Romeo and Juliet in the Snow
About Romeo and Juliet in the Snow
In the Black Forest village of Schwabstedt, the farmers Capulethofer and Montekugerl have hated each other since both tried to bribe the village judge with a sausage and both were charged the court costs. Julia is supposed to marry Paris. She falls for Romeo Montekugerl, home from military service. At a masked ball Romeo gets Paris drunk, takes his costume, and he and Julia decide to marry that night. Her family still pushes the engagement to Paris. The couple buys poison from an apothecary. In a barn it turns out to be sugar water. Both families, led there by Julia's farewell letter, find the lovers pretending to be dead, mourn them, and then hear that they will marry.
Cast & crew
More about Romeo and Juliet in the Snow
Ernst Lubitsch directed and wrote the script with Hanns Kräly, from motifs in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Paul Ebner and Maxim Galitzenstein produced it for Maxim-Film in Berlin. Theodor Sparkuhl photographed it. Kurt Richter designed the sets. It was released on March 12, 1920, and runs 45 minutes. The German title is Romeo und Julia im Schnee.
Themes
Making
Lubitsch sets the tragedy in snow, with peasant names that keep Shakespeare's and then add a German ending: Capulethofer, Montekugerl. The apothecary's poison is the joke that lets both families live.
Look
Theodor Sparkuhl shot the snow village, the masked ball, and the barn where the sugar water is drunk.
Music
Silent, with German intertitles.
Notes
- Lotte Neumann plays Julia Capulethofer. Gustav von Wangenheim plays Romeo Montekugerl. Julius Falkenstein is Paris.
- Jakob Tiedtke and Marga Köhler are the Capulethofer parents. Ernst Rückert and Josefine Dora are the Montekugerls.
- Paul Biensfeldt plays the village judge. Hermann Picha is his clerk.
- The feud begins with a sausage offered as a bribe, not with a duel.
Scenes
- Both fathers try to bribe the judge with the same sausage and are billed for the hearing.
- Romeo drinks Paris under the table and wears his costume to the ball.
- In the barn the 'poison' is sugar water, and the mourning families find the couple alive.
Influenced by
- William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
