Ernst Lubitsch, the German film director who left Berlin for Hollywood in 1923, is best remembered for the famous “Lubitsch touch” in such masterpieces as KRISTIN THOMPSON GOES TO HOLLYWOOD HERR LUBITSCH Trouble in Paradise and Ninotchka, featuring Greta FILM FILM Garbo. Kristin Thompson’s study focuses on Lubitsch’s FILM FILM silent films from the years between 1918 and 1927, CULTURE CULTURE tracing the impact this director had on consolidating IN TRANSITION IN TRANSITION classical Hollywood filmmaking. She gives a new assessment of the stylistic two-way traffic between the American and the German film industries, after World War I each other’s strongest rival in Europe. By 1919, Lubitsch had emerged as the finest pro- ponent of the German studio style: sophisticated, urbane and thorough- ly professionalized. He was quick to absorb ‘American’ innovations and stylistic traits, becoming the unique master of both systems and contrib- uting to the golden ages of the Ame- rican as well as the German cinema. Utilizing Lubitsch’s silent films as a Herr Lubitsch key to two great national cinemas, Herr Lubitsch Thompson's extensively illustrated and meticulously researched book goes beyond an authorial study and GGooeess ttoo breaks new ground in cinema history. Kristin Thompson is an honorary HHoollllyywwoooodd fellow at the Department of Commu- nications Arts at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is the author of Storytelling in Film and Television. GermanGerman andand AmericanAmerican FilmFilm afterafter ISBN 90-5356-708-9 WorldWorld WarWar II 9 789053 567081 Kristin Thompson Amsterdam University Press AmsterdamAmsterdam UniversityUniversity PressPress WWW.AUP.NL Herr Lubitsch Goes to Hollywood Herr Lubitsch Goes to Hollywood German and American Film after World War I Kristin Thompson Amsterdam University Press Cover photograph: Ernst Lubitsch at work on his first Hollywood film, Rosita (courtesy the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) Cover design: Kok Korpershoek, Amsterdam Lay-out: japes, Amsterdam isbn 90 5356 709 7 (hardcover) isbn 90 5356 708 9 (paperback) nur 674 © Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2005 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, me- chanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permis- sion of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. For Paolo Contents Acknowledgements 9 Introduction Lubitsch: The Filmmakers’ Filmmaker 11 Lubitsch’s Place in Two National Cinemas 12 The Standard Story: Germany Escapes Hollywood’s Influence 14 Chapter One: Lubitsch’s Career Studying the Conditions of Influence 17 Lubitsch and the German Film Industry 19 Lubitsch’s Reputation in the 1920s 29 Areas of Stylistic Influence 31 Chapter Two: Making the Light Come from the Story: Lighting Different Lighting Equipment 35 Different Conceptions of Lighting 38 Lubitsch and the German Norm 42 Germany’s Discovery of Three-point Lighting 47 Lubitsch Masters Three-point Lighting in Hollywood 50 Three-point Lighting and Expressionism 52 Chapter Three: Subduing the Cluttered Background: Set Design Classical Norms of Set Design 53 Lubitsch and German Set Design 57 Herr Lubitsch Goes to Hollywood 63 Lubitsch’s Work with His Hollywood Art Directors 68 Chapter Four: Guiding the Viewer’s Attention: Editing Lubitsch the Editor 71 Editing in Postwar German Films 74 8 Kristin Thompson Lubitsch’s Hollywood Films 84 Chapter Five: Peeking at the Players: Acting The Survival of Pantomimic Acting in Post-War German Cinema 91 Lubitsch’s German Features 93 Lubitsch’s Hollywood Features 98 Chapter Six: Mutual Influences Equipping for Influence: The Modernization of German Studios 109 German Cinema Goes Hollywood 112 Contemporary Discussions of American-Style Techniques 113 Distinctively German Devices and Their Impact 118 Epilogue: The Lubitsch Touch 127 Notes 133 Filmography 145 Index 149 Acknowledgements This book traces its existence back to a wonderful conference hosted at the University of East Anglia in December of 1983 and organized by Thomas Elsaesser: “Space, Frame, Narrative: Ernst Lubitsch, Silent Cinema 1916-26.” I am grateful to Thomas and the staff of that conference for having planted the seed that led, much later, to this book. The paper that I presented at their con- ference sat in a file folder for many years, during which I have pursued other projects that involved watching German films, including those by Lubitsch and also about 75 “ordinary” German films (i.e., not German Expressionist, not Kammerspiel, not Neue Sachlichkeit). My main focus of study was German Expressionism, to which movement Lubitsch did not belong. He seemed, however, too important – and attractive – a figure to ignore. His films have so far been accorded far less close study than they deserve. Eventually, it