Summer Under the Stars Day 26: Ninotchka (1939)

Today's Summer Under the Stars focus is the great Greta Garbo. The film: Ninotchka (1939).

Ninotchka is, according the brief summary on TCM: "A coldhearted Soviet agent is warmed up by a trip to Paris and a night of love." The pitch for the movie was equally short: "Russian girl saturated with Bolshevist ideals goes to fearful, Capitalistic, monopolistic Paris. She meets romance and has an uproarious good time. Capitalism not so bad after all."

This film was a departure for Garbo, famous for her dramas. The slogan for the film followed the same tactic as Garbo's first talking picture Anna Christie (1930), when it was announced "Garbo talks!" This time it read, "Garbo laughs!" Not only does she laugh, but she makes everyone else laugh with her, as evident in the trailer.

Ninotchka is Garbo's character's name. She is sent from Russia to Paris to investigate a problem that her fellow Russian's are having selling some jewels. Here is the opening shot which sets the tone for the film:

Next shown is three men, obviously Russian, looking at amazement at a swanky Parisian hotel. Despite the great cost, they decide to stay there rather than the cheaper hotel down the street. They take the Royal suite with the excuse that the safe in the suite is the only one large enough to hold the important items that they brought with them.

 

Comrades Iranoff, Buljanoff, and Kopalski

Once in the suite we discover what it is they carry with them: magnificent jewels to be sold so that with the money they can feed their starving Russia. There is a hitch though. The jewels were taken from a former Grand Duchess of Russia (as property of the people) and that certain duchess just happens to be in Paris and a certain Russian hotel waiter just happens to see the jewels and tell the duchess where they are.

The duchess sends her lover, Count Leon d'Algout (Melvyn Douglas), to see the men. He stops them just as they are about to sell the jewels and informs them that he has filed an injunction. Now they cannot sell the jewels until they are given a clear title. While he's at it, Leon also shows the three Comrades how much fun they can have in a Capitalistic country.

Iranoff, Buljanoff, and Kopalski, after sending a telegram to Russia to inform them of this unfortunate turn of events, go to the station to meet the agent Russia has sent. They are surprised when it turns out to be a woman. One of the men says that had they known, they would have greeted her with flowers. This is Ninotchka's response:

Later, as she is walking about Paris examining it's structures, she meets Leon. A great dialogue follows (the Lubitsch touch):

Must you flirt?

I don't have to but I find it natural.

Suppress it.

The two begin to fall in love. When they discover who each other is however, Ninotchka, who was beginning to thaw out the tiniest bit, tries to ignore Leon, but he won't give up. He follows her into a working man's restaurant and tries to get her to laugh. He finally succeeds in the films most famous scene.

Ninotchka then becomes a different woman. She buys a that she had previously ridiculed with this

great line: "How can such a civilization survive which permits their women to put things like that on their heads. It won't be long now, comrades." Later they go out to dinner. Ninotchka wears a beautiful flowing, sparkly dress. The two become drunk on champagne and go back to the Royal suite (which Iranoff, Buljanoff, and Kopalski had moved out of so that the Russian agent could have the best room while they moved to the "smallest room next to the servants quarters"). Ninotchka opens the safe and Leon places a tiara on her head. She passes out and he puts her on the bed, tiara and all, and leaves.

The next morning, Ninotchka is woken by a visit by the Grand Duchess Swana, who has "retrieved" her property while Ninotchka was asleep. She tells her that she will give the jewels back and sign them over to Russia on one condition: Ninotchka leave on the next plane back to Russia. With a heavy heart, Ninotchka complies as her country must come first.

Back in Russia, the difference between it and Paris is starkly visible. There is no privacy in the small room she shares with two other girls and in order to have an omelet she must have her three friends over so that there are enough eggs. While they are "feasting" a letter comes from Leon. It starts out, "Ninotchka my darling" and ends "Yours, Leon." In between is nothing but blotted out words as the entire body of the letter has been censored.

Fast-forward to a few weeks later. Ninotchka is once again sent after Iranoff, Buljanoff, and Kopalski, this time in Constantinople. Upon her arrival (she is greeted with flowers this time) she discovers that they have opened a Russian restaurant and plan on staying there.

They have another surprise for her too...

The movie ends typical Hollywood style with Leon convincing Ninotchka to stay with him and sealing it with a kiss. THE END.

Ninotchka is my first Garbo film. I found the first half to be a little slow, though it had some great one-liners. For the second half Garbo suddenly seemed to come to life. I definitely agree with this statement made by Howard Barnes of The New York Herald Tribune: "Now that she has done it, it seems incredible that Greta Garbo never appeared in a comedy before Ninotchka; the great actress reveals a command of comic inflection which fully matches the emotional depth or tragic power of her earlier triumphs."

Behind the scenes:

This photo of Greta Garbo was found stuck on the wall of Anne Frank's room.

It was from  ‘Ninotchka.’

Our little room looked very bare at first with nothing on the walls; but thanks to Daddy who had brought my film-star collection and picture postcards on beforehand, and with the aid of a paste pot and brush, I have transformed the walls into one gigantic picture. This makes it look much more cheerful… 

~ Anne Frank, July 11, 1942

This post is part of the 2015 Summer Under the Stars Blogathon hosted by Journeys in Classic Film. Be sure and read all of the other posts on Garbo and the other stars here.

