A good movie

To be honest, it did seem to be a rather obscure movie from the 20’s but, since it was directed by Ernst Lubitsch and since it was available on YouTube, I thought I might as well check it out. It’s rather funny and interesting how, back then, almost 100 years ago, they could make a movie like this one with just a handful of characters and barely a plot at all. Indeed, the damned thing was really about pretty much nothing as it focused on 2 couples living across each other and who basically swapped partners. Eventually, it was all really daft and actually way too feather-light for my taste and, yet, I have to admit that the damned thing turned out to be quite entertaining after all. Indeed, the 4 actors involved (Monte Blue, Patsy Ruth Miller, George Beranger, Lilyan Tashman) were all pretty good but I was above all impressed by their body language. Back then, like all other movies, it was silent, but, in this case, I was really neat how they managed with only their face and their body to say so much and, above all, to be so hilarious. My favorite one was probably Monte Blue playing Dr Giraud as he had the best bits. Concerning the directing, Ernst Lubitsch was one of the early masters, especially in in this genre, and the fact that the damned thing worked so well was probably thanks to his directing but, to be honest, it didn’t see anything really fancy in this area. Indeed, it seemed all fairly basic to me but I’m probably not expert enough in this area to make an educated analysis. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t really a masterpiece, it was still a solid minimalistic comedy and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

7/10