'The Doll' with Ossi Oswalda and Hermann Thimig: Early Ernst Lubitsch satirical fantasy starring 'the German Mary Pickford' has similar premise to that of the 1925 Buster Keaton comedy 'Seven Chances.' 'The Doll': San Francisco Silent Film Festival presented fast-paced Ernst Lubitsch comedy starring the German Mary Pickford – Ossi Oswalda Directed by Ernst Lubitsch (So This Is Paris, The Wedding March), the 2017 San Francisco Silent Film Festival presentation The Doll / Die Puppe (1919) has one of the most amusing mise-en-scènes ever recorded. The set is created by cut-out figures that gradually come to life; then even more cleverly, they commence the fast-paced action. It all begins when a shy, confirmed bachelor, Lancelot (Hermann Thimig), is ordered by his rich uncle (Max Kronert), the Baron von Chanterelle, to marry for a large sum of money. As to be expected, mayhem ensues. Lancelot is forced to flee from the hordes of eligible maidens, eventually...
- 6/28/2017
- by Danny Fortune
- Alt Film Guide
The rediscovery and restoration of silent film Mania: The History of a Cigarette Factory Worker gives modern audiences the chance to be mesmerised by the melodrama of its Polish star
The tragedy of silent cinema is that we have so little of it. Of all the films made in the silent era, no more than 20% are extant, and even fewer of those are available to be seen by the public. But happily, that isn't the end of the story. Those missing reels have not all been burned, re-used or left to rot. New discoveries are being made all the time, and each lost film that is returned to the fold has something to teach us about cinema at the beginning of the last century – and the best of them are a delight to watch as well.
Mania: The History of a Cigarette Factory Worker is one such film. Made in...
The tragedy of silent cinema is that we have so little of it. Of all the films made in the silent era, no more than 20% are extant, and even fewer of those are available to be seen by the public. But happily, that isn't the end of the story. Those missing reels have not all been burned, re-used or left to rot. New discoveries are being made all the time, and each lost film that is returned to the fold has something to teach us about cinema at the beginning of the last century – and the best of them are a delight to watch as well.
Mania: The History of a Cigarette Factory Worker is one such film. Made in...
- 9/7/2011
- by Pamela Hutchinson
- The Guardian - Film News
Born in Russia, raised in Berlin, Ernst Lubitsch (1892-1947) was Germany's first great director. Starting out as an actor in Max Reinhardt's company and turning to the cinema in 1913, he left in 1922 to become one of Hollywood's most highly regarded film-makers, especially noted for such sophisticated comedies as Trouble in Paradise, Ninotchka and To Be or Not to Be, and practitioner of the indefinable "Lubitsch Touch". His large body of German silent films is little known, and the six in this invaluable box-set show both the extraordinary range of his work and how accomplished, subtle and innovative he had become before going to the States. Included are the elegant contemporary comedies I Wouldn't Like to Be a Man (1918) and The Oyster Princess (1919), both starring the kittenish Ossi Oswalda, as well as the Arabian Nights extravaganza Sumurun (1919) in which he himself appears with Pola Negri, and the historical epic Anne...
- 1/24/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
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