Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2005 Sommario / Contents

journal Film-Kurier on 1 January 1922: “I have always explained to
Lubitsch and May that they need not care how much their films will cost.
Their concern is simply to produce the best films ever. My belief is that you
cannot go bankrupt because of your expenses, but only because you have
not enough income. So you simply have to look for more income!”
Immediately after the foundation of EFA, and following the premiere of his
film Die Bergkatze (The Mountain Cat) on 12 April 1921, Lubitsch
started preparations for his first EFA production (Film-Kurier, 18 May
1921): “Since Pola Negri still had some commitments to fulfil, a subject
had to be selected which would be principally a challenge for Emil
Jannings.” Lubitsch allowed an unusually long time for production of Das
Weib des Pharao. From the film’s initial conception to its premiere took
seven months – a period in which the prolific Lubitsch previously would
have shot at least three or four movies. His company, Ernst Lubitsch-Film,
rented a 120,000-square-metre plot in the outskirts of Berlin, where fullsize
sets were erected – an Egyptian village with 50 houses, several great
palaces, and a high town-wall. A whole infrastructure was established to
accommodate the large crowds of extras, with streets, a water supply,
telephone lines, dressing rooms for 8,000 people, even a medical centre.
In Emil Jannings, Paul Wegener, and Harry Liedtke, Lubitsch engaged the
three most famous male film actors in Germany at that time, though he
also engaged the little-known newcomer Dagny Servaes – who was given
a long-term contract with EFA – to take Pola Negri’s place as the film’s
female lead.
The shooting was accompanied by a unique promotional campaign:
journalists were transported on boats with brass bands to the location,
where they were able to watch the staging of the big battle scenes
between the Egyptians and Ethiopians, with thousands of extras under the
command of Lubitsch. In the Berlin Zoo a big night-time procession was
staged for charity, with all the actors in costume. Der Kinematograph
reported in December 1921 that some 250,000 Berlin schoolchildren
and their teachers were invited to visit the set after the filming was
finished, to study Egyptian culture.The film was the talk of the town long
before it was released.
The most important innovations for Lubitsch were the new American
lamps, which made possible completely new lighting effects in EFA’s
“dark” studio and for the exterior night scenes. He was able to film the
crowd scenes with several cameras at the same time; the battle sequence
was even filmed from a balloon.
The shooting was completed by the end of November 1921. Lubitsch
needed nearly a whole week for the editing – normally he accomplished
it personally in only three days. Following a reception on 1 December
given by President Ebert, who was eager to support foreign sales of
German films, on 8 December there was a private screening for the EFA
staff and selected journalists, and on 10 December a farewell party. On
13 December Lubitsch and Davidson sailed for America, with the first
print of Das Weib des Pharao in their luggage. In New York Ben
Blumenthal arranged lavish receptions and banquets to introduce Lubitsch
to the American press and to promote his new film. Lubitsch proudly
explained to journalists that he had worked with 112,065 extras in the
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film’s production. Davidson confirmed this with bills from the costume
suppliers – though obviously the extras were counted according to the
days of their engagement. In his eagerness to study American films,
Lubitsch attended premieres of new films by Stroheim, Griffith, and
Chaplin, which greatly impressed him.
Lubitsch had already returned to Germany before the film’s spectacular
premiere at the Criterion Theatre, New York, on 21 February 1922. The
film was “edited and titled by Rudolph Bartlett” – which involved cutting
the film by about 700 metres. Among the scenes that were excised was
the stoning of Ramphis and Theonis at the end of the film, to give the
American version the necessary happy ending.The film’s American release
title was The Loves of Pharaoh, which The Exhibitor’s Herald rightly
called “a misnomer”. Otherwise, the film was highly praised: “It is one of
the truly exceptional works of the screen,” said The New York Times (22
February 1921). Only the acting was criticized (The Exhibitor’s Herald,
11 March 1921):“The work of the individual actors fails to stand out as
expected from stars of such magnitude and at times some of the parts
are woefully overacted.”The film ran for 300 screenings at the Criterion,
but was less successful in other towns.
The German premiere on 14 March 1922 at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo was
a major social event:“Even in the best times of Reinhardt no premiere was
ever as crowded as Das Weib des Pharao,” wrote Kurt Pinthus (Das
Tage-Buch, 18 March 1922).The screenings were sold out for six weeks,
and trade papers reported that there was spontaneous applause during
the battle scenes and at the end of each reel.The orchestral score, by the
popular operetta composer Eduard Künneke (1885-1953), was
independently reviewed in the press – the first time that a film score was
taken seriously by German critics. Though the film was praised as a
technical masterpiece, there were some objections (Berliner Zeitung, 20
March 1922):“German spirit, German handicraft, German art – maybe a
little bit too much American style, and therefore we cannot praise it with
the same enthusiasm as other works by Lubitsch.” Weak points in the
storyline were subsequently pointed out (Film-Kurier, 18 December
1922):“From reel to reel there is a different main character – and in the
end the audience doesn’t sympathize with anybody.”
All in all, Das Weib des Pharao was not the most successful film of all
time, as it had been anticipated to be. It failed to eclipse Madame
Dubarry, and it could not save EFA, which was facing severe financial
problems thanks to its arrogant behaviour, massive investments, and costly
contracts.A year and a half after its foundation EFA was liquidated. Zukor
lost about $2 million in this miscalculated investment.The only assets of
EFA were Pola Negri, who was brought over to Hollywood in September
1922, and Ernst Lubitsch, who would follow in December 1922.
Today all six productions of EFA are lost, or survive only in fragments. For
decades Das Weib des Pharao was available only in a print at
Filmmuseum München, struck from a duplicate negative with Russian
intertitles held by Gosfilmofond, and with German intertitles added and
compiled from the original screenplay. Its length was about half that of
the premiere version. For this new reconstruction, a project of Adoram
München, Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, and Filmmuseum München, in
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