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Design for Living
Oct. 11th, 2022 06:24 amQuite behind on my movie reviews! And it’s only going to get worse! But I took a break from Heartland and popped down to Bloomington last weekend to see Ernst Lubitsch’s Design for Living, a 1933 pre-code about a menage a trois in Paris.
I have meant to see this movie for at least fifteen years and I am delighted that to have finally seen it, and YES it was worth the wait even though I must admit upfront that the characters never do make it all the way to “solve love triangle with polyamory?” Perhaps they’ll get there sometime in the future. They all three do love each other very much.
Commercial artist Gilda meets her two young men when they share a compartment on a train ride across France. George (played by Gary Cooper) is an artist; Tom is a playwright. They are currently sharing a garret in full bohemian squalor.
Each unbeknownst to the other, they both fall for Gilda. When they discover this fact, they quarrel, then agree that it’s silly to throw away eleven years of friendship for a “bit of fluff”... only for the bit of fluff to arrive in their flat. She tosses herself on the divan (a cloud of dust arises), informs them that she loves them both, and suggests they all live together. There’s just one ground rule: “No sex!” says Gilda, and they all shake on it.
This works fine until (through Gilda’s harsh critical acumen) Tom finally gets a play produced… in London. He leaves to watch over the production, and Gilda and George fall into each other’s arms. “We had a gentleman’s agreement,” Gilda sighs, “but I… am no gentleman.”
About a year later, understandably sore, Tom returns… just when George is away, painting a portrait, because he has finally begun to succeed as a painter because of Gilda’s ferocious critical judgment. Tom finds his old typewriter - rusting - unoiled - unable even to ding! He and Gilda quarrel, Tom is on the verge of leaving, Gilda picks up the neglected typewriter… and it dings.
The next morning, George arrives back, finds Tom and Gilda at breakfast in full evening dress, makes the obvious and correct assumption, and, well… Gilda steps out to pack, ostensibly to leave with Tom, but in actual fact she leaves them both notes informing them that she can’t bear to destroy their friendship or their art careers so she is going to marry the boring man who had been pursuing her for most of the movie! Tom and George get drunk. The typewriter dings again.
Gilda is just as bored as you might expect with her boring husband… but just when she seems about to do something desperate, George and Tom show up! She is hiding in her room from a dull party downstairs, and George and Tom arise from behind a dressing screen in her bedroom. They talk and laugh and are having a wonderful time… when boring husband walks in. George and Tom look at him, pull sad faces, walk back behind the screen, and sink back down.
(Lubitsch got his start in silent film and his movies are full of clever visual moments like this.)
Gilda and boring husband fight! Boring husband informs Gilda he will forgive her! Gilda informs him that she doesn’t intend to be forgiven, and leaves while he takes a phone call from a client, well aware that he will be unable to bring himself to hang up on the man even though it means watching his wife leave him.
Gilda and George and Tom speed off into the night in the back of a taxi. They will return to Paris! Gilda will criticize them mercilessly again! “There’s just one thing,” Gilda says, and puts out her hand, and they all shake once again… END.
I have meant to see this movie for at least fifteen years and I am delighted that to have finally seen it, and YES it was worth the wait even though I must admit upfront that the characters never do make it all the way to “solve love triangle with polyamory?” Perhaps they’ll get there sometime in the future. They all three do love each other very much.
Commercial artist Gilda meets her two young men when they share a compartment on a train ride across France. George (played by Gary Cooper) is an artist; Tom is a playwright. They are currently sharing a garret in full bohemian squalor.
Each unbeknownst to the other, they both fall for Gilda. When they discover this fact, they quarrel, then agree that it’s silly to throw away eleven years of friendship for a “bit of fluff”... only for the bit of fluff to arrive in their flat. She tosses herself on the divan (a cloud of dust arises), informs them that she loves them both, and suggests they all live together. There’s just one ground rule: “No sex!” says Gilda, and they all shake on it.
This works fine until (through Gilda’s harsh critical acumen) Tom finally gets a play produced… in London. He leaves to watch over the production, and Gilda and George fall into each other’s arms. “We had a gentleman’s agreement,” Gilda sighs, “but I… am no gentleman.”
About a year later, understandably sore, Tom returns… just when George is away, painting a portrait, because he has finally begun to succeed as a painter because of Gilda’s ferocious critical judgment. Tom finds his old typewriter - rusting - unoiled - unable even to ding! He and Gilda quarrel, Tom is on the verge of leaving, Gilda picks up the neglected typewriter… and it dings.
The next morning, George arrives back, finds Tom and Gilda at breakfast in full evening dress, makes the obvious and correct assumption, and, well… Gilda steps out to pack, ostensibly to leave with Tom, but in actual fact she leaves them both notes informing them that she can’t bear to destroy their friendship or their art careers so she is going to marry the boring man who had been pursuing her for most of the movie! Tom and George get drunk. The typewriter dings again.
Gilda is just as bored as you might expect with her boring husband… but just when she seems about to do something desperate, George and Tom show up! She is hiding in her room from a dull party downstairs, and George and Tom arise from behind a dressing screen in her bedroom. They talk and laugh and are having a wonderful time… when boring husband walks in. George and Tom look at him, pull sad faces, walk back behind the screen, and sink back down.
(Lubitsch got his start in silent film and his movies are full of clever visual moments like this.)
Gilda and boring husband fight! Boring husband informs Gilda he will forgive her! Gilda informs him that she doesn’t intend to be forgiven, and leaves while he takes a phone call from a client, well aware that he will be unable to bring himself to hang up on the man even though it means watching his wife leave him.
Gilda and George and Tom speed off into the night in the back of a taxi. They will return to Paris! Gilda will criticize them mercilessly again! “There’s just one thing,” Gilda says, and puts out her hand, and they all shake once again… END.
