Free First Thursday Screening!
Tickets available at the PFA Theater starting at 4:30
Judith Rosenberg on Piano

(Ich möchte kein Mann sein). I Don't Want to Be a Man is a wonderful and eye-opening early comedy of sexual identity; in addition to showcasing Lubitsch's witty direction of actors and predilection for risqué situations, it also shows how early on the director developed milieu as a comic and dramatic force. Tomboy Ossi Oswalda, who boldly indulges in drinking, smoking, playing poker, and similar unladylike activities, is placed in the care of a male guardian who vows to “cut her down to size.” Chafing under his reign, she decides to go all out and live like a man, in convincing drag; the two “men” smoke cigars, drink, and wind up a little too cozy in the back seat of a cab.