Ernst Lubitsch: The Life Force of Romance
Ernst Lubitsch began his career in Germany during the silent era. In Germany, he was known for his historical epics. When he was invited to Hollywood in 1924 by Charlie Chaplin, he established himself there in the sound period as the leading director of romantic comedy. For Lubitsch, romance was complex, and he explored all its layers— idealism, desire, sexuality, pleasure, love. He did not avoid dealing with jealousy and its by-product, rage. In films such as “To Be or Not To Be” (1942), “Ninotchka” (1939), “The Shop Around the Corner” (1940), “Angel” (1937), “Design for Living” (1933), and “Trouble in Paradise” (1932), Lubitsch celebrated the life force of romance—his director’s idea. In his work, he felt that all the layers of romance were energetic, creative, and affirming. Although Lubitsch’s films were well plotted as well as character driven, he never lost sight of his focus on the personal over the political, pleasure over pain, romance over cynicism. Lubitsch worked with a number of collaborators, including Billy Wilder and Samuel Raphaelson, as writers, but his work was so singular that critics referred to the “Lubitsch touch” when reviewing his films. More on this shortly.
Because Lubitsch was so focused on the romantic comedy, we will look at four of his romantic comedies and how Lubitsch used plot to open up different avenues within the genre. We will focus on “Trouble in Paradise” (1932), “Ninotchka” (1939), “The Shop Around the Corner” (1940), and “To Be or Not To Be” (1942). Because imitation is one form of flattery, I should mention that three of these four have been remade—“Ninotchka” as the musical “Silk Stockings” (1954), “To Be or Not To Be” as Mel Brooks’ 1982 remake of the same name, and “The Shop Around the Corner” as Nora Ephron’s “You’ve Got Mail” (1999).
Generally, the romantic comedy follows the course of an unlikely relationship. The comedy arises out of the attraction of two opposites and how who conquers whom in the relationship plays out. A film such as George Stevens’ “Woman of the Year” with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn is a model for the genre. What makes Lubitsch’s work in the genre so unique is that not only was he interested in the chase but he was also interested in the complications that become barriers or opportunities in the chase.
Two of the four films discussed here mix politics and romance. “Ninotchka,” set in Paris, puts a capitalist, Count Leon d’Algout (Melvyn Douglas), with a communist trade envoy named Ninotchka (Greta Garbo). Will politics or love prevail? The plot of “Ninotchka”—the sale of a famous set of jewels confiscated from the Grand Duchess Swana and now in the possession of the Soviet Government—only serves to complicate the agendas of the two lovers. For the Count, it is a matter of love or money; for Ninotchka, it is a matter of love or duty. Naturally, love prevails.
In “To Be or Not To Be,” the politics of nationalism complicates the relationship between two married actors, Joseph (Jack Benny) and Maria Tura (Carole Lombard). They are the leading actors in pre-World War II Poland. Narcissistic Maria encourages a young Polish flyer to develop a relationship with her. When war intervenes, the flyer escapes to England, and the jealous husband remains in Warsaw with his wife. A Nazi spy infiltrates the Polish command in London, takes the names of Poles in London working for the Allies, and returns to Warsaw and the Gestapo, list in hand. The young Polish flyer is enlisted to stop the spy. Returning to Poland, he enlists the help of Joseph and Maria Tura to help him kill the spy and save the flyers. This requires Joseph to pretend to be the spy with the Gestapo and an actor in the troupe to be Hitler. All is well with the jealous Joseph, who retains at least for the moment the devotion of his narcissistic wife.
In “Trouble in Paradise,” Lubitsch focuses on the politics of the romantic relationship. Gaston Monescu is a thief. When his pocket is skillfully picked by Lily, also a thief, they fall in love. The politics of the relationship are challenged when Monescu also falls in love with a rich victim, Madame Colet of Paris. Will Gaston survive? Will Gaston and Lily survive, both professionally and personally?
