If Alfred Hitchcock refers to you as ‘a man of pure cinema’, you know you must be doing something right. With a body of incomparable work, that includes Trouble in Paradise (1932), Ninotchka (1939), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), To Be or Not to Be (1942) and Heaven Can Wait (1943), Ernst Lubitsch has befittingly earned his ‘Greatest Directors of All Time’ epithet. Nevertheless, before he made this indelible mark on Hollywood, Lubitsch dabbled in ‘fairy-tales, melodramas, and sex comedies’. Under their Masters of Cinema series, Eureka Entertainment is proud to announce the release of ‘Lubitsch in Berlin’, a DVD collection that brings together six of these films.

Having watched a handful of Lubitsch pictures, (the ones mentioned above); you begin to understand what critics call ‘The Lubitsch Touch’.  That magical mood gives you Goosebumps man! It makes the hairs on your arm stand up and creates laughter-tinged tears! With the release of these six films from the silent era of German cinema, you also being to wonder, is it possible that Mr. Lubitsch defined Classical Hollywood Cinema? It was his playful sense of humour, delicate tenderness, and magical charm, all the ingredients that go into making ‘The Lubitsch Touch’, that made Hollywood what it is today. The release of ‘Lubitsch in Berlin’ offers precious insight into his pre-Hollywood career - Welcome to Lubitschland!

Special Features: Robert Fincher’s 2006 feature-length documentary Ernst Lubitsch in Berlin: From Schönhauser Allee to Hollywood. New liner notes for all six features by film-writers David Cairns, Anna Thorngate, and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky.

Verdict: ‘Lubitsch in Berlin’ is a necessary purchase for silent cinema buffs and diehard Lubitsch fans.

Ich Möchte Kein Mann Sein [I Wouldn’t Like to Be a Man] (1918) – 45min


Die Puppe [The Doll] (1919) – 64min


Die Austernprinzessin [The Oyster Princess] (1919) – 61min


Sumurun (1920) – 104min


Anna Boleyn (1920) – 118min


Die Bergkatze [The Mountain Lion / The Wildcat] (1921) – 82min