubitsch and Playing at Cinema - NOSPR

In Hollywood's dream factory, the 1920s and 1930s belonged to him. Today, however, his name is known to few. Ernst Lubitsch, a German director who had already established a formidable reputation in Europe, arrived in America in 1922 together with his star and muse, the Polish actress Pola Negri, with whom he had made several acclaimed films on the continent. Their fame opened the doors of Hollywood to them both. But Lubitsch brought something else across the Atlantic as well: his own distinctive language of cinematic storytelling. It was so original that American filmmakers – and later audiences as well – gave it a name of its own: the ‘Lubitsch Touch’. By infusing Hollywood cinema with European wit, lightness and sophistication, he transformed it forever.

The Doll (Die Puppe), made in Germany in 1919, offers viewers a delightful game of cinematic make-believe. The world on screen is built – quite literally, and before the audience's very eyes – by the director’s own hand. Into this entirely artificial realm of cardboard and paint step living characters, who travel in carriages drawn by mechanical horses... The film's exuberant situational (and verbal) comedy sweeps the viewer into a whirlwind of risqué jokes and situations, into a comedy of errors, disguises and assumed identities. There is also a touch of slapstick (always with a knowing wink), inventive animation, and no shortage of irony or social satire directed at both the clergy and the aristocracy. In the leading role, Ossi Oswalda – often called the German Mary Pickford – captivates with the vividness of her performance and her remarkable physical agility. As a film, The Doll is a perfectly engineered mechanism of cinematic spectacle.

Anita Skwara

Concert duration: approximately 90 minutes 

Language: intertitles in German
Subtitles: Polish, English

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