The politics are more complicated in “The Shop Around the Corner.” At Matuschek and Company, a high-end retailer in Budapest, Hungary, Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) is a serious and successful employee. Indeed, he is the senior salesman. His main challenge is a needy Mr. Matuschek (Frank Morgan), an older man with a younger wife. Matuschek considers Kralik to be a valued employee but also a serious rival. The story focuses on the relationship between Kralik and Clara Novak (Margaret Sullivan). Clara, a new employee, is a constant irritant to the officious Alfred. The plot of the film is the letter writing between Alfred and Clara. Both are lonely in the big city, and each has begun a correspondence in response to a personal ad in the newspaper. This secret correspondence has led to an idealistic love affair between the two. The correspondents have not arranged a meeting, but they know they have found true love. Each is convinced that when they meet they will become companions for life. In real life, at Matuschek and Company, Alfred and Clara become bitter enemies, routinely calling each other names and insulting each other. What will happen when they finally meet and discover that they are each other’s true love? Being a romantic comedy, everything deliciously works out by the end of the film.
Before I go into detail about these four excerpts, it is necessary to point out a number of unique characteristics about Lubitsch’s work. The first impression of Lubitsch’s work is that words are more important than images; consequently, it is easier to consider Lubitsch a theatrical director for whom performance and setting override the other filmic qualities of a work. Directors such as George Cukor, Stanley Donen, and even Luis Bunuel have taken a similar approach. This first impression, however, can be quite misleading. And here we arrive at the “Lubitsch touch,” which refers to the way Lubitsch uses visual detail. For example, in “Ninotchka,” Ninotchka considers a hat in the hotel window a sign of capitalist ostentation, but later it becomes an object of desire. When she buys the hat, it is a declaration of her embrace of femininity and of her pursuer, Leon. In “Trouble in Paradise,” Madame Colet’s necklace becomes the target of theft, a signal of Madame Colet’s allure for Gaston, and later it is presented as a gift to Lily to confirm Gaston’s love for her. In “The Shop Around the Corner,” a letter is private, confessional, and a vehicle for the idealized love of Clara for her “true friend.” The cigarette box that plays “Ochi Chornya” is equally multifaceted, moving from retail item to desired object to a gift for someone you hate, and so on. In “To Be or Not To Be,” the beard of a spy is as multifunctional as Hitler’s moustache. Lubitsch worked in these visual details to reflect something about a character and that character’s pursuit of his romantic ideal. What is surprising and delightful for an audience is Lubitsch’s capacity to transform something as simple as a hat or a letter or a beard into something far more complex.
A second unique characteristic of Lubitsch’s work is that the pursuit of a love relationship seems to occupy the entire universe of his characters. Nothing else seems to matter and all else falls away. What this means for the experience of his films is a kind of unique intensity. His characters have no past and they will have no future if the relationship fails. The result is a focus on the present quite unlike the experience of most films. Although the films are comedies, they have an intensity quite unique in the experience of screen stories.
A third quality of Lubitsch’s films is that they are quite sophisticated. The people have lived not in a fishbowl or an idealized state such as Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1934), or Ben Hecht’s cynical Walter Burns and Hildy Johnson in Howard Hawks’ “His Girl Friday” (1938). The consequence is that his characters have a lived-in quality, a zest for life that is recognizable and attractive. A bonus of this characteristic is that when Lubitsch’s characters speak it is a pleasure to listen to them. Often written by Samuel Raphaelson, the dialogue in a Lubitsch film is as pleasurable as in the films of Billy Wilder and Joseph Mankiewicz.
In the excerpts discussed here, I have decided to focus on the first meeting of the opposites whose relationship will carry us through the film.
