The Ethics of Ernst Lubitsch

Comedy Without Relief

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by Gregor Moder and Ivana Novak

Type: Studies
Subject: Director > Ernst Lubitsch
Keywords: Ernst Lubitsch, director, ethics
Publishing date: 2024 (August 22, 2024)
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 176 pages
6 x 9 ¼ inches (15.5 x 23.5 cm)

ISBN

978-1-5381-4616-3

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Book Presentation:
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.

About the authors:
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.

Press Reviews:
The title of this superb volume tells it all: it treats Ernst Lubitsch not just as a great director of comedies but as an author whose movies confront the basic ethical dilemmas of his time. Lubitsch is the greatest philosopher among movie directors, much greater than the celebrated art-movies classics. Is this not reason enough to read The Ethics of Ernst Lubitsch for all who care about the mess we’re in?
-- Slavoj Žižek, professor of philosophy, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

There are those who see comedy only as a mode of relief from the dangers and anxieties of the real world and who thus dismiss the genre merely as a form of distraction. Such a ridiculous stance drastically avoids the precise ethical core of comedy, which, in the hands of Ernst Lubitsch, provides a real and authentic encounter with the world—one that is needed more than ever today. This is a fact demonstrated with excitement and brilliance by the authors collected in Novak and Moder’s book. Building upon the rich and expanding analytical frameworks produced by the Ljubljana School for Theoretical Psychoanalysis, The Ethics of Ernst Lubitsch is a marvelous achievement showing why the name Lubitsch deserves to be etched in stone alongside the names Lacan and Hegel.
-- Matthew Flisfeder, associate professor of rhetoric and communications, The University of Winnipeg, Canada

See the publisher website: Rowman & Littlefield

See the complete filmography of Ernst Lubitsch on the website: IMDB ...

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