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The lure, too strong, you crumble!

Ninotchka (1939)

At one look, it appears like a movie from the genre of, what we would call 'romcom' (romantic comedy). Look deeper, it is a parody of communism and poking fun at the lifestyle of Bolsheviks who oust their bourgeois to distribute the wealth of the nation to the working class people. Look deeper still, you will find the unanswerable question of life. Is the purpose of life is to enjoy the moment, here and now or is it a journey of self-discovery, self-discipline, following of a preset path for a mission to be attained at the end of it all?

This preWW2 film was banned in the Soviet Union and its controlled countries as it painted a lifeless, caricatured and an automaton-like picture of Soviet people and its officers. In the film, life in Russia is portrayed as pathetic. Living in cramped quarters with privacy being an alien word and eating omelette is a luxurious cuisine.

It is the post-Bolshevik Russia and three Soviet officers are sent to Paris to auction off a set of jewellery from the aristocratic collections to finance the Stalin's 5-year plan programme. (There is a joke in the movie about the 5-year-plan taking 15 years to complete!)

The three bumbling officers, drawn to city lights and the lure of Paris orchestrated by exiled Russian bourgeoisie, go astray from their duties. Soviet authorities send their straight talking business minded special officer Ninotchka Yakushova to put things straight. Things were going right for the Russians until Ninotchka fell in love with the lure of private ownership, commercialism, the luxury of life in the free world and a hopelessly romantic playboy and a Count.

At the end of the day, personal ambitions, drive to do the good thing for the greater God and to do the right thing all took a backseat. The inner primordial desire to satisfy lust, to enjoy the finer things in life, sloth and greed won. No matter how hard one tries to attain his ambitions, Man, being Man, crumbles to his indwelling biological needs. You can only suppress the feelings to a certain extent. He would ponder on the futility of this exercise when the environment he is in is not hostile. He would question the necessity to prepare for an uncertain catastrophe, which in his current situation would appear remote or even non-existent. That is when he would the shields down and tell himself that he had a fool all these while. But has he?


Memorable lines
  • This picture takes place in Paris in those wonderful days when a siren was a brunette and not an alarm --- and if a Frenchman turned out the light, it was not on account of an air raid! (Introduction)
  • "I was hurt when the swallows left us in the winter for capitalistic countries.  Now I know why! We have the high ideals, they have the climate!" 'says Nintschka when she opens a Parisian hotel window to appreciate the capitalistc air!
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