“Trouble in Paradise” (1932)
“Trouble in Paradise” opens in Venice. At the outset, a robbery occurs in a luxury hotel. The scene we are focusing on occurs after the robbery. An elegant nobleman (Herbert Marshall) awaits a woman whom he has invited to dine with him in his rooms. He is distracted by the preparations and directs the waiter to make sure the champagne is perfect and the food enticing, but he also wants the waiter to disappear as quickly as possible. When the woman (Miriam Hopkins) arrives, the two joust with one another as the waiter reports the robbery down the hall to them. A phone call interrupts, and we learn that the woman is not who she is pretending to be. The nobleman accuses her of picking his pocket, and she in turn accuses him of robbing the man down the hall. Each returns the items stolen from the other—he returns her garter and she returns his watch and wallet. They reveal their identities—he is the famous Gaston Monescu and she the thief Lily—and they declare their love, becoming partners instead of victims.
In “Ninotchka,” the setting is Paris. The plot to sell Countess Swana’s jewels is under way, but the three trade commissioners from the U.S.S.R. are already intoxicated by capitalist Paris and have failed in their mission. A new trade representative, Ninotchka, has been sent to take over the negotiations. She is appalled by what she has found (the opulent quarters, the penchant of the trade commissioners for scantily clad cigarette girls). The scene opens with the austere Ninotchka stepping out of the hotel to inspect Paris from an engineering point of view, such as visiting the Eiffel Tower.
Ninotchka makes her way to the island in the middle of the road. As she waits for traffic to clear, Count Leon d’Algout arrives at the island from the opposite direction. Ninotchka asks Leon for directions as well as information about the Eiffel Tower. He cannot answer her questions and resorts to flirting with her. The scientifically minded Ninotchka keeps the conversation technical while Leon tries to keep it romantic. She looks at Leon as if he is a species for study. He finds her surprising and finds himself intrigued.
The scene shifts to the Eiffel Tower. Leon has followed Ninotchka there with romance in mind, but again Ninotchka seeks technical information. The verbal jousting continues as they climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower, the symbol of romance in the most romantic city in the world. There, at the top, their relationship progresses when Ninotchka boasts of the superiority of the communist system and Leon makes his case for capitalists. He points out a particularly charming site, an escape from the politics of the world— his apartment. The scene then shifts to Leon’s home.
In Leon’s apartment, Ninotchka encourages his manservant not to be exploited by Leon. The manservant replies that, under the communist system, he would have to share his savings and he is appalled by that possibility. Leon dismisses the servant, and he and Ninotchka get down to his agenda of embracing and kissing. The technically minded Ninotchka considers the kissing to be strictly physical, and Leon is growing increasingly exasperated by Ninotchka’s rationalizations; however, it is clear that she is melting. The scene ends with Leon and Ninotchka becoming more than acquainted. Political and personal progress has been made.
“The Shop Around the Corner” (1940)
“The Shop Around the Corner” begins with the introduction of the main character, Alfred Kralik, at his workplace, Matuschek and Company, in Budapest. Kralik is a conscientious employee and popular with his boss, Mr. Matuschek, who invited him to dinner at his home the night before. He is the envy of his fellow workers. Matuschek arrives at the store, and it is clear that he is admiring and perhaps envious of Kralik. And here our excerpt begins. Matuschek asks for Kralik’s opinion of a cigarette box he is thinking of stocking in the store. The box plays music in addition to holding cigarettes. Kralik is not impressed by the cigarette box and discourages Matuschek from stocking it. Matuschek acts like a scorned lover; clearly, he is immature and not at all confident about his own judgment.
Enter Clara Novak. Clara is looking for a job but does not say so. Kralik clearly mistakes her for a customer and is quite charming until he learns her real intention. At that point, he becomes politely dismissive. Matuschek, still concerned about his cigarette box, mistakes Clara for a customer and seeks her opinion on it. She is impressed. Matuschek is encouraged until he learns that Clara is job hunting. He walks away but Clara is not so easily dismissed. She intends to show Matuschek and Kralik that she can sell anything, even this cigarette box. She approaches an overweight customer and promotes the box as a candy box that will alert her every time she reaches for another piece of candy. She assures the woman that the purchase will help her lose weight. Clara sells the box for double the price and has a job. Kralik has an employee he did not want, but Matuschek is justified in ordering many more of the boxes. The scene ends; the romantic couple has met, and they seem to be antagonists rather than potential lovers.
