Je ne voudrais pas être un homme

Short (45mins) early silent movie from Ernst Lubitsch made a few years before he left Germany for Hollywood. Young (19) Ossi Oswalda plays a seemingly wayward young lady who is becoming quite a handful. Indeed, unlike UK and US films of the time we see this young lady drinking, playing cards flirting with older gentlemen and smoking furiously. A new guardian is employed to keep her in check but she finds if she dresses as a boy everyone is fooled and she can go off to the dance and flirt with that very same guardian. He is almost twice her age but the drunken evening is treated as a joke and they even kiss. Now, one he is twice her age and two, on the face of it these are two gentlemen kissing away. Ossi is not pretty in the conventional sense but we do consider that German gents like their ladies on the butch side so maybe this would have worked even more sensationally at the time. Curious, slightly worrying but a good start in my exploration of the early films of Mr Lubitsch.

Four of the earliest romantic comedies from Ernest Lubitsch that are available, "The Merry Jail" (1917), "The Oyster Princess", "The Doll" (both 1919) and this film, "I Don't Want to Be a Man", all base much of their humor around situations of mistaken identity. A character masquerades as someone else and absurdity and amusement ensue; in this case, our tomboy protagonist dresses and pretends to be a man for a day of drinking. Lengthy analysis could and probably has been written about the homosexual overtones of the scenes of the male lead repeatedly kissing and touching a woman he believes to be and appears to be a man.

Lubitsch's style was already fairly polished by this time, which is especially evident in the nice 35mm transfers of these films available on home video. The up and down camera movements for seasickness stand out as the most gimmicky technique. What I especially appreciate here, however, is some good comedic visual timing with amusing title cards. For example, in one scene, an intertitle states, "The poor child will be so miserable", which is followed by a shot of the "poor child" dancing zestfully. Overall, even if these early comedies by Lubitsch aren't exceptionally funny and their humor often broad, they're short and well paced; generally, I find them more enjoyable than his ponderous, early dramatic, costume spectacles with Pola Negri.

A tomboy disguises herself as one of the boys, but finds that life as a man has its own difficulties.

First of all, was this film made in 1918 or 1920? IMDb says 1918 and the Kino DVD says 1920. I tend to think Kino should be more knowledgeable on this particular title, but I find it hard to doubt IMDb... not that it makes a big difference, but to put it in context of the formative years of cinema, it seems that a more precise date would help.

But anyway, this is quite the ground-breaker, having a woman dress as a man and live as one for a day. Countless films have used this formula since... was this the first? Always an interesting concept, because it seems that most women could not pass as men (or most men as women)... and yet, here, despite a feminine touch there was a generally manly appearance presented.

Ossi, the teenage daughter of a wealthy Berliner, likes playing poker, smoking and drinking. Her guardian is not amused; he swears he will teach her mores. Ossi gets the chance to buy a dress coat and formal mens' clothing for herself, cross dresses and goes off on a spree: it has to be the Mäusepalast, a pleasure hall where the champaign flows. Here she meets her guardian, and things get interesting. This outing by Lubitsch and Ossi Oswalda is considerably better than 'The Oyster Princess', which I watched a while ago. It was clearly intended to help the audiences forget the war that was still raging in the summer of 1918. The film depicts a peaceful, wealthy world, with food plentiful and young men in abundance (and without war injuries), a world where pre-war life has returned, including well dressed people on the underground and motorcars and hackneys on the streets. The acting is actually good. Ossi Oswalda fits the role to perfection, and her guardian (Curt Goetz) does likewise very well. The picture has wit and tempo and is surprisingly open about homosexuality - surprisingly because I did not expect this of a film made in imperial Germany (the censors banned it for underage audiences, though). Contemporay critics were rapturous, and newspapers reported gales of laughter. I managed to stay calm while watching it, but still, it is a good film.

I Don't Want To Be A Man (1918) : Brief Review -

A memorable pair of Lubitsch and Oswalda introduces another freakishly brilliant idea- A Gender Bending Comedy. Remember Billy Wilder's Classic Comedy 'Some Like It Hot' (1959) which is apparently cited as the First Gender bending comedy? Two good looking men play beautiful Women in that film, right? Now taking you 40 years back in Silent Era when Lubitsch introduced a Gender Bending Comedy in world cinema. Yes, that's right but hardly few people know about it and i am joining the list of those few people from today. Now just imagine the gender bending stuff with opposite gender. A woman plays a Man. Sounds freakish, aint it? And it also sounds brilliant and pathbreaking at same time, no? Well, that's what I Don't Want To Be A Man is. A teenaged tomboy girl, tired of being bossed around by her strict guardian, impersonates a man so she can have more fun, but discovers that being the opposite sex isn't as easy as she had hoped. Ossi Oswalda does an unbelievable stuff here. OMG, she looked so handsome as a man. How did she manage it? I mean the looks can be understood but that attitude and impersonation of the character was highly appalling. As a cherry on the top it creates a sounding love story out of it without changing the main course of the genders. Fabulous thinking power it was. Oswalda and Lubitsch made aother innovative comedy like The Doll in 1919 and this was an year before it which proves that this pair was so dared with their choices and maverick nature. I enjoyed the film thoroughly and i also found it very interesting as a script. The comedy is good, not great though. It could have been more but i guess the situational bounding stopped it at many places. Without those hurdles Lubitsch could have easily brought more laughter but not conviction so anyhow it was Great in its original form only. A fine watch anytime, anyday.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.