Design For Living
Screening on Film
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch.
With Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Gary Cooper.
US, 1933, 35mm, black & white, 90 min.
Print source: Universal
With Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Gary Cooper.
US, 1933, 35mm, black & white, 90 min.
Print source: Universal
Completed a year prior to the implementation of the Production Code but later banned by the Legion of Decency, Design for Living is at once a testament to the subversive ingenuity of Lubitsch’s thirties output and a good indicator of the limits of what was considered acceptable during the period. The film stars Gary Cooper, Fredric March and Miriam Hopkins as participants in a ménage à trois in Paris, albeit one predicated upon a sexless “gentlemen’s agreement”—at least at first. As Hopkins’ witty ad-girl shacks up with her beloved American artists (the former a painter, the latter a playwright) to the disturbance of her priggish suitor (Edward Everett Horton), passions flare up in multiple, competing directions, but the film ultimately builds towards an endorsement of this adult arrangement rather than a moralistic depiction of its unraveling. Doused in innuendo-laden dialogue courtesy of Ben Hecht and Noël Coward, unfolding in erotically charged group framings, and culminating in a hilarious slow-burn set piece at a high-society party, Design for Living skewers sacrosanct ideas of love and monogamy with precisely the sort of devilish delicacy for which Lubitsch was renowned.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
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Trouble in Paradise
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1932
Screening on Film
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Ninotchka
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1939
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Shoe Palace Pinkus / Meyer From Berlin
Live Musical Accompaniment by Jeff RapsisScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Madame DuBarry
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1919
Live Musical Accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
That Uncertain Feeling
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1941
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
The Love Parade
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1929
Screening on FilmRecently Restored
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
The Doll
Live Musical Accompaniment by Martin MarksScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Kohlhiesel's Daughters
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1920
Live Musical Accompaniment by Jeff RapsisScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Lady Windermere's Fan
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1925
Live Musical Accompaniment by Martin MarksScreening on FilmRecently Restored
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
If I Had a Million
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, et al, 1932
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Broken Lullaby AKA The Man I Killed
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1932
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Design For Living
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1933
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
One Hour With You
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1932
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
So This is Paris
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1926
Live Musical AccompanimentScreening on FilmRecently Restored
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
When I Was Dead / The Pride of the Firm
Live Musical Accompaniment by Robert HumphrevilleScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Carmen AKA Gypsy Blood
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1918
Live Musical Accompaniment by Robert HumphrevilleScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Heaven Can Wait
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1943
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
The Smiling Lieutenant
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1931
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Monte Carlo
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1930
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
The Eyes of the Mummy
Live Musical Accompaniment by Robert HumphrevilleScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1938
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Eternal Love
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1929
Screening on FilmRecently Restored
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Three Women
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1924
Live Musical Accompaniment by Robert HumphrevilleScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Anna Boleyn
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1920
Live Musical Accompaniment by Jeff RapsisScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
The Shop Around the Corner
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1940
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Sumurun
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1919
Live Musical Accompaniment by Martin MarksScreening on FilmRecently Restored
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
To Be or Not To Be
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1942
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
The Oyster Princess
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1919
Live Musical Accompaniment by Robert HumphrevilleScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
The Merry Widow
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1934
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
The Wildcat AKA The Mountain Cat
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1921
Live Musical Accompaniment by Andrew SimpsonScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1928
Live Musical Accompaniment by Martin MarksScreening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Ninotchka
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1939
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Cluny Brown
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1946
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Angel
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1937
Screening on Film
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That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst ...
Cluny Brown
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, 1946
Screening on Film
