Ninotchka
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Ninotchka is a 1939 American film by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. It received four Academy Award nominations, for Best Picture, Best Actress in a leading role, best Original Story and best Screenplay.
The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
The musical Silk Stockings was written with this film as the source of its book. It was filmed in 1957, directed by Rouben Mamoulian, starring Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse.
Synopsis
Three Russians, Iranoff (Sig Ruman), Buljanoff (Felix Bressart) and Kopalski (Alexander Granach), are in Paris to sell jewelry confiscated from the aristocracy during the Russian Revolution of 1917. Upon arrival, they meet Count Leon d'Algout (Douglas), on a mission from the Russian Grand Duchess Swana who wants to retrieve her jewelry before it is sold. He corrupts them and talks them into staying in Paris. The Soviet Union then sends Nina Yakushova (Garbo), a special envoy whose goal is to go through with the jewelry sale and bring back the three men. Rigid and stern at first, she slowly becomes seduced by the West and the Count, who has fallen in love with her.The three Russians also attempt to accommodate themselves to capitalism, but the last joke of the film is that one of them carries a sign protesting that the other two are unfair to him.
Commentary
Launched with the tagline "Garbo Laughs!", Ninotchka is Greta Garbo's first full comedy, and her next to last film. It is one of the first American movies which, under cover of humorous light romance, deliberately criticizes the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. It depicts the Soviet system as rigid and gray, comparing it to the free and sunny Parisian society. Released in 1939 in the United States, the movie was released during World War II in Europe, where it became a great success.Although much of the marketing surrounding Ninotchka played on Garbo's super-serious image, suggesting she had never laughed or played comedy on film before, an examination of her canon reveals this to not be the case. Most notably her 1933 film, Queen Christina saw her laughing and had her play clear romantic-comedy moments with her co-star John Gilbert, although the movie is generally regarded as an historical drama.
Cast
- Greta Garbo : Nina Ivanovna Yakushova, aka Ninotchka
- Melvyn Douglas : Comte Léon d'Algout
- Ina Claire : Grand Duchess Swana
- Sig Ruman : Michael Simonavich Iranoff
- Félix Bressart : Buljanoff
- Alexander Granach : Kopalski
- Bela Lugosi : Commissar Razinin
- Tamara Shayne : Anna, Ninotchka's roommate in Moscow
- Rolfe Sedan : Hotel Manager
Technical details and crew
- Title : Ninotchka
- Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
- Screenplay: Melchior Lengyel, Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder and Walter Reisch
- Production : Ernst Lubitsch, Sidney Franklin
- Cinematography: William H. Daniels
- Original Music: Werner R. Heymann
- Make-up: Jack Dawn
- Costumes: Adrian
- Editing: Gene Ruggiero
- Set decoration: Edwin B. Willis
- Released: November 9, 1939
- Country: United States
- Genre: comedy
- Color: black and white
- Length: 110 minutes
Memorable quotes
Ninotchka, on her arrival at the train station, updating her fellow countrymen about latest news in Moscow: "The last mass trials were a success: there will be fewer, but better Russians."
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