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Lubitsch - Nora Ephron and You've Got Mail
From leather store to rival bookstores
In interviews, Nora Ephron, the director of the 1998 remake of The Shop Around the Corner (and Sleepless in Seattle), has said that she and her team intentionally used three or four particular “set pieces” that appeared in the original and the 1949 remake, In the Good Old Summertime.
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Nora Ephron's You've Got Mail pays tribute to the Lubitsch original by naming Kathleen Kelly's (Meg Ryan) bookstore "The Shop Around the Corner." The storefront was actually constructed and filmed on a New York street.
PHOTO: Brian Hamill and Warner Brothers |
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But other than those few borrowed scenes and the basic love-hate premise, there are few recognizable similarities between Lubitsch's 1940 film and Ephron's 1998 remake (which could be titled “Sleepless in New York”). Whereas Lubitsch's story was carefully confined to just the close-knit group in Mr. Matuschek's leather goods shop (not even Matuschek's cheating wife is ever seen), the 1990s reincarnation expands to include both main characters' live-in partners (hey, it's the '90s) and a huge (albeit talented) cast of characters that at times seems more like a DeMille “cast of thousands.” And now, instead of a simple “shop around the corner,” we have the added David-versus-Goliath element of the good independent neighborhood bookstore (Kathleen Kelly's little Shop Around the Corner) versus the big evil chain bookstore (Joe Fox's Foxbooks).
In the original movie, the two unmarried correspondents were mere employees working in the same shop. (In one of her letters Klara suggests that the two not discuss “the vulgar details of how we earn our daily bread.”) Now, in You've Got Mail, the two are the owners of competing bookstores. They may be unmarried, but they certainly aren't living alone. The Hungarian Alfred Kralik becomes the American Joe Fox (Tom Hanks), Klara Novak becomes Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan), downtown Budapest becomes New York's Upper West Side, the local Budapest café becomes Starbucks, old-fashioned mailing addresses become the e-mail pseudonyms NY152 (Joe) and Shopgirl (Kathleen)... well, you get the picture.
Unlike past versions, Ephron's You've Got Mail updates the story into a contemporary setting in New York City—and why not? The AOL tie-in is also a natural in this age of cyber communication. But Lubitsch's message (both as director and writer) has become garbled and something has been lost in translation. The talented cast and crew for You've Got Mail probably could have benefited from the old architectural maxim of “less is more.” Does everything in the age of computers and email really have to be so complicated?
Nora Ephron's homage to Lubitsch and Jimmy Stewart is not a bad movie, but it could have been a better one if it hadn't strayed quite so far from the master's vision.
See the Lubitsch filmography below...
Lubitsch Films
Heaven Can Wait (1943, VHS) - Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Stars Gene Tierney. A remake of Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941). Remade in 1978 with Warren Beatty (1978 DVD).
To Be or Not to Be (1942, VHS) - Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Stars Carole Lombard and Jack Benny.
The Shop Around the Corner (1940, DVD)
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Stars James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan.
Ninotchka (1939, VHS) - Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Stars Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas.
Angel (1937, VHS) - Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Stars Marlene Dietrich and Herbert Marshall.
Nora Ephron's Remake
You've Got Mail (1998, VHS)
Directed by Nora Ephron. Starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Based on Ernst Lubitsch's "The Shop Around the Corner." - The DVD version of this film
Lubitsch Connections
VIDEOS and CDs
VIDEO SHOP - More German-Hollywood videos.
CD soundtrack album: You've Got Mail (CD Soundtrack, Wea/Atlantic) George Fenton, Harry Nilsson, and various artists.
Complete German-Hollywood Index - An alphabetical listing of Austrian, German, and German Swiss film people related to Hollywood.
BOOKS about Germanic film people and Hollywood
VIDEO SHOP - Films by and with German-Hollywood film people
N E X T > Lubitsch - Part 1
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