I hope you all noticed the gigantic (6 foot high) and very phallic vase that appears in the background during the Bankhead-Eythe tete-a-tetes? It's hard to believe that this wasn't a deliberate part of the "Lubitsch touch"!
shareThat thing visible at the 24 minute mark?
It's a Russian hot water tank used to heat the room.
I am not sure about the vase-like heating device, but I am sure
this smashing vases was a symbol of how politics smash countries purely out of rage
The film came out in 1945. It was produced at the peak of the second world war. It is an incredible funny movie, at the same time, it is a sharp critique against all politics. Politics are like predators. Everybody leads intrigues, spies and everybody denies everything. Nobody means what they say and when said, nobody has to tell it. The foreign marquees are only concerned about the Olgas in life. The revolutionaries are only waiting to loot. She - the Czarina - wants peace of course, on the other hand, there would be nothing to say against a small peninsula at the black see. The Czarina is conceited, bored. She loves her status, where she is justified to command everybody and to play the grand diva. At the same time, she hates her responsibilities being „mother russia“, she only strives for personal passion and love. She plays with lives of everybody the same games over and over again. She is mainly considered about her aging and „domestic affairs“.
And then there comes our knight in shining armor: He is portrayed as the perfect soldier: loyal, selfless, full of duty, respect, honor, integrity, and personal courage. Is he the hero who safes Russia? No, he is the biggest fool, which he even learns to understand at the end. The only value somebody like him has: to look simply divine in that white uniform. One message of the movie is clearly: Heroism and idealism lead to nowhere. His naive and dumb idealism would destroy even the ones closest to him (Anna). Such young guys do not belong to the war, they belong to their Annas, to simple homes in the countryside. ...
... The only person that sees through this political mess is the chancellor, corrupt of course, but at least he manages to keep some balance in the country. „You know what’s going on behind every door, but you don’t know what's happening on your roof.“ Politics are not about plans and consequences, you won’t know then, politics are a vage oscillating field of forces. Good politics are to play all the destructible political forces against each other, to outplay them, in order to prevent self-destruction. Who lived in 1945 saw all political systems fail (whether empires, democracies, dictatorships or left and right), political ideals lead to total destruction. No country benefitted from the wars. Whoever gets into power, will misuse it. Corruption is always part of the game. What the politics do is never helping the simple peasants (neither the actions of the throne nor Lt Chernoffs 51 edicts). The people have it best when left alone and have fun together.
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