Actor Christoph Maria Herbst (56) and actress Nilam Farooq (32) have been awarded the Ernst Lubitsch Prize. The two were honored on Tuesday evening in Berlin for their performance in the film “Contra”. The comedy by Sönke Wortmann is regarding a professor who racially insults a student and is then given the task of helping her prepare for a debating competition.
The traditional Lubitsch Prize commemorates the director Ernst Lubitsch (1892-1947). It is awarded for the best comedic performance in a German-language film. Lubitsch was a “brilliant dog”, said Herbst on the sidelines of the award. He was not only a director, but also a screenwriter and producer.
It’s always worth watching Lubitsch’s black-and-white films, Herbst said (“Stromberg”, “Der Vorname”). His absolute favorite is the film “To Be or Not to Be”, which was also shown that evening. The film tells of a troupe of actors in Poland trying to outwit the Nazis. He saw the film decades ago. “And I don’t think I’ve ever laughed like that.”
Lubitsch was born 130 years ago into a Jewish family in Berlin. He later emigrated to the USA. “I’m already noticing a disparity,” said Herbst, because Lubitsch is better known in the USA and in Hollywood than in Germany and Berlin.
There is a “plaque” on his house in Berlin and a star on the boulevard of the stars. Autumn: “But maybe we should think once more regarding a street name here, right?” However, for various – “and I emphasize various” – reasons he does not believe that this will happen, because first more streets would have to be named following women. “But I think Ernst Lubitsch was also such a gifted actor, he would have played a woman very well.”