“To Be or Not To Be” (1942)
The focus of “To Be or Not To Be” is slightly different. The romantic couple is a narcissistic wife and a would-be young lover. The scene opens in the theater where “Hamlet” is being performed. Joseph Tura, who is playing Hamlet, is backstage ordering a sandwich from a nearby delicatessen. His wife, Maria Tura, who is playing Ophelia, exits the stage and solicits opinions about her performance. She also offers support to her obviously insecure husband and assures him that he has never been better. What Joseph is insecure about, however, is his relationship with his wife. The reason why is revealed in the next scene.
Backstage, flowers arrive for Maria. Joseph is jealous, but she is reassuring and tells him she does not know who they might be from. This is the third consecutive evening flowers have arrived. As Joseph leaves to go on stage Maria acknowledges to her dresser that she has a strong suspicion regarding who might be sending the flowers. She writes a note to accept his invitation to introduce himself and tells him that he should leave the audience when Hamlet begins his soliloquy. When Joseph takes the stage and steps toward the audience, ready to utter “to be or not to be,” a young flyer (Robert Stack) in the third row stands and exits. Joseph cannot help but see the handsome young lieutenant leaving his seat. In the dressing room, Maria greets the young flyer, who invites her to go flying with him the next afternoon. She suggests they meet at the airport, and he leaves as Joseph’s soliloquy will soon end.
A crushed Joseph returns to the dressing room—it is the first time someone has walked out on him. Maria suggests that the flyer might have taken sick; perhaps he had a heart attack. A grateful Joseph embraces Maria. The scene ends with Joseph being consoled by his wife. Jealousy, rivalry, and desire have been important dimensions of this scene. For Joseph, the scene has ended on a note of conciliation. For Maria, the scene has ended on a note of anticipation.
Text Interpretation
Directors tend to emphasize different issues in their interpretations of scripts. For a director such as Ridley Scott, masculinity and its habitual need to prove itself is a presence even in his films about women (“Thelma and Louise” and “GI Jane”). The value that prevails in a Scott film is the positive value of masculinity. What is valued most in a Paul Mazursky film is the struggle for independence. What is valued most in a John Cassavetes film is the tug of war between the life force and the death force in each character. My point here is that directors have core beliefs or issues that they work with in their films. For Ernst Lubitsch, that core issue is romance.
Working with romance, Lubitsch implied that all else in life— politics, money, career, status—is secondary. Such a notion has implications for text interpretation. First, the focus of Lubitsch’s work will be on one character’s relationship with another, a woman with a man or a man with a woman. As I mentioned earlier, Lubitsch was interested in all dimensions of romance, but in all his explorations the emphasis was always on the emotional aspects of romance and the pursuit of Lubitsch’s version of happiness. Bliss is finally securing the desired relationship. In Ninotchka’s case, she never knew about men like Leon d’Algout, but when she was sent to Paris, the city of love, she discovers what love can be. Similarly, Madame Colet in “Trouble in Paradise” discovers love when the thief Gaston enters her house with the goal of robbing her.
In order to create this aching sense of the value of romance, Lubitsch works with a number of narrative devices that highlight the importance of romance. First, the principle of opposites operates on the lovers as well as with the rest of the cast. For lovers and would-be lovers, Leon d’Algout and Ninotchka are the most obvious examples, as are Clara and Kralik in “The Shop Around the Corner”—she is emotional, and he is rational; she is kinetic, and he is steady; she is idealistic, and he has a darker outlook.
