8th Annual Community Lecture Series
THE CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
Ernst Lubitsch: Jewish Comedy from Berlin to Hollywood
December 8, 2011 7:30 p.m.
Shir Tikvah Congregation, 1360 West Minnehaha Parkway, Minneapolis
612-822-1440
When Ernst Lubitsch left Berlin for Hollywood at the end of 1922 to direct a film with Mary Pickford, he was the most successful German film director. He became famous in America in the 1920s for suggestive, "sophisticated" comedy that got past the censors. During the mid-1930s, strict enforcement of film censorship guidelines made it difficult for Lubitsch. By the late 1930s, he was making comedies set
in Europe that were more overtly political. His most famous comedy, To Be or Not to Be, was an anti-Nazi comedy that was controversial in 1942 but has since inspired many filmmakers, including Mel Brooks.
Rick McCormick, a professor of German at the University of Minnesota, is a scholar of German film and culture whose work focuses on the intersection of art, culture, and politics, with a special emphasis on gender, sexuality, and ethnic/national identity. His work has explored how postwar German film has represented the legacy of the Holocaust and Nazism as well as the complex political and cultural dynamics of Germany'sWeimar Republic (1918-1933). He is working on a book on Lubitsch.
This Event is Free & Open to the Public
This series is made possible by a generous gift in memory of Julia K. & Harold Segall.
Sponsoring Partners: U of M dept of German, Scandinavian and Dutch, Shir Tikvah Congregation
