Trouble in Paradise 4K 1932

A truly subtle, elegant, unhurried, and... tender film. It feels so unusual to watch a movie like this after the Hollywood “machine-gun comedies” of the 1930s. This is one of Lubitsch’s earliest sound films. How elegantly he handles sound! He embraces it with such tenderness, care, and love; without sarcasm, carefully exploring this new phenomenon as a new way of storytelling. There was something similar in Fritz Lang’s film ‘M’, 1931 (remember the protagonist’s characteristic whistle).

The film is utterly light and airy—it draws you in from the very first minutes. Beautiful women, polite men, subtle jokes, and an unexpected climax—all this is found in Lubitsch’s elegant romantic comedy. The film may not have you rolling on the floor laughing, but certainly, as one critic put it, ‘the bubbles from the champagne will still be tickling your nose long after you’ve finished watching.’