5. The Love Parade

My guest for this month is Jessie Char, and she’s joined me to discuss the film I chose for her, the 1929 Pre-Code musical comedy The Love Parade. You can follow the show on Twitter @cinemagadfly.

Show notes:

Ernst Lubitsch was nominated for three Academy Awards, including for this film
Maurice Chevalier was a very, very French man
The queen was played by the very talented Jeanette MacDonald
The Listicle is an article format that allows for quick writing, often without much thought
The song that Jessie describes as being an adult version of Once Upon a Dream from Sleeping Beauty is called Dream Lover
The Hays Code made it impossible to make a film as irreverent about adult themes as this one
The song where they’re signing goodbye to Paris is called Paris, Stay the Same
Unlike, say, The Sixth Sense, this movie can’t really be spoiled
It cannot be overstated, that this film has virtually nothing in common with the Larry Clark film Kids. Except in the way that it does
The song about being common is called Let’s Be Common
If only Maurice Chevalier could have had an iPad and the Internet
Harrison Ford as Han Solo says and does some things that would come off as super creepy if done by almost anyone else
Bill Hader could have done a phenomenal Maurice Chevalier impression on Saturday Night Live
Lupino Lane, who plays Chevalier’s French servant, was in fact a very British man
Perhaps this film isn’t a strong example of Second-wave feminism
On the other hand, maybe it is an example of Third-wave feminism
Maurice Chevalier was born in 1888, which means he’d be 127 today
The iPhone 6S Plus shoots native 4K video, which is capable of fully reproducing the quality of 35MM film
Jessie’s website is a website

This film is really only available as part of the Eclipse Series 8: Lubitsch Musicals set from Criterion, which you can also buy from Amazon