The Lubitsch Touch
"The Lubitsch Touch" is a phrase that has long been used to describe the unique style and cinematic trademarks of director Ernst Lubitsch.
But what exactly is "The Lubitsch Touch?" According to film historian/critic Scott Marks, "The Lubitsch Touch" was a phrase concocted by studio PR men eager to turn a great director, Ernst Lubitsch, into a brand name. As Marks points out, "the label adhered, and to this day, critics still bandy it about, ever hoping to unlock the mysteries of its meaning."
Here are a few of the "definitions" provided by film historians and critics attempting to shed some light on the meaning of the fabled Touch:
"The Lubitsch Touch" is a brief description that embraces a long list of virtues: sophistication, style, subtlety, wit, charm, elegance, suavity, polished nonchalance and audacious sexual nuance." -- Richard Christiansen
"The subtle humor and virtuoso visual wit in the films of Ernst Lubitsch. The style was characterized by a parsimonious compression of ideas and situations into single shots or brief scenes that provided an ironic key to the characters and to the meaning of the entire film." -- Ephraim Katz
"A subtle and souffle-like blend of sexy humor and sly visual wit." -- Roger Fristoe
"A counterpoint of poignant sadness during a film's gayest moments." -- Andrew Sarris
" . . . The Lubitsch Touch, with its frequent Freudian overtone of revealing previously hidden motivations, the sexual story, by an adroit bit of business or a focus on a significant object. The Lubitsch Touch signals to the audience that the old interpreter is at it again, letting us in on a privileged perspective, embracing the audience as a co-conspirator of interpretation, an accomplice in the director's and the camera's knowingness." -- Leo Braudy
"It was the elegant use of the Superjoke. You had a joke, and you felt satisfied, and then there was one more big joke on top of it. The joke you didn't expect. That was the Lubitsch Touch...." -- Billy Wilder
" . . . a blend of costumed Ruritania and Berliner sexuality toned down for American tastes." -- Kevin Starr
"It was as famous a monicker in its day as Hitchock's 'Master of Suspense,' although perhaps not as superficial. The phrase does connote something light, strangely indefinable, yet nonetheless tangible, and seeing Lubitsch's films - more than in almost any other director's work - one can feel this certain spirit; not only in the tactful and impeccably appropriate placement of the camera, the subtle economy of his plotting, the oblique dialogue which had a way of saying everything through indirection, but also -- and particularly -- in the performance of every single player, no matter how small the role." -- Peter Bogdanovich
"A style that is gracefully charming and fluid, with an . . . ingenious ability to suggest more than it showed . . ." -- Leland A. Poague
" . . . a style that hinted at sex, that was playfully adult in its themes, without ever crossing the invisible boundary line that separated smut from genius."
-- Saul Austerlitz
" 1) A specifically Eastern European capacity to represent the cosmopolitan sophistication of continental Europeans to Americans -- and with a double edge, as becomes clear in the 'American understood' gag; 2) A critical affection for flawed individuals who operate according to double standards; 3) A graceful way of handling music as an integral part of a film's construction." -- Jonathan Rosenbaum
"The Lubitsch Touch" can be most concretely seen as deriving from a standard narrative device of the silent film: interrupting the dramatic interchange by focusing on objects or small details that make a witty comment on or surprising revelation about the main action." -- Greg S. Faller
"In its broadest sense, this meant going from the general to the particular, suddenly condensing into one swift, deft moment the crystallization of a scene or even the entire theme.....the idea of utilizing the power of the metaphor by suddenly compressing the quintessence of his subject in a sly comment - a visual comment, naturally - that said it all." -- Herman G. Weinberg
"The Lubitsch Touch" is a phrase that has long been used to describe the unique style and cinematic trademarks of director Ernst Lubitsch.
But what exactly is "The Lubitsch Touch?" According to film historian/critic Scott Marks, "The Lubitsch Touch" was a phrase concocted by studio PR men eager to turn a great director, Ernst Lubitsch, into a brand name. As Marks points out, "the label adhered, and to this day, critics still bandy it about, ever hoping to unlock the mysteries of its meaning."
Here are a few of the "definitions" provided by film historians and critics attempting to shed some light on the meaning of the fabled Touch:
"The Lubitsch Touch" is a brief description that embraces a long list of virtues: sophistication, style, subtlety, wit, charm, elegance, suavity, polished nonchalance and audacious sexual nuance." -- Richard Christiansen
"The subtle humor and virtuoso visual wit in the films of Ernst Lubitsch. The style was characterized by a parsimonious compression of ideas and situations into single shots or brief scenes that provided an ironic key to the characters and to the meaning of the entire film." -- Ephraim Katz
"A subtle and souffle-like blend of sexy humor and sly visual wit." -- Roger Fristoe
"A counterpoint of poignant sadness during a film's gayest moments." -- Andrew Sarris
" . . . The Lubitsch Touch, with its frequent Freudian overtone of revealing previously hidden motivations, the sexual story, by an adroit bit of business or a focus on a significant object. The Lubitsch Touch signals to the audience that the old interpreter is at it again, letting us in on a privileged perspective, embracing the audience as a co-conspirator of interpretation, an accomplice in the director's and the camera's knowingness." -- Leo Braudy
"It was the elegant use of the Superjoke. You had a joke, and you felt satisfied, and then there was one more big joke on top of it. The joke you didn't expect. That was the Lubitsch Touch...." -- Billy Wilder
" . . . a blend of costumed Ruritania and Berliner sexuality toned down for American tastes." -- Kevin Starr
"It was as famous a monicker in its day as Hitchock's 'Master of Suspense,' although perhaps not as superficial. The phrase does connote something light, strangely indefinable, yet nonetheless tangible, and seeing Lubitsch's films - more than in almost any other director's work - one can feel this certain spirit; not only in the tactful and impeccably appropriate placement of the camera, the subtle economy of his plotting, the oblique dialogue which had a way of saying everything through indirection, but also -- and particularly -- in the performance of every single player, no matter how small the role." -- Peter Bogdanovich
"A style that is gracefully charming and fluid, with an . . . ingenious ability to suggest more than it showed . . ." -- Leland A. Poague
" . . . a style that hinted at sex, that was playfully adult in its themes, without ever crossing the invisible boundary line that separated smut from genius."
-- Saul Austerlitz
" 1) A specifically Eastern European capacity to represent the cosmopolitan sophistication of continental Europeans to Americans -- and with a double edge, as becomes clear in the 'American understood' gag; 2) A critical affection for flawed individuals who operate according to double standards; 3) A graceful way of handling music as an integral part of a film's construction." -- Jonathan Rosenbaum
"The Lubitsch Touch" can be most concretely seen as deriving from a standard narrative device of the silent film: interrupting the dramatic interchange by focusing on objects or small details that make a witty comment on or surprising revelation about the main action." -- Greg S. Faller
"In its broadest sense, this meant going from the general to the particular, suddenly condensing into one swift, deft moment the crystallization of a scene or even the entire theme.....the idea of utilizing the power of the metaphor by suddenly compressing the quintessence of his subject in a sly comment - a visual comment, naturally - that said it all." -- Herman G. Weinberg
