Die Puppe (1919)

	Also Known As: La poupée, The doll
	Year of first release: 1919
	Director: Ernst Lubitsch
	Actors: Victor Janson, Ossi Oswald, Hermann Thimig, Jakob Tiedtke, Gerhard Ritterband, Max Kronert
	Country: D
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 20.08.2017, Arte+7, Streaming, German texts
Synopsis: The Baron von Chanterelle (Kronert) wants to get his nephew Lancelot (Thimig) married not to dissolve his fortune into his wide family. Lancelot flees the fourty young ladies of the county who wanted to be selected and hides in a monastery. As the greedy and glutton monks discover that the Baron offers a large sum for the marriage, they convince Lancelot to marry a mechanical doll instead. The local doll maker Hilarious (Janson) has just finished making a replica of his daughter Ossi (Oswalda), but his assistant (Ritterbrandt) accidentally breaks it and convinces the real girl to mimic the doll. Lancelot buys her, thinking she is a doll, and takes her back to the monastery.
Review: I always wanted to watch something from Lubitsch from his German years after having laughed on Ninotschka and The merry widow. The story is told in a very creative way, mixing gestual comedy (Ossi facial and body expression), character (continuous mutual teasing and slapping of Hilarious and his assistant), situation comedy, repetition (the scene with the fourty maidens running behind Lancelot). It mixes also the sceneries doll house-like and studio-like. This was really cool and it is a kind of special effects making Germany definitely one of the main film production countries of the world at that time.  The acting is focused on the characters tricks for comedy. Ossi is always making her doll movements or the complete opposite. Lancelot is always uptight. Hilarious and his assistant are always fighting like cat and dog. But they do it very well. The movie was really funny. Even if it is not the Hollywood humour of the early movies by Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. This is closest to their late movies, having a real story and not a series of unexpected events.  The director shows great master and this is why Hollywood bought him as soon as Lubitsch wanted to flee the Germany of Adolf Hilter.
Rating: 6 /10