As we look at the love triangles in the films, the opposites become even more striking. In “Trouble in Paradise,” Gaston must choose between Lily and Madame Colet. Lily is a thief who is pragmatic about money. Madame Colet is rich and thoroughly impractical about money. In “To Be or Not To Be,” Maria flirts with a young, handsome flyer as her jealous older husband doubts his wife’s love. Both men, although opposites, feed Maria’s vanity.
Lubitsch also uses the idea of opposites as a source of humor outside the romantic couple. The lovers and would-be lovers are serious when the surround is not serious. Edward Everett Horton and Charles Ruggles portray two rich elderly suitors for Madame Colet, although her preference is for Gaston. In “Ninotchka,” the three trade commissioners (Iranoff, Bulganoff, and Kopalski), with their self-deceptive interpretation of Soviet cant and self-indulgent interpretation of Western capitalism, are a source of humor, just as the theatrical company surrounding Joseph and Maria Tura is the source of humor in “To Be or Not To Be.” This strategy provides a layered narrative without detracting from the seriousness of the couple seeking romance.
Another element of Lubitsch’s text interpretation is how he avoided idealizing a character. It may be that romantic love is idealized but not its practitioners. All of Lubitsch’s lovers are imperfect characters. Gaston Monescu is a thief. Leon d’Algout is a scoundrel. Joseph Tura is vanity personified, and Alfred Kralik is stiff and too serious for his own good. The women fare little better. Clara Novack is hot tempered, as is Lily. Ninotchka is as serious as Kralik, and Maria Tura is far more vain than her famous husband.
The consequence is that Lubitsch is telling stories about realistic characters finding out that in their lives the only important thing, or the most important thing, is to love and be loved. All else—money, position, status—means very little. The pursuit of love is not only crucial; it is essential. When we experience the Lubitsch characters, we join them in the pleasure of the pursuit of love.
Directing the Actors
Lubitsch cast for charm, sophistication, and the capacity for comedy. Often this meant hiring theater actors (Herbert Marshall, Miriam Hopkins, Melvyn Douglas) and vaudeville performers (Jack Benny). In casting his female roles, the greater the glamour the better. Star power on the order of Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, and Carole Lombard set the standard for a Lubitsch film. Lubitsch also employed ensemble performers (Edward Everett Horton, Charles Ruggles, Sig Rumann) to flesh out his cast. Another dimension of a Lubitsch cast is its ethnicity. Lubitsch films were often set in Europe, so Lubitsch cast for faces that would look at home in Paris, Venice, Moscow, or Budapest.
Characteristic of Lubitsch performances is the range he asked of his performers. Greta Garbo in “Ninotchka” had to be a Soviet ice queen as well as a romantic heroine who could laugh. James Stewart had to be serious, stiff, pliant, and romantic in “The Shop Around the Corner.” Jack Benny had to be a great performer and jealous husband in “To Be or Not To Be.” Melvyn Douglas had to be a scoundrel and a lover in short order in “Ninotchka.” This meant utilizing actors with the flexibility and emotional range to shift gears in a performance. It also meant hiring actors who had the sense of timing to make these shifts convincing. Lubitsch needed confident actors who trusted their director and his interpretation of the material. He was a director who had a very clear sense of direction for his material. Performance was one of Lubitsch’s strengths as a director, but underneath that performance Lubitsch was also able to elicit the joy of performance in the film. This joy, whether it arose from the character or the actor creating a character, was the real key to experiencing the performances in a Lubitsch film. The audience catches onto the pleasure of these performers. They are having a great time creating these characters, and the audience has an equally great time experiencing their creations.
Directing the Camera
Lubitsch was one of those directors who seems on first look to have a very simple approach. There is no urgent editing. The camera is placed before the action and at the requisite moment is moved closer to record a close-up. But, behind this simplicity is a director of enormous sophistication. I have already mentioned Lubitsch’s capacity to use a visual for multiple purposes (the Lubitsch touch). Probably more helpful is exchanging the word “simplicity” with “economy.” Lubitsch seems to achieve in one or two shots what requires one or two scenes for most directors. Only Luis Bunuel seemed as adept at conveying so much with so little. A few examples will illustrate my point.