Русалка Rusalka (Mermaid)

Strange movie that looks and feels like two stories in one, when Alisa is a young girl and when Alisa is a teenager; but this fairy tale drama becomes hypnotic and you will follow Alisa’s journeys as well as ‘powers’ questioning what is really going on and where all these is going. With very interesting music score and maybe a too digital for my taste visuals film showcases the story of a very unconventional –but likable- girl thanks to great performance as teen Alisa by Mariya Shalayeva.

When Alisa is a young girl story plus film for me are more magical and even at times, poetic; but when main character becomes a late teenager film became realistic and I was absorbed by the sights and sounds of modern Moscow which I admit is about the first time that I see a contemporary film that portraits Moscow so successfully as a great megapolis. Just for the second part of the story the film absolutely is more than worth watching, but the entire film is “good bizarre” as after all film is Anna Melikyan interpretation of a fairy tale that maybe many of you are familiar with, Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid.

What maybe not all of you are familiar with is that Andersen’s fairy tale has three endings; one given by Disney, one originally given by Andersen and one modified by Andersen to accommodate Christian beliefs. This film has the original end that’s not a happy ending at all. Still while watching the first part I couldn’t tell it was Andersen’s fairy tale, is when teen Alisa meets Alexander that I started to recognize the tale but have to admit that the film ending caught me by surprise as narrative was leading viewers to believe different. Is an interesting but very complex film not only because of the story but also because of all the playing with the images.

So if you recall Andersen’s fairy tale (not the Disney version, please) and if you’re in the mood to watch a quite surrealistic interpretation of it, then maybe you should give this movie a try but you have to know that movie is a good example of Russian contemporary art cinema that won the FIPRESCI Award at 2008 Berlinale, the Directing Award at 2008 Sundance fest, the Independent Camera at 2008 Karlovy Vary fest and collected many more honors in the festival circuit. Also was Russia submission to 2009 Academy Awards.

A little more than three years to be able to watch this film but the wait was worth it as film was truly hypnotic for me but I know is not for all audiences you have to like contemporary interpretations of art cinema that border into the bizarre both in story as with images. If you haven’t seen it yet I strongly suggest you don’t skip it but try to find the right moment to watch it.

Enjoy!!!

Watch trailer @MOC

Kak ya provyol etim letom (How I Ended This Summer)

A visually breathtaking film by Alexei Popogrebsky that absolutely will blow your mind with many extraordinary sights of real Artic Circle landscapes as film was really shot on a real meteorological station in the Arctic which besides the visual poetry gives so much realism to the very-slow paced story that becomes sort of a thriller between the two technicians that work at the remote station.

Absolutely not a movie for everyone as for two hours you will watch awesome landscape after landscape, with very little dialogue, absence of sounds, only two characters not really getting along, and tension built more from not really knowing why the younger character is doing what he’s doing. You actually will not really know so will be up to you to deduce motivations when you reach the open ended story finale.

For one third of time film tells about the routine of the two meteorologists, one third about the younger one not telling the older the important news and the last third about what happens after the younger man tells the important news. That’s it very simple yet complex story.

Film was in competition at the 2010 Berlinale were won the Outstanding Artistic Achievement in the Category Camera and both actors, Grigory Dobrygin and Sergei Puskepalis shared the Best Actor Award.

I liked the film and was marveled by the beauty of the Artic circle, but at moments lost interest in the narrative as wasn’t sure what to think about the younger man motives and got not many clues to like or dislike what he was doing. Perhaps a little more info will have allowed me to ‘forget’ about the story and concentrate on watching so many outstanding sights. A must be seen film only to those that appreciate art cinema.

Enjoy!!

Watch trailer @MOC

Край Kray (The Edge)

An entertaining film by Aleksei Uchitel that to my surprise is a love story told using all the western stereotypes of Russia (taiga, bears, moonshine, etc) plus one element that I’m sure will excite more some viewers (male) than others (female) showing train races with early 20th century built locomotives.

Set shortly after the end of WWII in the Siberian hinterland among Russians and Germans with damaged personal stories and a strange transformation: the victors seem to be crawling into the skins of the defeated, and vice versa. Ignat arrives to the small village and stirs the population with his ways and driving a locomotive when he was clearly forbidden to do. Eventually he goes to an island to rescue an old abandon locomotive which he succeeds thanks to the help of a German woman that spent the war alone in the island and survived after four years. So, it’s the very unconventional –yet very commercial- love story between Ignat and Elsa.

As Uchitel said in an interview, this is the most commercial film he has done and consequently appeals to a wider audience and unfortunately it’s true as looks and feels like a very-entertaining but very-commercial film. Still there were a few (too few) outstanding and breathtaking scenes that recall how Uchitel can be poetic framing scenes.

I enjoyed the film that grabbed my attention for every minute and didn’t let go until the very end with an extraordinary aerial view of grayish Siberian forest in winter. So commercial does not mean bad, but I absolutely missed visual poetry and slower pace that allows feeling and live everything told in the story. Puzzles me that’s Russia’s Oscar submission, but seems whoever chose this film was thinking in a film that could please Academy voters to –of course- get the Oscar.

So if you’re in the mood of watching mainstream Russian cinema with a very-unconventionally told love story this is the film to watch and I’m sure you’ll enjoy beyond what you imagined. Then I’m positive that men will love also the film for all the locomotive action that the film portraits.

Enjoy!!

Watch trailer @MOC