…interesting that the best movies on the Second World War were comedies. The Great Dictator and To Be or Not to Be from Ernst Lubitsch. And they are great movies and they really tackle the theme in the right way, I think. It's not pathetic, it's not…

…some of them even have similar premise of the story Make it clear, sorry. By Hollywood comedies, you mean mostly Ernst Lubitsch, Preston Serdic. Yes, but even I think this concrete premise was probably already filmed in some bullshit Hollywood comedy. But…

Okay, Slavoj, since To Be or Not To Be, one of the greatest movies ever made by Lubitsch, who was born close by, was a movie about the resistance against fascism. It is a comedy dealing with a Polish theater company who kind of impersonates Gestapo and…

…historically that you had great Greek tragedy and then later comedy. No, no. Comical moment for Hegel, and here we come. to Lubitsch and to others, emerges already in the middle of tragedy. Hegel has a wonderful example. You know Antigone? There is a…

…you reflect on it. And that's my, that's I think, but in a much more subtle way. Our great friend who is sitting there, I think, Lubitsch, knew this. Which is why I claim that the film that you will see, to be or not to be, is all about this. All…

…they are all... You know what's the most subversive comical device in the film? This touches precisely what I was improvising about, Lubitsch is to be or not to be. First you think it's just the Polish actors who improvise and imitate in an exaggerated,…

…is? Jesus Christ. And Apostle answers, no, it's much worse. He thinks he's Tiger Woods, you know. Like, that's the lesson of Lubitsch. Okay, as they say in Karl May Winnetou, Ich habe gesprochen. For the introduction. Thank you. You will be able to…

…to continue and enlighten us on the theory of comedy, but one question for Jella, since you are really the specialist in Lubitsch as well, brought together this beautiful book which you can buy outside. There's a Büchertisch out there with all our works.…

…depth of the characters. And as far as my decision for comedy is concerned, it is very much connected to experiencing Lubitsch, and not only Ernst Lubitsch, but also the whole classical tradition of Hollywood comedy. And what is interesting to me is…

…And as far as my decision for comedy is concerned, it is very much connected to experiencing Lubitsch, and not only Ernst Lubitsch, but also the whole classical tradition of Hollywood comedy. And what is interesting to me is that, you know, the best…

…there is more truth in the surface than in what is behind. For example, maybe Jela, you can help me, which is that Lubitsch, or maybe you also know, film, where a love story, but which begins like two people, each married with another one, find…

…we appear as an old married couple. Like you are reading a newspaper, I'm looking into my purse or whatever. And I think... This Lubitsch was the master of this game of appearances where all of a sudden you think you are playing the game, but then all…

…mentioned is from Heaven Can Wait. I think it's in there, but I'm not completely sure. We had a great scene in a Lubitsch movie where appearances begin... She knows more about Lubitsch than me. She does. The other one is the beginning of Trouble in…

…in there, but I'm not completely sure. We had a great scene in a Lubitsch movie where appearances begin... She knows more about Lubitsch than me. She does. The other one is the beginning of Trouble in Paradise where they kind of like pretend to be…

…They become more and more in love because they are infatuated by the way the other one was capable of stealing. And Lubitsch does this in a playful, very spirited way, which really functions well. He was really a master of this telling things through…

…of this telling things through masks and camouflage. And this is definitely one example of it. It's my favorite, almost, Lubitsch, Trouble in Paradise, because, you know, yes, that's the basic story. They become a couple, robbing rich people, partners,…

…life, ordinary pleasures, and then you do something daring, transgression. But the only way, it's a very subtle game that Lubitsch is playing then, it's that. The two criminals, the ordinary boring life is their criminal life. And the transgression would…

…you showed in your introduction to the book, Analysis, The clearest example of this is another, but it's not my favorite, Lubitsch masterpiece, Designed for Living, where you have a couple, three, living in three. That's their ordinary daily life. Then the…

…fall in love, tomber, to fall in love. That's for me great about love. You fall in love. That's why, again, back to Lubitsch, he knew this, no? Because how does Greta Garbo, in not my favorite film, Ninochka, how does she dare accept Herbert Marshall? I…

…And that's the condition of love and to finish then I leave you all the time preceding that fall. And here you see that Lubitsch was a genius. It's also the most Hegelian joke, I'm sorry if you know it, that you can imagine. If you understand that…

…no one formula for love, that actually there can be many forms of love. you know, passionate love. And I think that even Lubitsch, that is one of his major contributions is that in so many movies he showed so different kinds of love and different…

…he is kind of making an inner monologue about it, which is just so funny that it could have been in a movie by Lubitsch, so... Well, thank you. Yeah, definitely. And, you know, all the German audience should really try to buy your book right now in…

