So This Is Paris

Sellaista on Pariisissa / Inte ett ord till min fru. US (c) 1926 Warner Bros. P+D: Ernst Lubitsch. SC: Hans Kraly - based on the play Réveillon (1872) by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. DP: John Mescall. Starring: Monte Blue (Dr. Paul Giraud), Patsy Ruth Miller (Suzanne Giraud), André Beranger (Maurice Lallé), Lilyan Tashman (Georgette Lallé). 1821 m /22 fps/ 79 min. Print Narodni filmovy archiv (Prague) /20 fps/ 70 min. Czech titles, e-subtitles AA. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 4 March 2008. The final film in Lubitsch's series of six sophisticated silent comedies and dramas in Hollywood, all for Warner Bros. except Forbidden Paradise. This is the funniest by the simple test of pure laughs in the audience. The timing is perfect, and the visual style is at its most brilliant. Simple and elegant, with a fine sense of perception (looks, windows, reflections). The cane becomes a prop with accumulating meaning, including a disturbing dream sequence, until the cane is finally thrown into the fire. Simple things become funny, such as crossing the street and men lying down in exhaustion. The theme of mistaken perception starts with a misunderstanding at the window and ends with the drunken hero not recognizing his own wife. The visual tricks and effects are nice, such as the hero literally shrinking. The climax is of course the famous Cubistic charleston sequence, a symbol of the Jazz Age. Even in this dupe from a worn and incomplete print one can sense the visual elegance of the original .