Comedy, Suspense, and Three-Point Lighting in TO BE OR NOT TO BE
To Be or Not to Be • 10m
Observations on Film Art No. 31
In his audacious political satire TO BE OR NOT TO BE, Ernst Lubitsch pulls off the seemingly impossible by using a deadly serious, then-unfolding crisis—the Nazi occupation of Poland—as the backdrop for a hilarious and subversive screwball comedy. In this episode of Observations on Film Art, Professor Kristin Thompson explores how Lubitsch and cinematographer Rudolph Maté make sophisticated use of lighting to mark the film’s daring shifts in in tone and genre, from farce to espionage thriller to dark drama.
Up Next in To Be or Not to Be
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The Screen Guild Theater: Variety
Actors Jack Benny and Claudette Colbert and filmmaker and actor Ernst Lubitsch play themselves in this October 20, 1940, episode of the radio anthology series “The Screen Guild Theater.” In it, Benny goes to great lengths to try to convince Lubitsch to cast him in a dramatic film role.
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The Screen Guild Theater: To Be or No...
This condensed adaptation of TO BE OR NOT TO BE, originally broadcast on “The Screen Guild Theater” on January 18, 1943, stars real-life husband and wife William Powell and Diana Lewis as Joseph and Maria Tura. German actor Sig Ruman reprises his role as Colonel Ehrhardt from the film.