…also close with this question about the role of comedy. What is the political role of comedy today? How can you imagine a Lubitsch movie changing our perspective on society or sexual politics, etc.? Well, I'm not sure I have the answer, but to be or not…

…And the other political message I see in to be or not to be and is probably significant also for today's times is that Lubitsch showed in, I don't know, it was in 1941 when it really looked that Nazi power will take over the world. he showed that…

…we are all the same warm humans. No, we are not. You know why is this horrible? And you can find this in Ernst Lubitsch films and Preston Sturges, as, again, Frank Capra, who was no leftist, he was pro-Mussolini and so on, it's good to know. Capra's…

…who recently died, I'm not sure what he called it, James Harvey, the cinema theorist who wrote the best book on Ernst Lubitsch, he, as it were, without knowing him even, applied Christopher Lash to Hollywood. The greatest catastrophe was the actor's studio,…

…dimension. I use there an example that you must have heard 20 times, 40 times, and so on. My favorite example from Ernst Lubitsch from Ninochka. A guy goes to a restaurant and says, can I get a coffee, but coffee without cream, please. The waiter…

…I like classical music. I like classical literature. Even in art, I like classical Hollywood. You know who are me, the great guys? Ernst Lubitsch, for example. With friends, we wrote a book on Ernst Lubitsch. Did you see To Be or Not To Be? Isn't this…

…I like classical Hollywood. You know who are me, the great guys? Ernst Lubitsch, for example. With friends, we wrote a book on Ernst Lubitsch. Did you see To Be or Not To Be? Isn't this one of the greatest movies? Can you think ideal? Ernst Lubitsch,…

…book on Ernst Lubitsch. Did you see To Be or Not To Be? Isn't this one of the greatest movies? Can you think ideal? Ernst Lubitsch, Alfred Hitchcock, we did books on him and so on and so on. I think I was always defending Hollywood. You know, I hate…

…use it not too much. Just, I would say, ten times in my last book. One wonderful joke from maybe the greatest in Hollywood, Ernst Lubitsch. You know that coffee joke. You know, a guy goes to a cafeteria and says, can I get... Sorry? Can I get coffee…

…acts himself. So I try to enlighten younger generations. Do you know what big things you get in Hollywood of those years? Like Ernst Lubitsch. Did you see To Be or Not To Be? Yeah, definitely. One of the absolute comedies or Traveling Paradise and so on…

…Hollywood is for me the real thing. You're a big fan of Ninochka as well? No, Ninochka is a little bit. My biggest Ernst Lubitsch for me is Traveling Paradise. It's breathtaking and so on. But, you know, even in Slovenia, we are crazy. The daughter of…

…me is Traveling Paradise. It's breathtaking and so on. But, you know, even in Slovenia, we are crazy. The daughter of Lubitsch, Nikola Lubitsch, visited Slovenia and cried. We organized in Berlin and in Ljubljana two times a big Ernst Lubitsch colloquium.…

…Traveling Paradise. It's breathtaking and so on. But, you know, even in Slovenia, we are crazy. The daughter of Lubitsch, Nikola Lubitsch, visited Slovenia and cried. We organized in Berlin and in Ljubljana two times a big Ernst Lubitsch colloquium. She came…

…The daughter of Lubitsch, Nikola Lubitsch, visited Slovenia and cried. We organized in Berlin and in Ljubljana two times a big Ernst Lubitsch colloquium. She came there, the daughter, and said, it's a shame. You do it in city Slovenia. She didn't say this.…

…of mine, where I will try, maybe successfully, maybe not, to illustrate this. There is an old joke of my favorite movie director, Ernst Lubitsch. I'm sorry if some of you know this joke. I quote it in all of my last books from Ninochka, where a guy…

…now you heard me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. with some movie clips and so on, about some actual, like the starting point will be Ernst Lubitsch, a Hollywood director which I think deserves to be brought back to life, and I will connect all these with topics of…

…horrible things, like building all the highways, electrification, and so on. So now we are, this is the pure spirit of Lubitsch, I claim. This brutal humor. And I think, now comes my first clip, theoretically important. This Lubitsch approach has a deep,…

…is the pure spirit of Lubitsch, I claim. This brutal humor. And I think, now comes my first clip, theoretically important. This Lubitsch approach has a deep, I'm not afraid of the word, ontological foundation. There is a, I'm sorry, it's not very funny,…

…can easily, even legally, download it. You don't need even to go to Pirate Bay. And you can see that the implication of Lubitsch that I appreciate so much is that His lesson is not a cynical one. There is no love, there is no authentic relationship,…

