Trouble In Paradise

1932, d. Ernst Lubitch - Criterion Channel

I have a sizeable gap in my cinematic viewing, where most films pre-1970 have escaped me save but a few.  I know very little about the auteurs of the time, and even after 40 years of film going, I'm still discovering names like Ernst Lubitch, who was cited recently on one (two, actually) of my regular podcast listens as one of the original masters of the romcom.

This one popped up on Criterion Channel this month, their only Lubitch offering, so I decided it was time to jump in.

The first thing I noticed was, as usual with early talkies, the score is overwhelming at times, and the establishing pacing is pretty slow, but once the characters are established, the dialogue picks up steam and it's just a light delight from therein.

While obviously limited technically, Lubitch has fun with both camera placement and editing.   There's a clever pan around a building (probably technically impossible back them) in which the camera pulls out of one window and pans into a shadow-covered edit, allowing for panning across a model of a building exterior, to another shadow edit and a zoom into a window on the other side of the building.  It made me smile. There are also two montage sequences here, and a two minute extended sequence just looking at a clock with dialogue carrying over as the time shifts.

There's a playfulness with language (and languages), and despite exclusively occurring in the world of high society, it's clear that this is a lampoon of it and that the filmmaker is aware of outside considerations and critiques, particularly given the post-crash ills of the era.

As a comedy, it retains so much of its humour today (taking pot shots at the rich never ages) and it has some winning performances, but the romance never really takes...the characters say they're in love but I never felt it. The artifice of the dialogue gets in the way of letting any chemistry build. The actors have to keep on talking that there's no time to just let them use their physicality to sell that side of the story. To the point that the last act complication to the established plan feels disingenuous, and forced upon by the story.

But mostly it's very pleasant viewing. Yes, more Lubitch for me please.

I do have to wonder if this was the genesis of Frasier Crane or if this particular brand of high society put-on is just a lasting comedic trope.