also be- came apparent that Lubitsch could provide a way to compare normative styles in American and German films of the last decade of the silent era, for here was a filmmaker who, uniquely, was a master of both national styles and the direc- tor most highly respected by his colleagues in both countries. My gratitude to Thomas continues, for this examination of Lubitsch has come full circle and re- turned to his diligent care in the final publication. My thanks to him and to the University of Amsterdam Press for making it possible to present this analytical study with the numerous illustrations that it required. I am grateful for the vital assistance I received during my research from var- ious people and institutions: Kitte Vinke and the staff of the Deutsches Film- institut-DIF, Frankfurt am Main; Klaus Volkmer of the Münchener Film- museum; Gabrielle Claes and the staff of the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique; Paolo Cherchi Usai, Caroline Yeager, and the staff of the Motion Pic- ture Department of the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House; Matti Lukkarila, Timo Matoniemi, and the staff of the Suomen Elokuva-Arkisto, Helsinki; the staff of the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; and the devoted organiz- ers of La Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone and Sacile, Italy. Considerable thanks are due to Peter von Bagh and Michael Campi for pro- viding invaluable research materials. Ben Brewster, Lea Jacobs, and the faculty and students of the weekly Colloquium meeting of the Dept. of Communica- tion Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, have over the years offered 10 Kristin Thompson helpful comments on presentations of early versions of these chapters. Jake Black has been of immense assistance in preparing the many illustrations. Da- vid Bordwell has shared with me a love of Lubitsch, as he has shared so many other things, for decades. His comments and suggestions have greatly im- proved this book. Introduction Lubitsch: The Filmmakers’ Filmmaker In film-studies circles, Ernst Lubitsch is recognized as one of the great direc- tors of world cinema, but the general public has long ceased to know his name. Even mentioning Ninotchka usually brings no responsive smile of recogni- tion. Filmmakers, however, still love Lubitsch. They apparently recognize in him not just one of the medium’s premiere storytellers but a consummate master of every technical aspect of the cinema. Shortly after Lubitsch’s death, Jeannette MacDonald said of him: On the set, he had the greatness of his art, but no “artiness.” I have known so many directors who idealized him and styled some part of his work in their own careers. And to me, he was the greatest cutter in the business. Only Thanksgiving night he was talking of the lack of knowledge of cutting among some current directors. He cut as he worked on the set – that is, he shot just what he wanted. He visualized in the script the precise way he wanted it to work on the screen and I never knew him to be in trouble on a picture. He whipped his troubles in script. His scripts were al- most invariably his pictures.1 This sense of precision and mastery of the art of film recalls another great American master of the comic form, Buster Keaton. The admiration has continued ever since. In the introduction to Peter Bogdanovich’s collection of interviews he conducted over many years with most of the great Hollywood directors, he devoted a section to “The Director I Never Met” and wrote, “Lubitsch is also the one director whom nearly every other director I ever interviewed mentioned with respect and awe as among the very best.”2 Billy Wilder was fond of mentioning a sign he used for guid- ance: “For many years, I had that sign on my wall. HOW WOULD LUBITSCH DO IT? I would always look at it when I was writing a script or planning a pic- ture. ‘What kind of track would Lubitsch be on? How would he make this look natural?’ Lubitsch was my influence as a director.”3 In 1998, Newsweek’s special issue on movies included a claim by director Cameron Crowe that Lubitsch was still the model for makers of comedies.4 During recent correspondence with producer Barrie M. Osborne about my research on The Lord of the Rings I mentioned that I was finishing up a book on Lubitsch, to which he im- mediately replied that he would like to have a copy. 12 Kristin Thompson Thus it is hardly necessary to argue the point in claiming that Lubitsch was a master of two national styles. He was recognized as such among profession- als then. He is recognized as such among professionals now. The question is, then, what can this master tell us about the mutual influence of two great national cinemas? Lubitsch’s Place in Two National Cinemas This book is only in part about Lubitsch.