ReFocus: The Films of Ernst Lubitsch

Explores German-American filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch’s engagement with and expressions of historicity throughout his career

• Analyses Lubitsch’s historical cinema from his Berlin silent epics to his Hollywood comic classics in relationship with ongoing debates in film history, film studies, film-philosophy, world cinema and historical studies
• Considers the impact of Lubitsch’s historical oeuvre in philosophical, textual, and cultural contexts, with a focus on the spatial, performative and sensorial readings of his accessible, satirical and playful historical stylings
• Connects Lubitsch to relevant political and cultural events and institutions, specifically noting Lubitsch’s relevance during our contemporary moment marked by the global rise of fascism, as well as a public return of Nazism and populist antisemitism across the world

ReFocus: The Films of Ernst Lubitsch responds to and reframes the films of German émigré director Ernst Lubitsch as film-philosophical exemplars of both early world cinema and historical cinema, from his silent era costume dramas to his post-war Hollywood romances. This edited collection examines recent Lubitsch scholarship within the context of transcultural and transhistorical film theory to provide a critical retrospective of Lubitsch’s costume films, historical epics, and marriage comedies across his three illustrious decades of international success.