#97
Germany | 103 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 David Cairns
• 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
Sumurun
Ernst Lubitsch, 1920
By turns melodramatic and grotesquely comic, Sumurun brings together performances by star-players Paul Wegener (Der Golem.), Pola Negri, Harry Liedtke, and Ernst Lubitsch himself (in the role of an ultra-pathetic hunchbacked minstrel) for this ensemble tale pulled from the milieu of The Arabian Nights. Featuring hundreds of extras milling through open-air set-pieces and dusky harem-chambers alike, Sumurun demonstrates Lubitsch’s ability to transfigure rote romance into vibrant pageant.
Only available as part of the boxset:
LUBITSCH IN BERLIN: FAIRY-TALES, MELODRAMAS, AND SEX COMEDIES: SIX FILMS BY ERNST LUBITSCH, 1918–1921
