The Ethics of Ernst Lubitsch
Comedy without Relief
1st Edition
Published on 20. August 2024
192 pages
978-1-5381-4617-0 (ISBN)
Description
Against the idea that comedy offers us a relief from the horrors of the real world, the German-Jewish-American filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch defended his masterpiece To Be or Not to Be, a comedy from 1942 about the concurrent Nazi occupation of Poland, with the claim that he had made up his mind "to make a picture with no attempt to relieve anybody from anything at any time." The essays included in The Ethics of Ernst Lubitsch consider Lubitsch's work from his early Berlin years to his Hollywood fame, emphasizing the idea of 'comedy without relief' as the fundamental ethical premise of his special cinematic 'touch.' In this edited collection, contributors take a closer look at how Lubitsch addresses delicate and controversial topics like sexuality, love, and revolution, and set out a picture of an engaged ethics without moralism. The Ethics of Ernst Lubitsch is a vital contribution to film scholarship and a tribute to an essential filmmaker.
More details
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
Basingstoke
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
6 BW Photos
ISBN-13
978-1-5381-4617-0 (9781538146170)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
08/2024
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
€110.37
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Persons
Gregor Moder, PhD, is a senior research associate in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana. He has written and coedited several books on comedy and tragedy.
Ivana Novak is a film programmer at the Slovenian National Television, film critic, and musician. She has coedited five books on classical Hollywood cinema, film comedy, and television.
Ivana Novak is a film programmer at the Slovenian National Television, film critic, and musician. She has coedited five books on classical Hollywood cinema, film comedy, and television.
Content
Introduction: The Ethics of Ernst Lubitsch by Gregor Moder and Ivana Novak
Section One. POLITICS AND REVOLUTION
Chapter 1: An Uprising with a Lubitsch Touch by Alenka Zupancic
Chapter 2: Communist Ninotchka by Aaron Schuster
Section Two. THEATER AND COMICALITY
Chapter 3: The Uncanny and the Comic: Freud avec Lubitsch by Mladen Dolar
Chapter 4: Lubitsch, Shakespeare, and the Theatricality of Power by Gregor Moder
Chapter 5: What Touches Me Under My Ego. Comicality in Lubitsch, and its Psychoanalytic Structure by Robert Pfaller
Section Three. LOVE AND SEX
Chapter 6: Lubitsch's Women, or, Why Women Deserve Love and Money by Jela Krecic
Chapter 7: The Princess Learns to Wink: Lubitsch and the Politics of the Obscene by Yuval Kremnitzer
Chapter 8: The Disenchantment and the Restoration of Love in The Shop Around the Cornerby Ivana Novak
Index
About the Contributors
Section One. POLITICS AND REVOLUTION
Chapter 1: An Uprising with a Lubitsch Touch by Alenka Zupancic
Chapter 2: Communist Ninotchka by Aaron Schuster
Section Two. THEATER AND COMICALITY
Chapter 3: The Uncanny and the Comic: Freud avec Lubitsch by Mladen Dolar
Chapter 4: Lubitsch, Shakespeare, and the Theatricality of Power by Gregor Moder
Chapter 5: What Touches Me Under My Ego. Comicality in Lubitsch, and its Psychoanalytic Structure by Robert Pfaller
Section Three. LOVE AND SEX
Chapter 6: Lubitsch's Women, or, Why Women Deserve Love and Money by Jela Krecic
Chapter 7: The Princess Learns to Wink: Lubitsch and the Politics of the Obscene by Yuval Kremnitzer
Chapter 8: The Disenchantment and the Restoration of Love in The Shop Around the Cornerby Ivana Novak
Index
About the Contributors
