Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder had well and truly paved the way.

CNN: Roland Emmerich, the accidental director

The classic works of Ernst Lubitsch, Howard Hawks and Preston Sturges married witty verbal banter with lowbrow physical slapstick, finding their focus in the battle of the sexes and making a mockery of the puritanical Production Code.

CNN: Review: 'Leatherheads' drops the ball

Retro movie festivals featuring Weimar directing stars like Lang and Ernst Lubitsch, and actors like Peter Lorre, Louise Brooks and Emil Jannings, happen regularly at the Babylon (Rosa Luxemburg-Strasse 30, babylonberlin.de) and the Arsenal (Potsdamer Strasse 2, arsenal-berlin.de) movie houses.

WSJ: Experiencing the 1920s in Berlin, Germany