Post Description

LUBITSCH IN BERLIN:
FAIRY-TALES, MELODRAMAS, AND SEX COMEDIES
SIX FILMS BY ERNST LUBITSCH (1918?1921) [2010]
complete 6-disc boxset

DVD Release Date: January 25, 2010

DVD Studio: Eureka Entertainment


ABOUT THE BOXSET:
Before he arrived in Hollywood to leave his indelible (and inimitable) mark on timeless comedies like Trouble in Paradise and The Shop Around the Corner, Ernst Lubitsch created an expansive body of work in Germany that proved to be as varied in its tone as it was sophisticated in its measure of man and woman. This box set collects six recently restored works from the silent phase of Lubitsch's career, and casts new light on the director both as a fully-formed comic master, and as a virtuoso of cinematographic technique. 


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CONTENTS
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DISC ONE
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ICH MOCHTE KEIN MANN SEIN (I Don't Want to Be a Man)
(Ernst Lubitsch; 1918, 45 min.)
imdb.com/title/tt0010281/

A concise sketch of society life in three acts. When Ossi's uncle goes away on a business trip, a new guardian steps in to tame the distractable niece. But Ossi finds a way out of the house and into a grand ball by way of a brazen cross-dressing scheme -- and triggers what is perhaps Lubitsch's most twisted finale.

# New, officially licenced transfer from restored materials.
# New and improved optional English subtitles with original German-language intertitles.



DIE PUPPE
(Ernst Lubitsch; 1919, 64 min.)
imdb.com/title/tt0010600/

Ossi Oswalda stars in a double-role as both the mischievous daughter, and automatonic creation, of a wildly coiffed "dollmaker". When a wealthy baron decides the time has come for his prudish nephew to take a wife, an uproariously ribald plot unwinds into what is perhaps the world's first-ever sex-doll comedy.

# New, officially licenced transfer from restored materials.
# New and improved optional English subtitles with original German-language intertitles.
# New and exclusive concertina score composed, performed, and recorded by Bernard Wrigley.


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DISC TWO
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DIE AUSTERNPRINZESSIN (The Oyster Princess)
(Ernst Lubitsch; 1919, 90 min.)
imdb.com/title/tt0009893/

Ossi Oswalda makes another turn as a plutocrat?s rambunctious daughter ? now the heiress of a global oyster empire, devoting her wiles once again to the service of man-ipulation. A comic high-point in the master?s oeuvre, Die Austernprinzessin. showcases the trademarks of the "Lubitsch Touch" and its ten-fingered dexterity, resulting in a film that is simultaneously clever, concise, and risque.

# New, officially licenced transfer from restored materials.
# New and improved optional English subtitles with original German-language intertitles.


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DISC THREE
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SUMURUN
(Ernst Lubitsch; 1920, 103 min.)
imdb.com/title/tt0011742/

By turns melodramatic and grotesquely comic, Sumurun brings together performances by star-players Paul Wegener (Der Golem.), Pola Negri, Harry Liedtke, and Ernst Lubitsch himself (in the role of an ultra-pathetic hunchbacked minstrel) for this ensemble tale pulled from the milieu of The Arabian Nights. Featuring hundreds of extras milling through open-air set-pieces and dusky harem-chambers alike, Sumurun demonstrates Lubitsch's ability to transfigure rote romance into vibrant pageant.

# New, officially licenced transfer from restored materials.
# New and improved optional English subtitles with original German-language intertitles.

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