Sex Politics and Comedy

<p>Ernst Lubitsch (1982-1947) was one of the most successful and influential German filmmakers in American film comedy. In this volume Rick McCormick argues for a more transnational view of Lubitsch's career and films with respect to nationality ethnicity migration class sexuality and gender. McCormick focuses on Lubitsch's Jewishness which is inseparable from the distinct transnational character of the director categorizing his early films as Jewish comedies where Lubitsch strikes a tenuous balance between Jewish humor antisemitic jokes stereotypes and the incorporation of antifascist subjects into his popular films. Above all the larger political issues at stake in Lubitsch's work are brought forward: German-Jewish perspectives and experiences the subtle treatment of covert political and social messages and the relationship of comedy especially sexual comedy to emancipatory politics and in particular to the turbulent politics of Europe and the United States in the first half of the twentieth century.<br /><br />The book discusses in depth the following films by Lubitsch: <i>The Pride of the Firm (1914) Shoe Palace Pinkus (1916) Meyer From Berlin (1918) I Don't Want to Be a Man (1918) The Oyster Princess (1919) Madame Dubarry (1919) The Doll (1919) Sumurun (1920) The Wildcat (1921) The Marriage Circle (1924) The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927) The Love Parade (1929) The Man I Killed (1932) Trouble in Paradise (1932) Design for Living (1933) Ninotchka (1939) The Shop Around the Corner (1940) </i>and <i>To Be or Not to Be (1942).</i></p>