What he did to Shakespeare we are doing now to Poland

[sovay]

The first ice cream truck of the season just drove slowly down our street, playing "Turkey in the Straw" and looking slightly lost. Hestia watched it intently from the front window. She has since turned her attention to the delicious, noisily chirping birds.

Today I feel like crawling back into bed and staying there until I don't have to blow my nose anymore and can swallow without feeling that I encountered a porcupine on the way down, but we have tickets for Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be (1942) at the Coolidge tonight; it is being presented in 35 mm for its seventy-fifth anniversary as part of the National Center for Jewish Film's annual festival and there will be a scholarly Q & A afterward, so I am just planning not to shake hands with anyone and hopefully not sneeze at any moment where it would break the comedy. I haven't seen the movie in years and never on a big screen. I believe my mother showed it to me, after we caught the 1983 Mel Brooks remake on TV; it was my introduction to Jack Benny and quite possibly Carole Lombard. My grandparents were still alive. They'd seen it first-run. Films against fascism were not supposed to come around to being relevant again. All the more reason to go pay attention to this one.

Comments

[gwynnega]

I haven't seen To Be or Not to Be since it became newly relevant. It would be great to see it on a big screen. I love Felix Bressart.

I hope you feel better soon.

[sovay]

I haven't seen To Be or Not to Be since it became newly relevant.

It holds up. People laughed in all the right places, including the dangerous ones. I am going to try to write about it tomorrow. (We walked most of the way home from Brookline: I have run out of the ability to stay on my feet.)

It would be great to see it on a big screen. I love Felix Bressart.

He's wonderful! "What you are, I wouldn't eat."

[skygiants]

I just made my roommate rewatch that film with me last weekend, for the first time years, and I couldn't tell you what made me think of it except that the time suddenly seemed right.

[sovay]

I just made my roommate rewatch that film with me last weekend, for the first time years, and I couldn't tell you what made me think of it except that the time suddenly seemed right.

It certainly went over with tonight's audience, about half of whom had never seen it before. "It'll get a terrific laugh."

[nineweaving]

A truly excellent reason to crawl out of bed. I (and I'll bet all of your readers) look forward to the review.

Nine

[sovay]

I (and I'll bet all of your readers) look forward to the review.

Thank you! I may have to pass out first.

[umadoshi]

I just tried and failed to remember how long it's been since I saw a roaming ice cream truck. A long, long time, I think. Huh.

I hope you're feeling at least somewhat (and preferably a lot!) better today. *hugs*

[osprey_archer]

Aaaah, I love Lubitsch's films! (Or at least the ones I've seen. I cannot pretend to have seen anywhere near all of them.) Seeing one on the big screen must have been a real treat, especially as To Be Or Not to Be really has become topical again, oh dear.