…to be, again, the central figures are this, Joseph Tura, an actor, self-in-love, arrogant, and his wife, Maria Tura, and with Lubitsch, names are important, Joseph and Mary, Joseph Tura, Maria Tura. Shh, shh. Although she is cheating on him, he is…

…and so on. Don't do it in the wrong way. But again, does this also not point to the limits of the approach of Lubitsch? At least for us today. We more and more experience what was for Lubitsch still a joke. as something that is now simply enacted…

…point to the limits of the approach of Lubitsch? At least for us today. We more and more experience what was for Lubitsch still a joke. as something that is now simply enacted in real political, ideological life. Recall Erhard's legendary quid, that I…

…so on and so on no longer works. But here I want to complicate things, to understand what is going on today. Lubitsch was well aware implicitly that all this... 1960s, 68 and afterwards, rhetoric, and rhetoric, I don't mean just words, I mean rhetoric…

…in breaking the law in the sense of, I don't know, shooting a parachute and so on. It's part of the game. So here Lubitsch enters, because does this mean that we are in a closed circle? Does this mean that simply if you obey the law, you're a…

…violate the law, you are even deeper caught? within the secret texture of the law. So what to do? Ah, here I think, again, Lubitsch enters. The idea, and a very nice Freudian idea, is that precisely when you drop the mask, in the sense of, you know,…

…someone. My wife was watching it at my mistake. In one episode, something happens which I quite like. like, is the correct Lubitsch point. The girl who is the ugliest there, officially, but my favorite one, I hate all the others, Miranda, she is with…

…mind without worrying if you say it's all and whatever. That's not a problem. So, again, I... And this is, I think, what Lubitsch is doing when he plays with appearances in his films. I will instantly give you a true, don't be afraid, I'm mocking, but…

…important that this movie, later it vanished for four or five decades. It was just before Hayscope. It begins with a wonderful Lubitsch scene of around three minutes of introduction, where, without any big words and so on, just a guy delivering a document…

…around the relationship and men serve women and so on, it's really male chauvinism at its worst. And also... It's not yet Lubitsch. I think the mature Lubitsch would never have shown this directly. But again, the insight is the right one, that the true…

…serve women and so on, it's really male chauvinism at its worst. And also... It's not yet Lubitsch. I think the mature Lubitsch would never have shown this directly. But again, the insight is the right one, that the true obscenity are these details,…

…publicity slogans is, phone which respects you, which gives you back your dignity. Okay, back to the main line, which is why I think Lubitsch would have been horrified at the idea of today as one of the offsprings of Me Too and so on, the idea of…

…this for an atheist? My point is, that it's very important to say, you know, I want to repeat here the crucial joke from Ernst Lubitsch Ninochka. Ernst Lubitsch is the guy who maybe did the best film which takes place in Poland, to be or not to be,…

…atheist? My point is, that it's very important to say, you know, I want to repeat here the crucial joke from Ernst Lubitsch Ninochka. Ernst Lubitsch is the guy who maybe did the best film which takes place in Poland, to be or not to be, you know. You…

…is a joke that I repeated, I would say, not too often, just about five, six times in my books. The scene from Ernst Lubitsch Ninochka. You hear a joke there where a guy... enters a cafeteria and says, can I get coffee but without cream, please? And…

…I don't like it. Let's say you like coffee. There is a wonderful scene from the film, from one of the Hollywood classics, Ernst Lubitsch Ninochka. A joke is told there. I'm sorry if you know it. Everybody knows this joke. A guy enters a cafeteria and…

…interpreted in detail A wonderful one-liner, but we are here, I think, about not more than two kilometers from the house of Ernst Lubitsch, I think, no? So to celebrate Ernst Lubitsch, a great materialist friend of Hegel, I would say, no? You know, there…

…are here, I think, about not more than two kilometers from the house of Ernst Lubitsch, I think, no? So to celebrate Ernst Lubitsch, a great materialist friend of Hegel, I would say, no? You know, there is a wonderful joke in his Ninochka, which,…

…can imagine, I encountered, because I was looking for some wonderful examples from cinema. For example, did you see the old Ernst Lubitsch classic, Ninochka? A friend of mine recently drew guy enters a cafeteria and says, can I get coffee without milk,…

…moving from Hitchcock to I know you know all it, but he is ingenious. For example, we now try to do new volumes on Ernst Lubitsch. One asks the question, to be or not to be, is there ontologically even possible to imagine a better film and so on? But…

…are now written. It was, okay, we all know it. It was in Hollywood. It's my favorite theoretical joke almost. You know, from Ernst Lubitsch Ninochka. You know that famous scene when a joke told to Greta Garbo by... her lover, that a guy comes to a…

