To Be or Not to Be (1942)

Ernst Lubitsch’s “To Be or Not to Be”


Thematic Elements: 

In Ernst Lubitsch’s ‘To Be or Not to Be,’ Lubitsch presents a scenario in which Nazi members were shown to be fallible in both their own perceptions and their competence. Lubitsch beings the film showing us a troupe of actors, whom all they can think about is themselves and their vanity. All of the actors are self-obsessed and present themselves as being something that they are not in order to garner praise and attention. Further in the film, the actors then come face to face with a terrifying foe: a group of self-obsessed fanatics who present themselves as being something that they are not in order to garner praise and attention. It seems Lubitsch is showing us that the Nazi members are just as vain and self-important as the actors. Not only that, they too seem to be performing themselves. Professor Siletsky acts as a spy and must perform in order to do his job properly. Colonel Ehrhardt performs and puts on a show to gain amusement by others. He has no problem telling Hitler jokes until confronted with his blasphemy of the Feuer. Once confronted, he then pleads for his own ignorance. He even shows his self-importance by musing at being called ‘Concentration Camp Ehrhardt.’ Lubitsch is showing us just how vain and self-important the Nazi Germans are and how much of a show they are putting on. Lubitsch far more bitingly portrays Colonel Ehrhardt as an imbecile who is simply just following orders. This is a far more bitter critique of this character, suggesting that the elevation of the Nazi ranks has nothing to do with intellect or ambition, but simply a will to do what is told. This portrayal of this high-ranking Nazi officers creates a sense of foolishness in the entire affair, showing just what kind of people follow this regime and its fanaticism. It is in this way; the colonel is treated with a great deal of comedy and buffoonery.  This is even more evident by the fact that Joseph has pretended to be the colonel when first meeting the professor. He played the colonel as being absurd and foolish, only to find out later by the audience that the real colonel is even more ridiculous than Joseph portrayed him to be. This is directly contrasted to the way Professor Siletsky is treated. Siletsky has secretly joined the Nazi movement because he wants to be on the winning side of history, nothing more. This motivation paired with his intellect creates a far more villainous character. Where the Nazi colonel was treated as a simple-minded clown, the professor is treated with far more seriousness and cause for alarm. The professor is not in it simply because he wants to follow orders and be adored by his fellow man, he rather believes in the Nazi ideology of superiority. He believes that if he joins this group, he will be able to survive in a new world that caters to him and disavows others. This may be a form of self-importance as well, but the portrayal is simply more harrowing in its execution. When Joseph plays the professor after the professor’s death, he plays him far more seriously than he portrayed the colonel, even getting serious and upset when the colonel makes a joke about the Feuer. This can be a distinct line between how seriously we should take the members of the fascist party, with both absurdity and seriousness. Absurdity and seriousness are the two words that you can mix together to describe this film best adequately. Lubitsch creates a world of levity amidst destruction and chaos, as if to ground us in the absurdities and seriousness of what was happening with the Nazi movement. The levity and humor in the film give the audience a sense of power over the Nazis. Whereas normally Nazis are portrayed as stoic monsters in other films, Lubitsch gives them the Lubitsch touch and portrays them as something far more human. This sense of not only humanity but mockery, gives us the audience the perception that these fellow humans are equally fallible as we are, and can be certainly overcome. 


Camerawork: 

Lubitsch is a master of tonal shifts throughout the film. The film can shift from comedy to drama to suspense, etc. The first twenty minutes of the film is pure comedy, presenting us the world of the theatre troupe. We then delve into a more serious and suspenseful act of the film involving the Nazi seize of Poland and the effects of it months after. Once the acting troupe try to execute their plans, the film changes into a strange mixture of comedy and suspense involving scenes in which the actors are having to spend long periods of time trying to act as various Nazi members trying not to get caught. This creates a sense of suspense in that we are anxiously anticipating the troupe being found out, while at the same time laughing at their playfulness, their ego, and the tricky situations they find themselves in. 

Lighting was used to great effect in this film. The three light system is a system which uses three lights to light the scene, a fill light that is stationed next to the camera, the key light which is in front and to the right of the actors, and a back light which is behind, above, and to the left of the actors. The key light is utilized to aluminate the faces of the actors and remove shadows from their faces under their mouths and around their cheekbones. The fill light mutes the shadows on the sides of the actors and aluminates the characters that aren’t positioned in the key light less brightly. The back light softly picks out the visage of the performers to contrast against the characters behind the key performers. The use of the three light technique gives the image depth and a greater three-dimensional look, rather than seeing it as simply a moving two-dimensional image. This technique also allows itself to manipulate the light in the frame. Lubitsch utilizes this lighting to convey certain scenes with much darker tones, contrasting dark shadows against small amounts of light. This is certainly felt when Joseph enters Col. Ehrhardt’s office, the stark dark shadows that are painted across the screen present a very dark mood and atmosphere, which certainly plays into Joseph’s fears about entering into a Nazi colonel’s office and the dangers that present themselves there. However, Lubitsch begins to brighten the scene when Joseph realizes how foolish the colonel is and how easily he can be manipulated. Lubitsch expertly uses lighting to great effect to present depth in the image with the texture of a certain mood he wants to present in a scene.  


Best Shot: 

The best shot in the film would have to be the scene reference above. The shot in which Joseph comes into the colonel’s office. The way in which utilizes the stark contrast in lighting was very popular at the time during the American Noir Movement. The dark shadows present are dark and sinister setting which gives the audience a sense of darkness and dread. Compare this shot to a shot later in which we come back into the colonel’s office. It is evidently lighter than the previous with far greater use of light rather than dark. This lends itself to the fact that the audience now knows how foolish and less threatening the colonel is after his first appearance. 






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