Join the (Cinema) Club: Ninotchka with Charles Ramirez Berg
Sunday, January 31
Alamo Drafthouse Downtown (320 E 6th Street)
6:30pm
[info] | [tickets]
Of course, you could just go look it up on Wikipedia, and read all about it, find out that it was a “1939 American film made for Metro Goldwyn Mayer by producer and director Ernst Lubitsch which stars Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. It was written by Billy Wilder…” But that’s boring. Hey, if you love reading so much, go be a writer. No, this is for filmmakers and film lovers who want to experience the picture and talk about it with others who are as into it as they are. It’s about members of a community sharing ideas…and eating some pizza and drinking beers.
The story, about Russians in Paris trying to sell jewelry that was confiscated from the Russian Revolution, casts Garbo as a Soviet envoy whose goal is to complete the sale and bring back her compatriots. Over the course of the film, the charms of the western world (and Melvyn Douglas) melt her tough outer shell, and love ensues.
Ninotchka, the one-time silent movie star’s comedy debut, received four Academy Award nominations, including a best actress nod for Garbo, who—interesting fact—was at one point recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most beautiful woman who ever lived.
But enough words. Go get the full cinematic experience and benefit from the wisdom of an actual expert. Because hey, as the hilarious comedian Sinbad (who isn’t dead in spite of what Wikipedia said) knows, you can’t trust everything you read.
