DIE PÜPPE (THE DOLL)

DIE PÜPPE (THE DOLL). Ernst Lubitsch, dir., co-script. Germany: Projektion-AG Union, 1919. Hans Kräly, co-script (with EL), from the tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann (q.v. under Fiction).

DOLL suggests that a cinema director's relationship with actors is like that of a puppeteer to puppets; pushed a little, the suggestion is of a god-like power behind the camera, able to create magically/cinematically "a world of immediate gratification." (Source: Handouts for Artificial Humans in the Cinema series, Film Dept. of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 26 May 2000.)

Joe Kuhr/RDE, 20/VIII/00); RDE, Title, 23Aug19