#99
Germany | 81 min.
1.37:1 OAR
black & white
monaural
Special Features
• New, officially licenced transfer from restored materials
• New and improved optional English subtitles with original German-language intertitles
• New short essay by Anna Thorngate
• Six ThinPaks enclosed in a hardbox
• Accompanied by Robert Fischer’s feature-length 2006 documentary Ernst Lubitsch in Berlin: From Schönhauser Allee to Hollywood
• Newly commissioned scores
Die Bergkatze
Ernst Lubitsch, 1921
Set in one of Lubitsch’s hallmark mythical kingdoms, Die Bergkatze [The Mountain-Lion / The Wildcat] finds Lubitsch in exuberantly expressionistic mode, employing a host of optical masks to create perhaps the most visually audacious comic spectacle of his career. Pola Negri plays the daughter of a band of thieves; seduction of army commander (and audience) ensues. Lubitsch’s personal favourite work of all his German films, Die Bergkatze represents a peak in both Lubitsch’s silent oeuvre and the silent cinema as a whole.
Only available as part of the boxset:
LUBITSCH IN BERLIN: FAIRY-TALES, MELODRAMAS, AND SEX COMEDIES: SIX FILMS BY ERNST LUBITSCH, 1918–1921
