Ninotchka (1939)

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

propaganda film, it remains seductive yet. and not only for the charming performance of Greta Garbo but for a form of humor who becomes very rare. because, after more than 75 years, Ninotchka is one of lovely manifestos about dictatorship, life and love, using, in wise manner, few small tricks for suggest the fragility of a political system and the clash between different cultures. and, in strange way, the words Garbo laughing is, in same measure, the axis of a film who seems be naif only at the first sigh. so, a delight. or a history page. or, for the public from the East, good opportunity to remember the atmosphere of every day under the Communism.

For some reason, Greta Garbo is elevated beyond her peers. While her mysterious ethos is certainly the stuff of legend (sort of like James Dean and his much too early death), part of her attraction is that she was so inaccessible. I think she was a wonderful actress and in this part she plays it to the hilt, but all this hue and cry over the sullen beauty laughing begs the creation of a godhead. This is a comedy about Russian collectivists becoming enamored with the capitalist world they are supposed to disdain. At the center are some priceless jewels. When Ninotchka comes in to set things straight, it isn't long before she falls for a guy and begins to doubt herself. She had a wonderfully expressive face, and, of course, that sultry voice. This is a fun film, but it is granted its status in many cases because of her unapproachability in real life.

One of my favorite films, an Ernst Lubitsch directed comedy featuring Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, and some great supporting characters (particularly the three men from Russia: Sig Ruman, Felix Bressart, and Alexander Granach) like Bela Lugosi as the Commissar. Garbo, the picture, the story (the only Academy recognition Melchior Lengyel would receive) and its Charles Brackett-Walter Reich-Billy Wilder screenplay (their first Academy recognition) were all Oscar nominated, with each losing to Gone With the Wind (1939).Garbo plays the title character, a cold Russian woman sent to Paris to retrieve three wayward countrymen who've been enjoying the city's spoils in lieu of completing their assignment. Douglas is their friend who helps to melt her ice before all four Russians are recalled home by Lugosi. It is in the melting and Garbo's transformation from dry communist to one who notices the beauty of a frivolous French hat that makes this essential comedy so funny. Of course, once back in Russia, Douglas tries to find a way to communicate and/or see his lovely Ninotchka.Added to the National Film Registry in 1990. #52 on AFI's 100 Funniest Movies list. #40 on AFI's 100 Greatest Love Stories list.

The movie starts very well, but ends badly. From the outset the movie is funny - full of great one-liners and social observations. Also a great political satire - mocking the evil of Soviet Russia and the naivety and stupidity of communism with some great satire. Capitalism doesn't get off scot-free either: the superficiality of some elements of it are also exposed.The opening few scenes also give a great insight into the European zeitgeist of the mid/late-1930s, especially the competing forces of capitalism, communism and fascism/nazism.From this auspicious start, a monumentally great movie was in the offing. However, from a point the movie takes itself far too seriously as a romantic drama. Instead of a political satire, or just plain comedy, it becomes a schmaltzy romantic drama, and a fairly predictable and conventional one at that.Even the humour becomes tired, predictable, more-of-the-same, rather than the fresh, sharp comedy from the first few scenes. The final few scenes are quite dull.It's as if the writer, the legendary Billy Wilder, ran out of ideas about half way through.Good performance by Greta Garbo as Ninotchka. Her cool, humourless impression of a Russian bureaucrat was something to behold. Melvyn Douglas is the clown to her straight guy, and does it very well. The three bumbling Russian officials are also played well.