Film

Ninotchka

Name: Ninotchka
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Released: 1939
Cast: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire, Bela Lugosi, Sig Ruman

A stiff Soviet envoy arrives in Paris to sell confiscated jewels and ends up seduced by champagne, silk stockings and one very persistent count. Garbo's only real comic performance turns her legendary severity into the punchline, then into something surprisingly tender. Lubitsch directs with his famous 'touch' — nothing is said outright that a raised eyebrow can't say better. For anyone who thinks 1930s political satire and old Hollywood glamour can be sharp, warm and funny at once.

TMDb rating

7.5

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The Awful Truth1937

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The Lives of Others2006

Same ideological premise — a state agent assigned to watch, judge or convert someone who represents everything the system distrusts — but played entirely straight, as tragedy rather than farce.

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