Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise [Paperback]

Scott Eyman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 2000

When movie lovers speak of the "Lubitsch touch," they refer to a singular sense of style and taste, humor and humanity, that suffused the films of one of Hollywood's greatest directors. In this first ever full-length biography of Ernst Lubitsch, Scott Eyman takes readers behind the scenes of such classic films as Trouble in Paradise (1932), The Merry Widow (1934), Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938), Ninotchka (1939), The Shop around the Corner (1940), To Be or Not to Be (1942), and Heaven Can Wait (1943), which together constitute one of the most important and influential bodies of work in Hollywood. Eyman examines both the films Lubitsch crafted and the life he lived—his great successes and his overwhelming anxieties—to create an indelible portrait of Hollywood's Golden Age and one of its most respected artists.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ernst Lubitsch (1892-1947) made elegant, warmly human comedies exuding sexual sophistication, yet in his personal life, notes Eyman, the German-born film director was vulnerable and almost naive. Son of a middle-class Berlin tailor who had escaped the squalor of czarist Russia, Lubitsch moved to Hollywood in 1922 with his first wife, temperamental actress Helene Sonnet Kraus. Her affair with Lubitsch's best friend, screenwriter Hans Kraly, wrecked their marriage, reports Eyman ( Mary Pickford ). Lubitsch's second wife, aristocratic Vivian Gaye, who considered him vulgar, was widely viewed as a gold digger by his friends. As production head of Paramount, Lubitsch encountered a hornet's nest of egos and political intrigue that led to his dismissal in 1936. In an entrancing, revealing biography that illuminates the unique chemistry behind "the Lubitsch Touch," Eyman limns a single-minded director, despised by Hitler, who embodied the classic immigrant experience in Hollywood by giving a European twist to American genres in classics like Ninotchka , Design for Living and Heaven Can Wait. Photos.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

After starring in and directing silent films in Germany, Lubitsch emigrated to America, where his success continued until he died in 1947. Lubitsch produced, directed, and was the uncredited co-writer on some of the most stylish and sophisticated comedies ever made, including Trouble in Paridise (1932), Ninotchka (1939), and To Be or Not To Be (1942). Eyman's well-researched biography is successful in showing how Lubitsch was similar to, and different from, the characters in his films. While Eyman is not blind to Lubitsch's faults, his admiration is evident. More detailed notes on the sources would have been welcome; nevertheless, this account is highly recommended.
- John Smothers, Monmouth Cty. Lib., Manalapan, N.J.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press; Johns Hopkins Pbk. Ed edition (November 30, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801865581
• ISBN-13: 978-0801865589
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,107,721 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A very good biography !, May 11, 2001

By 

Annie (NEUILLY-SUR-SEINE France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise (Paperback)

This biography of the geat Ernst LUBITSCH is really better than the overrated book "THE LUBITSCH TOUCH" by WEINBERG. It is an alive book by a writer who really admire the director and the man. It also gives some good reviews and information about Lubitsch's geat films. My only complain is that the autor doesn't really develop the German period (which is still underrated and considered as "vulgar" - "thanks" to the famous critic Lotte EISNER), like all the books about Lubitsch, it focuses on the masterpierces of the 30's and the 40's (the most known period and the best of course). But buy it, if you want to know more about LUBITSCH/the man (and prefer this book to Weinberg's one). About LUBITSCH/the director, buy the excellent book by S. RAPHAELSON "3 screen comedies" (if you can find it !) and J. HARVEY's "American comedies : from Lubitsch to Sturges".

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, July 9, 2011

By 

Jane Pensive "a film fan" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise (Paperback)

A biography about my favorite director, by my favorite film biographer, which provides lots of satisfying detail about Lubitsch's background, film training, early theater efforts as an actor, writer and director, romantic entanglements, and best of all his Hollywood years when Lubitsch gave his magic "touch" to some of my favorite films ("Shop Around the Corner," "Ninotchka," "Heaven Can Wait," "Cluny Brown," etc).

Eyman describes Lubitsch as "giving great love," to the family of his first wife and her two sons. Lubitsch treated her sons as his own, and showered her with all of the percs her position as the wife of a great Hollywood director warranted. Once said wife cheated on him with his colleague, and humiliated him, he was also capable of turning his back on her, and her sons, who meant so much to him, virtually never acknowledging them again. So Lubitsch, who portrayed infidelity as something to throw away carelessly in films (think the "Smiling Lieutenant" in which the corpulent king only discovers his queen is cheating on him with a slim, handsome, young lieutenant when he accidentally tries to put on the lover's belt and sword) can't tolerate the thought of a similar situation going on in his own bedroom. Eyman also describes a man who, although ethnically unmistakable as a european Jew, is only attracted to patrician-looking women who didn't necessarily make him happy. One person he loved unreservedly was his little daughter Nicola, from his second marriage, which also failed.

I was interested in the reason nazis chose Lubitsch as the object of their racial scorn, above all other famous German Jews, and Eyman explains that this was due to Lubitsch's own choice to develop and film himself portraying a comic Jewish character in his early films who looks and behaves in a manner which ethnic Germans found offensive, and very undesirable to expose to German society as a whole.

Lubitsch had a wry and realistic way of looking at life such that he could understand and deal with actresses who could be most unappealing (think Miriam Hopkins and Jennifer Jones), but from whom Lubitsch extracts the most charming performances of their careers. The director's wry wit also lead him to depict the situations in his films with the "Lubitsch touch" by portraying the ironies and shocks of mundane life such that the audience could discover and identify with the situations faced by Lubitsch's characters by being drawn into their individual points of view. This is a great book about a director whose life and work has not been well delineated (possibly because it is so ephemeral) until now.