These three hilarious comedies explore what happens when gender is not quite so solid as it seems.
GENDER BENDERS: A Woman (U.S. Charlie Chaplin, 1915, 20 min.), I Don’t Want to Be a Man (Ich möchte kein Mann sein!) (Germany, Ernst Lubitsch, 1918, 45 min.), and Madame Behave (US, Scott Sidney, 1925, 55 min.)
In A Woman, Charlie Chaplin makes a surprisingly beautiful woman when he dons women’s clothing—and becomes a prize object of affection for his girlfriend’s womanizing father!
I Don’t Want to Be a Man! is a zingy comedy from Ernst Lubitsch about a girl (Ossi Oswalda) who disguises herself as a boy to have a night on the town. Little does she suspect that her uptight tutor (Curt Goetz) will fall for her, and they go home in a carriage together, drunkenly making out. Only the next day does the disguise get unraveled!
In Madame Behave, advertised as “a cousin to Charley’s Aunt,” The famous female impersonator Julian Eltinge reprises one of his celebrated Broadway roles. A wacky comedy of errors in which Eltinge’s character must cross-dress to keep his uncle out of jail, while two men fight for his affection.
Total running time: 120 minutes
FEATURED SPEAKER
Nat Modlin is a PhD Candidate in Germanic Studies and Cinema & Media Studies at the University of Chicago. As a scholar, teacher, and translator, their work focuses on 20th and 21st-century German film, literature, and visual media, centering around environment, fluidity, and genderqueerness. Their literary translations and criticism have appeared in TRANSIT and Chicago Review, and they are co-editing a forthcoming special issue of Monatshefte on “Monstrous Identities.” At the University of Chicago, they co-organize the Mass Culture Workshop and the Interdisciplinary German Seminar.
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT
Guitarist/violinist Peter Maunu has toured, performed and recorded with a long list of diverse musicians including Charles Lloyd, Jean-Luc Ponty, Bobby McFerrin, Tony Williams, Billy Cobham, Charlie Haden, Archie Shepp, and Grace Slick. As the guitarist on the Arsenio Hall Show, he performed nightly with legends like Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Ringo Starr, Madonna, Ray Charles, NWA, Public Enemy, and many more. Additionally, Peter contributed to the soundtracks of film scores including Crash, Bobby, Food Inc., and tv shows Chicago Hope, Arrested Development and CSI New York. Since relocating to Chicago, he has performed and recorded with improvisers Jack Wright, Gerrit Hatcher, Julian Kirshner, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Zoots Houston, Dave Rempis, Tim Daisy, Michael Zerang, Mars Williams, Jim Baker, Carol Genetti, Tomeka Reid, Katherine Young, Jason Roebke, Avreeyal Ra, Ed Wilkerson Jr., dancer Ayako Kato and many others. In addition, he founded, curates and performs at Splice Series, a bimonthly improvisation series at the Beat Kitchen in Chicago.
