Classic Movie Marathon Day 7: Ninotchka (1939)

Welcome to day seven of the Classic Movie Marathon. Seven movies down, five to go. Up next is Hamlet (1948).


Before there was 'From the people who brought you Transformers' or starring that guy who was a bit part in a movie made 20 years ago, there was a different way of selling films. If you had Greta Garbo in your film, and she tries her hand as a comedienne, then you have the best selling point since "Garbo Talks!": "Garbo LAUGHS!" This may suggest that she let's her usually serious persona go in Ninotchka. Alas, that does not happen. The tagline comes from the fact that she has a laughing scene, which loosens her up somewhat, but her performance is funny because of Melvyn Douglas. To add another great tagline to this film, the producers ordered that you "Don't pronounce it - see it!" See, that is so much better than "Titans will Clash".

Ninotchka was banned from the Soviet Union for the way it depicts the union under the power of Stalin: gray and stern. However, it was an international success, as it features Garbo coming out of her shell, and Melvyn Douglas being funny. Plus, it was directed by the great Ernst Lubitsch, who had the famed 'Lubitsch touch' with comedies. The film is about three Russians, Iranoff (Sig Ruman), Buljanoff (Felix Bressart) and Kopalski (Alexander Granach), who are in Paris to sell jewelry confiscated from the aristocracy during the Russian Revolution of 1917. Upon arrival, they meet Count Leon d'Algout (Melvyn Douglas), on a mission from the Russian Grand Duchess Swana (Ina Claire) 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 Ivanovna "Ninotchka" Yakushova (Greta 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.

This was quite a charming comedy, definitely because of the interplay between Garbo and Douglas. Garbo, herself, isn't so funny. It is usually Douglas who makes her funny. Ninotchka is quite a socially devoid character, with her personality being restricted by the limits of Stalin's empowerment. When she comes to the free and breezy Paris, she's out of her comfort zone. Leon highlights that fact, and often uses it against her as a way of getting a laugh or two. The comedy between the two is top notch, and also the comedy surrounding them is quite funny. Despite all this, the film didn't particularly stand out for me, as it did for so many others, but it still remains a fine example of the 'Lubitsch touch', a thing which many film-makers have tried to emulate, though few have succeeded in doing so. As the tagline would suggest, "Don't pronounce it - see it!"

What I got:

Classic--Love Actually

or: Lots of people in love.

One word to sum it up: Loaded.

As Love Actually was a guilty pleasure movie I stuck in the player just before Christmas because everyone kept going on about the importance of this movie at Christmas, I can't really review it without reiterating what many people have said before. Here's my verdict on it: A really sweet and charming story which has a few too many stories but seems to all fall into place in the end. 8/10.
Anyway, because I like lists, I'm going to go through the stories of this movie and say a little bit about each of them. Something different, yes?

David (Hugh Grant) and Natalie (Martine McCutcheon)

Story: The recently elected British Prime Minister David, is young, handsome, and single. Natalie is a new junior member of the household staff at 10 Downing Street and regularly serves his tea and biscuits. Something seems to click between them. David walks in to find the U.S. President (Billy Bob Thornton) attempting to seduce Natalie. David has Natalie moved, but later comes across a Christmas card 'With Love, Your Natalie.' He eventually finds Natalie at her family's home, then drives everyone to the local school for the nativity play, the same one in which his niece and nephew are appearing, and the two watch the show from backstage, their budding relationship exposed when a curtain is raised during the big finale.
Verdict: Firstly, it was a huge problem for me that I just couldn't imagine Hugh Grant as the British Prime Minister. I mean, that man, who I had my first ever crush on at the age of 9, as Prime Minister?! That aside, I thought this story was particularly sweet. David is so awkward about his love for Natalie, but once he sees someone else tampering with her he just can't stand it. That usually happens in real life. The ending to their story is particularly awkward, but especially sweet. If I didn't know any better, I would say that this story is the one holding the rest of the stories together

Daniel (Liam Neeson); Sam (Thomas Sangster) and Joanna (Olivia Olson

Story: Daniel and his stepson Sam fend for themselves, mourning the loss of their wife and mother, where Sam has fallen for American visitor Joanna. Daniel consoles Sam, who is heartbroken over recent news of Joanna's return to the United States, and convinces him to go catch Joanna at the airport.
Verdict: I love Thomas Sangster so much at the moment. It didn't help that he was so cute in this movie. And, to be perfectly honest, I want Liam Neeson to be my dad. I mean, my dad wouldn't suggest watching Titanic or running through an airport after 'the one'. It's nice to see Neeson being all mellow after all the ass-kicking we've seen him do over the years. I like mellow Neeson. I also like cute Sangster (in a non-paedophile way...he is 20 years old now though). I do not like Joanna because a) she can sing really well and b) she got cute Sangster. If I was one of those 'hip kids' who have the Tumblr accounts, I would probably be saying 'FML' or 'MLIA' right now.

Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) and Joe (Gregor Fisher)

Story: With the help of his longtime manager Joe (Gregor Fisher), aging rock and roll legend Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) records a Christmas variation of The Troggs' classic hit 'Love Is All Around'. Nonetheless he promotes the release in the hope it will become the Christmas number one single. The song does go to number one; after briefly celebrating his victory at a party hosted by Sir Elton John, Billy suggests that he and Joe celebrate Christmas by getting drunk and watching porn.
Verdict: Thanks to this movie, I had 'Christmas is All Around' in my head all of Christmas day (and Boxing day, I believe). Which was weird, because I only saw it on the music channel once all day. But, I guess, it is pretty catchy. While Billy Mack doesn't have a 'love story' as such (unless it is with his manager), he certainly is one of the most memorable figures in this movie, probably because he is easily the funniest. And he is the best line of the whole movie: "Hiya kids. Here is an important message from your Uncle Bill. Don't buy drugs. Become a pop star, and they give you them for free!" Need I say more?

Juliet (Keira Knightley), Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Mark (Andrew Lincoln)

Story: Juliet (Keira Knightley) and Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are wed in a lovely ceremony orchestrated and videotaped by Mark (Andrew Lincoln), Peter's best friend and best man. The video he recorded reveals that he secretly has feelings for her.
Verdict: I really felt as if this story never amounted to anything and was quite awkward, in all the wrong ways. Just the chemistry between the three of them didn't feel right. Probably one of the biggest space wasters in the film.

Jamie (Colin Firth) and Aurélia (Lucia Moniz)

Story: Writer Jamie first appears preparing to attend Juliet and Peter's wedding. His girlfriend misses the ceremony to sleep with his brother. Jamie retires to his French cottage where he meets Portuguese housekeeper Aurélia, who speaks only her native tongue Portuguese. There is an instant attraction between the two. When Jamie returns to England he realises he is in love with Aurelia. He learns her native language and goes back to propose to her. When he does propose to her, she says yes, and it is revealed that she has been learning English to communicate with Jamie.
Verdict: This story is so shamelessly romantic it is actually quite sweet. I love how the pair of them couldn't speak each others language, but seemed to understand what the other person was saying. Mind you, that was the best part of their relationship: how they communicated in such an odd way. While I wouldn't think that a proposal would have come so soon for the couple, I thought it was sweet how they both learnt each others language...to a pretty hilarious extent.

Harry (Alan Rickman), Karen (Emma Thompson) and Mia (Heike Makatsch)

Story: Harry is the managing director of a design agency; Mia is his new secretary. For Christmas he buys her an expensive necklace from jewellery salesman Rufus (Rowan Atkinson), who elaborately wraps while Harry becomes increasingly nervous with the fear of detection. Meanwhile, Harry's wife Karen is busy dealing with their children, Daisy and Bernard, who are appearing in the school Nativity, to her brother David, who just became Prime Minister, and her friend Daniel, who has just lost his wife. Karen discovers the necklace in Harry's coat pocket and assumes it is a gift for her; Karen later confronts Harry over the necklace, who admits to foolishness.
Verdict: Basically, this story pissed me off a little. Firstly, because Karen was so nice and was probably the link that held everyone together. Who would cheat on her? That's where we come to my second point...I hate Harry for doing what he did. But then again, did he and Mia actually have an affair? Or was Mia just playing with him? Third point of pissing off-ness: what actually happened here? All we know is that Karen found a necklace, which she assumed was for her, but was actually for a young secretary at her husbands business. What about the end? It didn't seem like Harry and Karen were still in love. Which takes me back to my first point: who couldn't love her?

Sarah (Laura Linney), Karl (Rodrigo Santoro) and Michael (Michael Fitzgerald)


Yes...I realize that is Harry and not Karl...but it was impossible to find a photo of him!

Story: Sarah first appears at Juliet and Peter's wedding, sitting next to her friend Jamie. We learn she works at Harry's graphic design company, where she has been in love for years with its creative director, Karl. A tryst between Karl and herself is interrupted by Sarah's mentally ill brother, Michael, and this effectively ends their relationship. On Christmas Eve, she visits her brother at the institution where he lives, wrapping a scarf around him as he hugs her. Verdict: I liked the start of this story, and the fact that Sarah had a mentally ill brother who needed her more than anyone. What I didn't like was the fact that Karl just left her because of that fact. Talk about not understanding!

Colin (Kris Marshall) and various others.

Story: After several blunders attempting to woo various English women, including Mia and Nancy (the caterer at Juliet and Peter's wedding), Colin Frissell informs his friend Tony (Abdul Salis) he plans to go to the US and find love there. He meets Stacey (Ivana Milicevic), Jeannie (January Jones), and Carol-Anne (Elisha Cuthbert), three stunningly attractive women who fall for his Basildon accent and invite him to stay at their home. Colin accepts.
Verdict: British douchebag goes to America to pick up chicks because they will 'like his accent'. Maybe the English women were onto something...he was a douche. Well, at least he got those two girls at the end of the movie.

