To be or not to be

In occupied Warsaw, a theatre troupe led by the Tura couple is drawn into a resistance operation: to survive, the actors must give the performance of a lifetime in front of real Nazi officers.

In the end, Lubitsch is talking about serious things. The abrupt changes of tone to which our young filmmakers have accustomed us receive an almost existential justification. If nothing is put forward that can’t subsequently be denied, comedy is surpassed while simultaneously granted its letters patent. The fusion of comedy and drama, of drama and life, leads to seriousness. It’s enough that an action happens in one scene or another (life or comedy) for it to have the opposite effect: at the beginning, the audience laughs at the farcical “Gestapo” troops. But when this same farce unfolds in real life, it has consequences that could not be more tragic. Here, however, tragedy and comedy share a common origin. The film will be all the funnier if the actors play real characters and the real characters behave like performers.
Jean Eustache, Cinéma 62, no. 65 (April 1962)

PRODUCTION:
STUDIOCANAL
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92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
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PRODUCTION AT THE TIME OF FILMING: 
​United Artists Pictures

LAB:
Library of Congress and VDM

WORLD SALES:
STUDIOCANAL - Emma Baldit
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ITALIAN DISTRIBUTION:
LUCKY RED - Alessandra Tieri
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