alr

Kohlhiesel's Daughters
(Kohlhiesels Töchter)

Live Musical Accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis
Screening on Film
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch.
With Henny Porten, Emil Jannings, Gustav von Wangenheim.
Germany, 1920, 35mm, black & white, silent, 64 min.
German intertitles with English subtitles.
Print source: Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung

Lubitsch’s successes in 1919 with The Oyster Princess, Madame DuBarry and The Doll earned him carte blanche with the studio, so he made two comedies in a row—his so-called “winter films”—supposedly in order to combine skiing with work. Both based on Shakespearean plays, the first relocates The Taming of the Shrew from Italy to Southern Germany. Mathias Kohlhiesel must marry off his cloddish daughter Liesel before he can allow his beautiful and popular daughter Gretel to wed. Peter and Paul, Gretel’s admirers, are equally interested in a speedy marriage for Liesel, and therefore attempt to convince each other of her charms. While Lubitsch’s iconic finesse is missing, this slapstick film was nevertheless an audience favorite. One of Germany’s superstars at the time, Henny Porten, playing the dual role of Liesel and Gretel, may help explain that.

Part of film series

Read more

That Certain Feeling... The Touch of Ernst Lubitsch

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

The Reincarnations of Delphine Seyrig

Read more

Rosine Mbakam, 2025 McMillan-Stewart Fellow

Read more

The Illusory Tableaux of Georges Méliès

Read more

Activism and Post-Activism. Korean Documentary Cinema, 1981-2022

Read more

Fables of the Reconstruction. Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias

Read more

Ben Rivers, Back to the Land

Read more

Harvard Undergraduate Cinematheque

Read more

Make Way for Tomorrow. Carson Lund’s Eephus

Read more

Jessica Sarah Rinland’s Collective Monologue