Jon Mirsalis on Piano Both Emil Jannings as Louis XV and Pola Negri as a peasant girl who becomes the King's mistress give bravura performances in Madame Dubarry. Ernst Lubitsch came to be known as "the great humanizer of history" for scaling down history to human terms in the intimate spectacle film (it hardly mattered that he grossly distorted the facts). 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 also was skilled at modulating the gestures of actors for his radical new cinmea 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, a PFA publication Released in the U.S. as Passion, Madame Dubarry established the international reputations of its director and stars. In France, however, it was banned until 1924 as a vulgar insult against French history-and viewed as a German revenge for having lost World War I.