The most famous of Lubitsch's historical spectaculars, Madame Dubarry is characterized by Lubitsch biographer Herman G. Weinberg as "a milestone in the artistic development of the screen." Released in the U.S. under the title, Passion, the film brought international recognition to the German cinema and to UFA Studios, and established the international reputations of both Lubitsch and Polish actress Pola Negri. Emil Jannings as Louis XV and Pola Negri as the country girl who was to become his mistress create complex characters out of these historical figures. This is in keeping with Lubitsch's achievement in this and other historical films (see Anna Boleyn, April 24) in which he scales history down to human terms; he was to be known as "the great humanizer of history." "Lubitsch steadfastly maintained the ironic viewpoint that great movements in history are more often decided in the boudoir than in the stateroom. He was the first to grant participants in mass spectaculars individual personalities, and to observe them in action with a degree of psychological subtlety. He was also skilled at modulating the gestures of actors for his radical new cinema of close-up observation, of counterpoint between one kind of appearance--the pomp and spectacle of the court, the mass scenes of the French Revolution--and one kind of reality--the jealousies of lovers, the intrigues of jilted suitors" (Treasures from the Eastman House, PFA Publication).