Großes Kino: "Sein oder Nichtsein"

A great comedy in the "Great Cinema" series, in which screwball mixes with anti-fascism:

TO BE OR NOT TO BE

USA 1942. D: Ernst Lubitsch. D: Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Felix Bressart, Lionel Atwill, Robert Stack. 99 mins. English&English. FSK: 12

1939 in Warsaw: The Tura couple is part of a theater group that wants to put on an anti-fascist play. Under pressure from the government, it is canceled and "Hamlet" is performed instead. During Joseph Tura's Hamlet monologue, an audience member leaves the auditorium: bomber pilot Sobinski meets Maria Tura in her dressing room. However, she rebuffs her young admirer. A short time later, the German Wehrmacht invades Poland and Sobinski is sent to England. There he discovers that a spy is collaborating with the Germans to blow up a resistance group. Sobinski warns the Turas, who hatch a plan that calls on all their acting talents to mislead the spy, the Gestapo and ultimately even Adolf Hitler - while Tura's jealousy repeatedly comes into play.
Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be cleverly combines humor and seriousness to take aim at Hitler as early as the beginning of the 1940s. With its clever wordplay and fine timing, the film offers sharp, far-sighted political satire: a timeless classic.

Introduction: Jost Henze