128: Ninotchka

US  110m  Dir: Ernst Lubitsch  Key Cast: Greta Garbo

"Garbo Laughs!" was the tagline of this 1939 film, playing off the fact that Greta Garbo was known for a sombre and melancholy image (though actually she'd laughed in many previous films). 

Garbo plays Ninotchka, a humourless Soviet woman sent to Paris to oversee the sale of jewellery that was previously owned by the Russian Grand Duchess Swana before the revolution. Ninotchka is humourless and ultra-communist but finds herself falling in love with Leon (Melvyn Douglas), lover of the Grand Duchess who is acting in her interests to get the jewellery back.

I thought this was a really interesting comedy. It's depicts the Soviet Union and it's citizens as rigid and lifeless, contrasting with a free and warm pre-war Paris. The premise could simply feel like a piece of propaganda but I think the film is far more sophisticated than that. It isn't really a direct criticism of the Soviet Union but it imagines what might happen if someone completely wrapped up in the Soviet ideals was exposed to other ways of thinking. 

The film is actually really funny, with lots of Soviet satire that works well. The dynamic between Garbo as the rigid Ninotchka at the open bouncing of the free and jolly Leon is really fun with the dialogue being really sparky. I also really enjoyed the three communist men initially tasked with selling the jewellery who attempt to justify staying in a really expensive hotel room, something which clearly goes against every communist ideal. 

The timing of this film is really interesting. It was made before World War II started but released shortly after it had began and as I journey through the 1001 films list it feels like an important moment in film history. So many films of the 1930s were light and fluffy but suddenly the world had huge challenges to face and though this is still a comedy and was made pre-war, it shows that filmmakers were beginning to be interested in the huge ideological differences in the world.

On one hand this is a charming and funny romantic comedy, on the other it's a fascinating exploration of conflicting ideologies. Either way, it's a fantastic film and Greta Garbo was never better.