Sadly, contemporary comedic movies usually offer us a boring combination of juvenile antics and crude language. Fortunately, when we want light-hearted entertainment, we are not limited to the offerings of modern film makers. Technology allows us to enjoy some the cinematic gems of the past. And Ninotchka is one of those gems.
Greta Garbo is Nina Ivanovna “Ninotchka” Yakushova. In one of her last roles, Garbo presents two very starkly different views of the individual within a single movie.
At the beginning of the movie, Ninotchka is a stern Soviet emissary, sent to Paris to negotiate the sale of Czarist jewels that were “legally confiscated.” Her primary concern is obtaining the maximum price for the jewels because the money is needed to feed the Soviet people. While in Paris, she also hopes to learn more about the Western world, such as traffic control, the Eiffel Tower, and electricity generation.
Unbeknownst to her, she happens to meet the representative for the Grand Duchess whose jewels that Ninotchka is offering for sale. Hesitantly, she finds herself falling in love with the representative, even though she believes that love is individualistic and therefore improper for a Comrade to experience.
Ninotchka is torn between her devotion to the Revolution and her own desires. She experiences a conflict between her belief that individuals must serve some “higher cause” and her own personal values and happiness.
Esthetically, Ninotchka is a delight. Garbo is believable as a repressed servant of “the people.” And she is equally believable as she transforms into a woman who places her own happiness above “the people.”
Philosophically, Ninotchka is also a delight. It dramatizes the difference between living for others and living for oneself.
Though a comedy, Ninotchka presents a choice that is not a laughing matter. Our personal happiness depends on the choice we make. Ninotchka shows us the proper choice.