…We just organized a beautiful conference, and I'm not praising Slovene greatness, mostly there were foreigners who were talking there, about Ernst Lubitsch. The director, you know. I think he's the one to be rediscovered as the great one. Maybe at the level…

…it. All this downloading, big torrents and so on. All these movies, you can get them for free. There is already an early Lubitsch, Die Puppe, The doll, which is incredible. Why? Because it turns around. Yeah, it's from 1919. But you can get it now. It…

…you embrace her, you discover it's just a mechanical doll. I don't have time to go into it, but already in his early film, Lubitsch, in an ingenious way, turns it around. A certain rich guy nephew of a prince has to get married because that's the only…

…that nonetheless, this is not a doll, and so on. But it's a wonderful reversal. Why? Let me go to a later film by Lubitsch from his early Hollywood. It's with Maurice Chevalier, you know, the French, whom I hate, frankly. You know why? I know, he was…

…you whom she married and so on. Let's go on. So it's with Maurice Chevalier, an hour with you. Here you have a minimum Lubitsch situation. A couple. called in the movie Mitzi and Andre. They are both married, not to each other, to their own guys, and…

…Even if this appearance is false, socially it is determining, it's stronger. And this is one of the crucial mechanisms in Lubitsch. In what sense? Of course. There was a whole book written on this, an unknown masterpiece of theory. Martha Wolfenstein and…

…or the denouement is reactionary here it's simply that at the end everything gets clear it was blah blah blah but what Lubitsch knew is that Nonetheless, there can be more truth precisely in this superficial appearance. You know, which is the most famous…

…means or of what Lacan is aiming at when he says the truth can arise out of a misrecognition. Let's go on. In Lubitsch himself you have among others His classic film, I think it's a little bit overestimated, but nonetheless. The shop around the corner,…

…would be, okay, no coffee, no visit. And this is for me, now I will complicate things. Still, I think that Ernst Lubitsch, we Ljubljana school, Alenka Zupančić, made serious self-criticism lately that maybe we play too much Hitchcock, there are others, like…

…Lubitsch, we Ljubljana school, Alenka Zupančić, made serious self-criticism lately that maybe we play too much Hitchcock, there are others, like Ernst Lubitsch. In Ninochka, which is not my favorite Lubitsch, the favorite is of course to be or not to be, in…

…self-criticism lately that maybe we play too much Hitchcock, there are others, like Ernst Lubitsch. In Ninochka, which is not my favorite Lubitsch, the favorite is of course to be or not to be, in Ninochka there is nonetheless, please listen to it, it's…

…don't know it. There is a movie director who I think deserves more than Hitchcock to be elevated into next megastar. It's Ernst Lubitsch. If you didn't see, maybe if you... Some of his work, people usually know only Ninochka with Greta Garbo, one of the…

…know, a wonderful anecdote which has, I think, deep ideological consequences for critique of ideology. A wonderful joke from Ernst Lubitsch classical comedy with Greta Garbo, Ninochka. The film's hero enters a cafeteria and orders coffee without cream. The…

…conclude with an old joke I'm repeating all the time now. This is great Marxist dialectics in Hollywood, Ernst Lubitsch, Ninochka. It's an anti-communist film but still an interesting one, very respectful towards, relatively towards communism. But nonetheless,…

…tell, I hope it's not known to you. Remind me, I'm getting old, Sinai, blah, blah. Did I already use here the joke from Ernst Lubitsch Ninochka? I think I did. Be honest. No, are you sure? Yes. No. Yes, no, no, yes, okay, we're not going there. No,…

…so serious there. My association was there, I used also this joke. Mainly, the joke is the following one, it's from Ninochka, Ernst Lubitsch, of course, who back I'm not talking about the whole story, you know the story, Greta Garbo, the last big role,…

…used it a lot in London here. The jokes that I repeat now all the time because I really like it, you know, from Ernst Lubitsch Ninochka. You know, a guy enters a cafeteria and says, can I have coffee with cream, please? They tell him, sorry, we run…

…wrote a nice text on it, maybe you even know already the joke, She drew attention to a wonderful joke from Ernst Lubitsch Ninochka. I think it's the best introduction into Hegelian notion of negativity. half Sinai, says, oh, Hegel, I don't understand it.…

…reason and so on and so on. So do you remember, I think it's from To Be or Not to Be, that wonderful dialogue in Ernst Lubitsch, again, yes, To Be or Not to Be, between a Polish actor who pretends to be a Nazi officer and a German Gestapo. officer,…