Event

Lady Windermere's Fan

Live Score Improvised and Performed by Ben Model

A classic of the silent age, Lady Windermere's Fan has come to define director Ernst Lubitsch's sublime touch - suave direction, sparkling wit, meticulous performances, and precise mise-en-scne in which every glance, gesture, and object subtly conveys meaning. Based on the Oscar Wilde play about the hypocrisy of Victorian morals, particularly the institution of marriage, Lady Windermere's Fan begins as adventuress Mrs. Erlynne returns from foreign travels to blackmail her daughter's husband into introducing her into polite society so she can snag a lord she's determined to marry. The plan backfires when her daughter, who does not know of her existence, mistakes the scheming older woman for a rival. Already a critically acclaimed director in Germany, Ernst Lubitsch was invited to Hollywood in the early twenties by the reigning star of the era, Mary Pickford. His success continued in the States and he is credited with bringing to American cinema all the distinctive aspects of European comedy, replete with what one critic would call "its charm, decadence, and frivolity."

USA, 1925, 94 min., b/w