Ernst Lubitsch Film
in four acts: a soldier with a reputation for great deceiver is transferred in a border fortress, and during the journey is kidnapped by a robber who falls in love with him, breaks free, and after an attack on the bandits is almost forced to marry the daughter of the commander of, during the celebration of the victory against the bandits they are introduced into the barracks stealing everything, and the hero realizes that love the robber, the robber bride one of his gang, but when he learns of the marriage of the beloved goes to him, but eventually they will take away from her to leave his lawful wife.
I have dwelt a bit 'about the plot of the film as it is of great importance for understanding the impact it had and the relationship with today. First we must say that Squirrel (the title refers to the robber, but not important) was the first big flop of Lubitsch, the German still in its infancy, though he himself did not consider him as a failure, and because of its poor public success has come down to us very quietly, you misunderstood. In fact one of the most interesting topics to be addressed this is just talking about the aging process, even to say, beyond the technical aspects, very good. The story, as you may have guessed, is the classic one of an impossible love, treated since ancient greek-roman in a thousand sauces, however, is the sort that in recent years (say ten, fortunately, is low) had a lot of dissemination: one could define, not forcibly, a romantic comedy, since the dense parts of hilarity are many, and the love story of the pivot of the film (at the bottom is far Lubitsch stranger to the genre that, to put it mildly). In the various romantic comedies, often of poor quality, are often, if not always, the elements that distinguish the genre, such as forced marriage, one of the two lovers out of the reach of the other, the gag erotic, often banquets; it ' The squirrel 'Lubitch perfectly able to mix all these elements together to obtain a formula very funny (hard to hold at least a smile when the protagonist, who is leaving his country, being chased by a hundred women's cries invasive and a' Thanks for us happy, 'and he said' I did what I could, 'and then a forty children and the cry' hello dad! ') and at the same time full of action, as the attack of the soldiers to the gang of bandits, fought mainly snowballs, or the incursion of these bandits in the fortress while they are all drunk, where they join the party. Another scene worth mentioning (even to emphasize the particularity of the female image of the robber played by Pola Negri, far from being subdued, almost a femme fatale), takes place in the camp of the robbers, soon after they themselves have tried to kill their leader, father of the robber: a whip with this backside of these stresses for punishment, but these do not seem to disdain, and her father says, 'Do not spoil them too'. Also note the great sets, which help to give a fantastic atmosphere (some are almost abstract architectural form), the only element of immaturity in a very pleasant film, Beyond the artistic, perhaps using some tricks to reduce the visual field and include it in various forms, to escape the problem of environmental perspective, but you can forgive a silent German film of 1921 (there is still some years to see Lang's Metropolis, 1927). Stumble resetting to the recent Mark Dalpane, which contributes to a more sparkling.
