Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Kohlhiesels Töchter

Kohlhieselin tyttäret / Krögarens döttrar. DE 1920. PC: Messter. D: Ernst Lubitsch. SC: Hanns Kräly, Lubitsch. DP: Theodor Sparkuhl. Starring: Henny Porten (Gretel and Liesel), Emil Jannings (Peter Xaver), Gustav von Wangeheim (Paul Seppl), Jacob Tiedtke (Mathias Kohlhiesel). 1129 m /19 fps/ 52 min. Print from Münchner Filmmuseum, /19 fps/ 61 min. E-subtitles AA. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 12 Feb 2008. This is one of Lubitsch's most relaxed films, simple fun roughly based on The Taming of the Shrew, with Henny Porten in a double role, both as the shrew and the lovely sister. Lubitsch clearly loved winter and the mountains. It is nice to see this after Anna Boleyn, with its co-stars, Jannings and Porten, in completely different roles. Here there is another lovely dancing sequence. As for the intertitles, there are two completely different versions of this film. I was familiar with the DIF print, but this Munich print is better.

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