trouble in paradise

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

has made me realize what ASS the code really was.

i bet AMATEURIST likes this movie. I WONDER WHAT HE HAS TO SAY ABOUT IT.

and yeah anyone else too.

"Marriage is a beautiful mistake which two people make together. But with you, Francois, I think it would be a mistake."

Gaston Monescu: Madame Colet, if I were your father, which fortunately I am not, and you made any attempt to handle your own business affairs, I would give you a good spanking--in a business way, of course.
Mariette Colet: What would you do if you were my secretary?
Gaston Monescu: The same thing.
Mariette Colet: You're hired.

― John (jdahlem), Thursday, 13 January 2005 17:17 (twenty years ago)

One of my favorite movies ever.

― Michael White (Hereward), Thursday, 13 January 2005 17:20 (twenty years ago)

Gaston: That's hotel life. In one room, a man loses his wallet, and in another room, a man loses his head.
Lily: Please! When I came here, it was for a little adventure, a little game which you play tonight and forget tomorrow. Something's changed me; and it isn't the champagne. Oh, the whole thing's so new to me. I have a confession to make to you. Baron, you are a crook. You robbed the gentleman in 253, 5, 7, and 9. May I have the salt.
Gaston: (as he passes the salt) Please.
Lily: Thank you.
Gaston: The pepper too?
Lily: No thank you.
Gaston: You're very welcome. Countess, believe me, before you left this room I would have told you everything. And let me say this with love in my heart. Countess, you are a thief. The wallet of the gentleman in 253, 5, 7, and 9 is in your possession. I knew it very well when you took it out of my pocket. In fact, you tickled me. But your embrace was so sweet.

― Michael White (Hereward), Thursday, 13 January 2005 17:22 (twenty years ago)

john i'm not sure what you mean to say about the code. the relationship b/t hollywood self-censorship and artistic practice is really complicated and the whole pre-code vs. post-code framework doesn't really encapsulate it.

and yes, i love this movie. to pieces.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 13 January 2005 19:06 (twenty years ago)

you should see "design for living", it's like "trouble in paradise pt. 2."

mmmmm miriam hopkins mmmmm

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 13 January 2005 19:07 (twenty years ago)

I can't wait to see this new footage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/09/movies/09kehr.html?adxnnl=1&oref=login&adxnnlx=1105643348-/NpxOhzizt4nBpXV6BmocA

'Design for Living' is great, btw.

― Michael White (Hereward), Thursday, 13 January 2005 19:10 (twenty years ago)

"john i'm not sure what you mean to say about the code."

i dunno dude i thought that's what the guy in the intro said but i wasn't really paying attention, that this would've been impossible post-code.

"design for living" is apparently not available thru netflix and therefore i cannot see it. :-(

mw i'm so not surprised you're a fan.

― John (jdahlem), Thursday, 13 January 2005 19:14 (twenty years ago)

there were definitely things that became impossible or at least v. difficult to do after a certain set of shifts in the enforcement of the code--actually what really happened more often than outright censorship was that the enforced "morality" became more smoothly integrated into the films' narratives. rather than the tacked-on moralistic/redemptive endings you often find in so-called "pre-code" films.

actually i need to learn a lot more about this--there's a lot of research that needs to be done actually. if you're interested lea jacobs's "wages of sin" is one of the best books on the american cinema EVER.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 13 January 2005 19:16 (twenty years ago)

xpost:
Lubitsch Lubitsch Lubitsch. That's what I'M talking about!

Billy Wilder can't even mention his name without a tear coming to his eye.

Amsts on the money re code complications. Getting around the code worked pretty well for a while, at least until the arrival of the virginal widescreen buxom blondes of the 50s, but no doubt someone will dispute that too.

re: the movie under discussion
Truffaut points to the scene of Edward Everett Horton finally jogging his memory by looking at the ashtray as an example of Lubitch's movie mastery.

― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 13 January 2005 19:17 (twenty years ago)

everyone should buy the box set "more treasures from american film archives" b/c it has my second favorite lubitsch film on it: "lady windermere's fan"

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 13 January 2005 19:19 (twenty years ago)

I like a couple of them with Maurice Chevalier in them, One Hour With You and another one with Jeannette MacDonald. I forget the name of it, but he says: "I try to bring a little moonlight into your life and you pull down the shade!"

― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 13 January 2005 19:22 (twenty years ago)

Lubitsch's use of the warbling MacDonald is the one unforgivable aspect of his otherwise shimmering career.

― Michael White (Hereward), Thursday, 13 January 2005 19:24 (twenty years ago)

i think this is one of the first threads i started on ILX, if not THE first:

Maurice Chevalier, C or D?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 13 January 2005 19:25 (twenty years ago)

i think this is one of the first threads i started on ILX, if not THE first:

Maurice Chevalier, C or D?

xpost

i like jeanette macdonald fine, it's only the movies with nelson eddy that are hard to take

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 13 January 2005 19:26 (twenty years ago)

my favorite moment in any film ever (=slight hyperbole) is in "one hour with you," where chevalier appears at the threshold of his boudoir and says "vive la france!" to the audience, then closes the door. wakka-wakka.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 13 January 2005 19:28 (twenty years ago)

i get a few of those early lubitsch sound films mixed up in my head. "one-hour love parade of smiling in monte carlo."

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 13 January 2005 19:30 (twenty years ago)

xpost:
My equivalent moment is the wedding night to wedding morning sequence in Design for Living when:(all without cutting) door closes, night ensues, lightens up a little as dawn approaches, rooster crows perhaps, newspaper is thrown at door (inside the house!) and a little while later, a shellshocked striped-pyjama wearing Edward Everett Horton emerges to get his paper.

― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 13 January 2005 19:32 (twenty years ago)

ok sure we can talk about dialogue lubitsch the actors etc but what we all know makes this a GREAT film is that the central character is a DEBONAIR THIEF. i maintain that it is impossible to make a bad movie about a DEBONAIR THIEF, be it trouble in paradise, grand hotel, to catch a thief, the thomas crown affairs, the good thief, the pink panther/the pink panther returns (ok the best by a longshot is 'a shot in the dark' but still), etc. i call this my dtt, DEBONAIR THIEF THEORY.

― John (jdahlem), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:17 (twenty years ago)

Isn't there a point where she gets mad at him and says something like "Why you're not a thief at all, you're nothing but a cheap gigolo!"?

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:20 (twenty years ago)

yeah there is! that scene was fantastic, i wish i could remember the exact quote. i might have to go watch it again now.

― John (jdahlem), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:22 (twenty years ago)

oh my god, the women in this film...

― Miles Finch, Friday, 14 January 2005 16:22 (twenty years ago)

ok imdb to the rescue:

Lily Vautier: Darling, remember, you are Gaston Monescu. You are a crook. I want you as a crook. I love you as a crook. I worship you as a crook. Steal, swindle, rob. Oh, but don't become one of those useless, good-for-nothing gigolos.

― John (jdahlem), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:23 (twenty years ago)

Film Forum had a Lubitsch retro last year where I saw about ten features new to me, including a silent he *starred* in.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0022074/

This one has Claudette Colbert & Miriam Hopkins singing "Brighten Up Your Lingerie"! (Two of the guys in "Cinemania" watch it.)

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:27 (twenty years ago)

He was a big star in Germany! Meyer, was that what his character was called?

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:30 (twenty years ago)

I love how Lubitsch has Marshall's stand-in run up and down the stairs (since Marshall had a wooden leg).

― Michael White (Hereward), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:39 (twenty years ago)

hi dere, I like this movie.

― Remy IS THE Snush (x Jeremy), Saturday, 15 January 2005 07:35 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.