87/100

A proud, important joke mixed and matched for an hour and a half, but when its subject is so sinister and its execution so multifaceted in delivery and tone balances, it doesn't really matter that each comedic springboard is built off of the same root feelings of anger and frustration. Ernst Lubitsch is pissed off but entirely confident in his storytelling, never relenting from harsh realities but still sly enough to make a smile and a tear one and the same. If any one moment shifted towards the absurd, Lubitsch would dial it back for a more humane, grounded segment, and in a few sections, he even shook the two flavors and moods together for an unpredictable end result…

Film #9 of Project 40

”They named a brandy after Napoleon, they made a herring out of Bismarck, and the Fuhrer is going to end up as a piece of cheese!”

This is how it should be done. Every now and then you find a movie that you can watch over and over without getting tired or bored, for me To Be or Not To Be is one of those films. A charming and delightful little comedy from Ernst Lubitsch set in the Nazi occupied Warsaw which makes fun of Nazis better than any other satire, honors actors who are passionately working to bring us lively theaters and like other Lubitsch movies bombards us with polished, highly amusing and elegant…

So this is what people mean when they talk about the Lubitsch touch.

The film is probably a superb exemplification of the old adage, satire should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comforted. Lubitsch knows when to amp up the element of derision (What he did to Shakespeare, we're doing to Poland) and when to insert the right amount of pathos (the Shylock speech). Through all the Heils, impersonations, monologue walkouts, and all other repetitive jokes that land smoother than the Luftwaffe's bombs (I tried), Lubitsch never fails to remind us of an actor's risible vanity (Wait a minute. I'll decide with whom my wife is going to have dinner and whom she's going to kill), milking it further when…

The Classic Film Challenge 2018
Bonus #1: Watch a war film made during World War II
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I feel a little bad giving To Be or Not to Be "only" a 3.5/5 considering how much a lot of people her on Letterboxd seem to adore this film. I thought it was a funny comedy but it never engaged a much higher level for me.

This film about a Polish acting troupe impersonating Nazis in the midst of World War 2 was certainly very brave for its time, being made when the outcome of the war was still in doubt. This is also the first film I've seen with Carole Lombard and I thought she was just lovely, though I really…

I've always felt lukewarm about Lubitsch. It's hard not to like Ninotchka. Going into To Be or Not To Be, supposedly Lubitsch's best film, I was hoping for something at least as good as Ninotchka. What I got, however, was... ok.

Lubitsch's brand of comedy is quite dry and subtle, and with To Be or Not To Be it emerges as dark in an almost absurd way. However, I don't think it's absurd enough. There's a stiffness about this film that has you stop and question who, what and why a bit too much. For instance, this is a film that is ultimately satirising actors, actresses and celebrity affairs. In turn, this is trying to be a screwball comedy. However,…