John (Martin Freeman) and Judy (Joanna Page)

Story: John and Judy, meet as stand-ins for the sex scenes in a movie. John tells Judy that "it is nice to have someone [he] can just chat to." The two carefully and cautiously pursue a relationship, and see the play at the local school together with John's brother.

Verdict: This is probably the most random story out of the lot of them. I don't know how often that happens: meeting your future partner as a stand in for sex scenes in a movie. But anyway, it's kinda quirky, and it's definitely something Hollywood should expand on in a future movie. And, of course, when you see them together in the epilogue, you can't help but let out an 'awwwwwwww'.

Love Actually is perhaps one of the most brilliant romantic comedies. Even if it does have a few too many stories. But that's cool, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to do this wee blog post.

Classic--Sixteen Candles

or: Growing up, John Hughes style.

One word to sum it up: Crude.

I believe that every teenage should watch at least one John Hughes film while they are growing up. Yeah, the material is a little dated because we no longer live in the craziness that was the 1980's, but the themes in his films are still relevant. Sixteen Candles is every inch the film that pretty much sums up a kid in the 80's growing up, but some of things in this film are timeless. It's just a shame that I couldn't really get into this movie because I found it rather ludicrous, to say the least.

Samantha's (Molly Ringwald) life is going downhill fast. The fifteen-year-old has a crush on the most popular boy in school, and the geekiest boy in school has a crush on her. Her sister's getting married, and with all the excitement the rest of her family forgets her birthday! Add all this to a pair of horrendously embarrassing grandparents, a foreign exchange student named Long Duc Dong, and we have the makings of a hilarious journey into young womanhood.

This film is purely John Hughes. I could see all the early developments of this masterful director coming through in this film: the strange humour, the ultra hip and often very loud soundtrack, and the famed look into the mind set of a teenager. However, I felt like this was a little too much, especially considering it was one of his earlier films. It's like David Fincher and Fight Club. While that movie was very good, Fincher often got too ahead of himself, and since then he has honed in his style and consistently makes very elaborate and smooth running movies. Hughes went a little too far with Sixteen Candles and it's humour, but his future films like The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off have better controlled writing, direction and even soundtrack, and are far more enjoyable.

In saying that, Sixteen Candles isn't a bad movie. I couldn't help but feel that this was the real beginning of all the crude teenage comedies we see these days, like Superbad. Instead of making growing up as a teenager the bore and unhappy experience that it often is, Hughes uses his signature style to make fun of it. The best thing about it is that I could relate to the heroine, Samantha Baker, in more ways than one, which is so hard to find in a teenage comedy. Molly Ringwald is a good fit in the lead character: being pretty, but not to pretty; being talented, but not mind blowing. Sixteen Candles has redemption in the great ensemble cast which even includes a young John Cusack. They fill interesting characters that do look and sound like they have come straight out of the corridors of high school. To be perfectly honest, Sixteen Candles isn't particularly memorable, and probably one of John Hughes' lesser films. But it's not a bad way to spend some time watching.


THE VERDICT: John Hughes' talent is evident, but it's like he's trying to shove it in our face. Molly Ringwald and the beginnings of the 'brat pack' offer Sixteen Candles it's chance to be a great film, a place where it never quite gets.

6/10

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Maybe watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) on a TV which got really bad reception ruined it for me. Or maybe it just didn't manage to be how I thought it would be. Or maybe my expectations were just too high.
Peter (Jason Segel) had it all. He had the TV star girlfriend, Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell), who dumped him. Devestated, he decides to go on holiday in Hawaii. Little did he know that his ex-girlfriend would be there, with her new boyfriend, eccentric rockstar Aldous Snow (Russell Brand).
To be perfectly honest, this movie was a little too raunchy. Which kind of drew the attention away from the other laughs that were hiding somewhere. It was funny, but there were no real laugh out loud moments. In fact, most of the humour came from some of the minor stars (Paul Rudd was totally boss in this film, but he is always awesome so who am I kidding?) and the clips we see from Sarah's TV show. It ended out to be a disappointment but it wasn't a total failure. If anything, it could be sweet at times, particularly because of Mila Kunis playing Rachel Jansen, who the audience can easily relate to, unlike some of the other characters.
6/10

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

'If ever a movie demanded your full attention...' was what the review read in the TV Guide. I couldn't agree more. Another film I was ashamed to say I had never watched...another film I wished that I had watched sooner. And, I guess, another film which I will be watching again. I really don't know how Charlie Kaufman could have dreamt this up.
Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) is having another depressing day, but he meets a fun-loving girl Clementine (Kate Winslet) on a train. He falls in love with her, but one day she disppears from his life. He finds out that she has had him erased from her memory. Angry, he decides to erase her from his memory too. But can he really forget about her?
Amazingly, this movie stays very realistic and you can actually relate to the people in it. If only Jim Carrey could make more movies like this, or maybe even resurrect his film career. But the real star of this show is probably Kate Winslet, who turns out her best performance in this movie. Who cares about The Reader? She was great in this movie, wacky hair colours and all.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is funny, heart-breaking and totally breathtaking. See it, you won't be disappointed.
10/10