The Marriage Circle
- US 1924
- DCP
- Stummfilm (englische ZT)
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R: Ernst Lubitsch, B: Paul Bern nach einem Stück von Lothar Schmidt, K: Charles Van Enger, D: Marie Prevost, Florence Vidor, Adolphe Menjou, Monte Blue, Creighton Hale 85‘, Englisch titles
Mizzi has had enough of her husband Prof. Stock and his mustache. Thus, she throws herself at her best friend’s spouse (without mustache). Mizzi, played by the wonderfully unromantic Marie Prevost, sets in motion a merry-go-round on which lovers and losers, idealists and cynics, bearded and clean-shaven ones go round and round. By American standards, the comedy directed by Berlin-born Ernst Lubitsch is unusually frivolous and demonstrates a fascination with immoral transgressions otherwise cultivated only in slapstick films. Berlin critic Kurt Pinthus hailed The Marriage Circle as the first perfect German comedy film, even if it was produced in Hollywood: “If there were a word in our language to express the pleasure this film gives, I would put it here with such passion that everything else that is produced in Germany in the field of film comedy would crumble and every reader would rush to see this Lubitsch opus.” (Das Tage-Buch, 6 September 1924)
The Marriage Circle is accompanied by Günter A. Buchwald (piano) and Frank Bockius (drums) from Freiburg im Breisgau. Günter A. Buchwald has always been at the forefront of the silent film renaissance. As a conductor, pianist, violinist and composer he has been accompanying silent films all around the world and has performed with the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Iceland Symphonic Orchestra and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. Frank Bockius is a versatile drummer and percussionist who plays in jazz bands and flamenco ensembles, among others. He is also active in early music, Latin, dance theatre and music for children. Together with Günter Buchwald he is part of the “Silent Movie Music Company”.