Romeo und Julia im Schnee (1920)

In the small courtroom of a German mountain village, a case is being argued that pits the Capulethofer family against the Montekugerl family. Each family sends the judge a large sausage to bribe him. Although the scales of justice—on whose pans the respective sausages are placed—tip to one side, the judge decides to be magnanimous: after retiring to his chambers and tasting the two delicacies, he paradoxically rules that both families are right and, at the same time, both wrong, and therefore orders them to pay the legal costs jointly and severally. From that moment on, the heads of the two families mutually agree to stop speaking to each other, and an ongoing feud begins, marked by brawls and snowball fights. Julia, the young daughter of the Capulethofers, had been promised years earlier in marriage to the son of the Moser family (thus playing the role of Paris). He turns out to be something of a village idiot, and Julia does not approve of him. What is more, Romeo Montekugerl has just returned to the village after a long absence, and he and Julia fall in love. But nothing can overcome the inflexible custom of arranged marriage: the engagement party for Julia and Paris begins, and as the first guests arrive, Julia and Romeo decide that it is better to die together than to live apart. Heartbroken, they go into a pharmacy and ask for “poison for two.” The pharmacist hands them a bottle of harmless sugar water bearing a skull label, and tells the astonished couple not to worry about paying, as they can settle up later. Romeo and Julia retire to a barn and drink the contents of the bottle, in several rounds, waiting for death, which does not come. The farewell letter Julia had left for her parents, in which she confesses their intention to commit a double suicide, is found. The Capulethofers and the guests leave the party and rush to the barn. News spreads, and the Montekugerls arrive too. Romeo and Julia pretend to be dead, rather surprised that they are not, and only after the two families reconcile in the face of the supposed tragedy do the couple reveal that they are alive, to everyone’s relief. The engagement-party rooms have been left deserted: the unsuspecting Paris remains there alone, feasting on the delicious cakes.