Ninotchka

All you want to know about Ninotchka

Ninotchka

Original film poster
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Produced by Ernst Lubitsch
Sidney Franklin
Written by Melchior Lengyel
Charles Brackett
Billy Wilder
Walter Reisch
Starring Greta Garbo
Melvyn Douglas
Music by Werner R. Heymann
Cinematography William H. Daniels
Editing by Gene Ruggiero
Distributed by Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Release date(s) November 9, 1939
Running time 110 min
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
Budget $1,365,000 (est.)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Ninotchka is a 1939 American film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch and 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 story is based on the book of the same title by Melchior Lengyel.

In 1990, Ninotchka was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It was also included on two American Film Institute lists: #40 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions and #52 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs. It was also included on Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Movies. [1]

The musical Silk Stockings was written with this film as the source of its book. It also provided the basis of a 1957 film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse.

Contents

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 falls in love with her.

The three Russians also 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

Ninotchka is Greta Garbo's first full comedy, and her penultimate 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. It was, however, banned in the Soviet Union and its satellites.

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 not to 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

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."
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninotchka"

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