So This Is Paris (1926)

(On Cable TV, May 2021) Isn’t it fun when movies upset our preconceptions? Prior to seeing So This is Paris, I would have been tempted to associate Ernest Lubitsch with wonderful dialogue. I would have been likely to dismiss the very idea of a silent musical. I could have argued that sophisticated ironic comedies were non-existent in the silent era. But then there’s So This is Paris, compelling at a whip-tight 80 minutes that takes on the idea of a married couple having affairs with another couple. It all gets complicated when one of the men is arrested and sentenced to jail and identities get mixed up. Comedic on a far more intimate scale than the Chaplin or Keaton movies of the era, it’s a film that clearly anticipates the witty sound comedies that Lubitsch would go on to direct — there’s more than a few well-placed gags, ironic commentary (all the way to a final title card that gets a big laugh), protagonists that certainly aren’t virtuous, a mature outlook on sex and marriage, all wrapped up in self-confident directing that doesn’t waste a moment. Most amazing of all is a lavish musical number featuring a contemporary depiction of the Charleston — we modern audiences are gifted with a rhythmic soundtrack that practically makes us hear the dancing performers, but let’s appreciate the sheer gall of a musical number in a silent film. For a 95-year-old film, So This is Paris is spry and surprising — and it’s nearly enough to make you curious about what else gets (unfairly) dismissed as “a silent film.”