As part of our See Change initiative, we strive to showcase the work of women and non-binary individuals and their behind-the-scenes involvement in a production.
This film was edited by Dorothy Spencer.
This showtime on January 11 at 11 am is a Relaxed Screening. Relaxed Screenings are presented by Common Senses. House lights are turned up, volume levels are lowered, and open captioned subtitles are displayed on screen. Patrons are welcome to get up, vocalize, stretch, and/or move around during the film. Sensory kits can be checked out from Film Streams Box Office and will include noise-cancelling headphones, fidgets/handheld manipulatives, and sensory stress toys.
Film Information
Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be set the stage for such audacious comedies as Dr. Strangelove, The Producers and Inglorious Bastards. Even today it seems shocking that, in 1942, Lubitsch satirized occupied Warsaw with a spirited cast including Jack Benny and Carole Lombard, foiling Nazis who crack jokes about concentration camps and careening through harrowing complications like an air raid, a fatal shooting and buffoonery with a corpse. It's all served up with that celebrated "Lubitsch touch”, which employed elegance and wit to create civilized entertainments even in the darkest of settings.
During the German occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.
Reviews
"Lubitsch’s guidance provides a tense dramatic pace with events developed deftly and logically throughout. The farcical episodes display Lubitsch in best form." – Variety
Film Stills