In “Trouble in Paradise,” François (Edward Everett Horton) characterizes the thief who stole his wallet in Venice as a doctor. Later, the major (Charles Ruggles) mistakes Gaston Monescu for a doctor, and when the François character comes to realize that Gaston and the doctor and the thief are the same person, the end is near for our charming thief. The same pattern emerges in the way the jewels are viewed in “Ninotchka.” Initially, the jewels occupy a key role in the plot. The sale of the jewels is the reason why the Russian trade commission has come to Paris. Stopping the sale of the jewels brings Leon into contact with the three Soviet trade commissioners, and eventually those jewels will become a barrier to his relationship with Ninotchka. As they become less of a barrier, their sale becomes an expression of Countess Swana’s jealousy toward Ninotchka, and finally their sale becomes the Countess’ means of getting Ninotchka back to Moscow and away from Leon.
This sense of economy is not intended to convolute the plot with more twists and turns but rather to exploit each plot device (to its maximum). Lubitsch does the same with the stage of the theater in “To Be or Not To Be.” The stage is a stage, but it also serves as Gestapo headquarters to be used to trick a Nazi spy. This elegant sense of economy is no less surprising to the audience than a more elaborate narrative would be, but its benefit is that it keeps us close to Lubitsch’s main focus—the chase at the heart of every romantic comedy.
A second characteristic of the Lubitsch approach to the camera is that every aspect of production—camera placement, shot selection, light, art direction—is in support of character and the character arc. That means performance is in the foreground and all else is in the background. The result of this approach is that emotion, hope, desire, and despair are at the forefront while all else falls away.
A third characteristic of Lubitsch’s films is that comedy is important and is the highlight of his films. Generally, comedy is generated by the characters. Lily takes a call in Gaston’s suite in “Trouble in Paradise.” Until that point, she has appeared to be a mysterious, excited woman with too much time and money on her hands. The call punctures this illusion because her roommate is calling her about the unpaid rent. Lily the pretender has replaced Lily the pretentious. In the same film, François’ hypochondria and the major’s military bearing are offset by their adolescent behavior with one another and with Madame Colet.
Finally, a few words about Lubitsch and his management of the dramatic arc. Romantic comedy is not a fast-paced or plot-driven genre. At its core it is all about the course of a relationship—they meet, they pursue, they date, and they are together. Lubitsch understood that the joy of the pursuit is the core experience for the audience. If the audience is cheering for the couple, all the better. Lubitsch was exceptionally good at charming us into a relationship with his characters and then using a plot to trip them up. The selling of the jewels is the plot in “Ninotchka.” Stealing Madame Colet’s jewels is the plot in “Trouble in Paradise.” Catching a spy and living to act on the stage again is the plot in “To Be or Not To Be.” Lubitsch understood that it must all fall apart in Act III if the audience is to feel satisfaction as the lovers come together at the resolution. In “Ninotchka,” the lovers are separated in Act III when she is in Moscow and he is in Paris. In “Trouble in Paradise,” Gaston is unmasked as a thief in Act III. Will he be caught? Will he stay with Madame Colet? What will happen to Lily? In “To Be or Not To Be,” the acting troupe was successful at killing the spy but not at escaping from Gestapo headquarters and must reach new heights of performance in Act III. They act out one of their plots, pretending that Hitler is one of Maria’s most avid suitors. Hitler himself rescues Joseph from Gestapo headquarters and flies husband, wife, and troupe on to England. This capacity to perceive the genre as a chase and to keep the chase going until the resolution was a trademark of Lubitsch, who fully understood the importance of keeping the dramatic arc taut and effective to the happy end.
Although Lubitsch’s camera work seems simple, its intent was to emphasize the characters and the joy in their performances. Because of Lubitsch’s choices and the performances of his talented casts, we can better understand and value the life force of romance.