Under the influence of Champagne, a frivolous hat, and the City of Lights, Greta Garbo goes from humorless Communist apparatchik to a giggling woman in love in this effervescent 1939 romantic comedy from Ernst Lubitsch. It’s the movie that made headlines – “Garbo Laughs!” – and the stern-faced screen icon is irresistible when she uncorks her first guffaw. Screening as part of Austin Film Society’s Love Month, Garbo’s romance with Melvyn Douglas isn’t going to race any pulses, but my heart is always going to thump for the indelible character actors Lubitsch stocked his comedies with, like the scraggly-mustached Felix Bressart, an emigré just like Lubitsch. – Kimberley Jones
