Don’t Be So Political is a monthly film series that engages with films through a political lens. Each screening is preceded by an expert Q&A. Hosted by Zach Wortzman
“A Russian? I love Russians! I’ve been fascinated by your 5 year plan for the last fifteen years.”
After three bumbling Russian envoys struggle to sell a priceless necklace in Paris, special envoy Ninotchka comes in to ensure Russia’s interests are protected.
Iranoff, Buljanoff, and Kopalski, Russian envoys, arrive in Paris, wowed by its excess. They get swept up in its bounteous offerings and slough off their duty to sell a priceless necklace in order to pay for farming equipment to ensure a good harvest for the Russian people. Enter Ninotchka (Greta Garbo), the Soviet ideal. She is ideologically perfect, a true Comrade down to her last red drop of blood. But upon meeting the relentlessly charming Count Leon d’Algout (Melvyn Douglas), she too falls for the allures of Western excess. With the fate of the Russian people in the balance, will Ninotchka choose love or her fellow Comrades?
Released in 1939, two months into WWII, Paris was yet unscathed from the war. Yet there was the forbearing knowledge that war would arrive and life would forever change, something palpable throughout the film. Directed with the always elegant touch of Ernst Lubitsch, he deftly handled a brilliantly funny satire of Soviet ideals by screenwriting dream team, Charles Brackett (Sunset Boulevard), Billy Wilder (The Apartment), and Walter Reisch (Gaslight). It marked Greta Garbo’s second to last role before her early retirement and first comedic performance which she plays with perfect deadpan and effortless delight. She’s matched beautifully by Melvyn Douglas playing the romantic foil to her duty-bound ideologue.
The film was suppressed during WWII once Russia and America had become allies. It was later rereleased once they were back to being enemies. The Office of Strategic Service, the precursor to the CIA, gave the film a wide release in 1948 in Italy as a piece of propaganda to sway Italians away from electing a communist government. The Communist party was defeated in that election, which was an early battleground at the outset of the Cold War.
Ninotchka earned nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress (Garbo), and two noms for best screenplay. It was added to America’s National Film Registry in 1990. (ZACHARY WORTZMAN)