Film: Trouble In Paradise (Lubitsch)

Watching Trouble in Paradise last night, it struck me anew how Ernst Lubitsch really was one of the great innovators of the early sound period.  Released in 1932, the 'Lubitsch touch' is all over this picture, and it sure marks him out from many of his contemporaries -seemingly invisible editing that makes scenes flow seamlessly, laugh out loud comic touches that enliven every setup, and most importantly, a genius way with language, a delight in how meaningful and meaningless words can be.

What gives this film a certain boost over the many movies that followed in its wake was the timing of its release - eighteen months later and the enforcement of the Hays code would have stamped all over a film this amoral. The plot concerns two thieves ingratiated in the higher echelons of Venetian society who scope each other out and fall in love.  The 'Count' then falls for the enormously wealthy Madame Colet, a perfume manufacturer him and his lover are supposed to be stealing from.  The partner swapping that ensues happens free and easy, as does the theft, and there's never any question of criminal or romantic justice being served. 

One of the most remarkable aspects of Trouble In Paradise is the proliferation of phatic utterances, with language acting merely as a way to fill air.  It's a great celebration of the possibilities of sound in the cinema, as well as a hilarious riff on the function of language in bourgeois life - take for example the many montages of people absentmindedly responding to any-and-everything Colet says ('Yes Madame Colet', 'Yes Madame Colet') or the nonsensical chatter of the policemen when interviewing Monsieur Filiba.  What's fascinating is how all this innuendo and amorality seeps in under this noise through the great punning and wit of the dialogue, the language flowing as effortlessly and seamlessly as the camera.  This way of playing dirty underneath the surface of language must have been hugely influential to the directors of the great screwball comedies of the 30s and 40s, who had to find ever more elaborate ways of sidestepping the era of censorship the code heralded.