S2E03 - Kohlheisel’s Daughters [1920] with David Cairns

How Would Lubitsch Do It?

Filmmaker, critic, and academic David Cairns joins us to discuss KOHLHEISEL’S DAUGHTERS, Lubitsch’s Bavarian comic riff on Shakespeare’s ‘The Taming of the Shrew’. We delve into the difficulties of adapting one of the English canon’s most infamously chauvinistic plays, empathizing with 103-year-old art, our confusion over the fact that this film has been so unjustifiably neglected, slipping things past the sensors, Henny Porten’s wonderful performances, Emil Jannings’ lack of sex appeal, Fritz Lang’s flight from the Nazis, and the ways in which this film points (or doesn’t) to Lubitsch’s future tendencies.

Gloria Mercer was our dialogue editor for this episode.

NEXT WEEK:

Maddie Whittle joins us to discuss Lubitsch’s other 1920 travesty on a Shakespeare play, ROMEO AND JULIETTE IN THE SNOW!

WORKS CITED:

EUREKA MADAME DUBARRY BLU-RAY LINER NOTES - David Cairns

SHADOWPLAY