Kay Vs. Miriam; or, Everybody Wins!

Okay, seriously, who can choose between Kay Francis & Miriam Hopkins? And does Ernst Lubitsch demonstrate his genius in any way more clearly than in his ability to cast hot, smart women (or at least women who come across as such in their roles)? I mean, I'm not writing an essay on Trouble in Paradise (1932) just because it's a great film (which it is). Getting to spend a lot of time watching Francis & Hopkins is a major plus - Miriam Hopkins' gown in the first scene alone is worth the price of admission.

Far be it from me to engage in idolatry of eras past whilst bemoaning an inadequate present, but Lubitsch's film has more joy & sex - & takes more joy in sex, really - in a single frame than any recent film of which I can think (see also: Lubitsch's Design for Living (1933), also starring Hopkins). Q: Why is sex either nonexistent, rendered impotent by excessive cutesy-ness, or made so ugly as to be unbearable in nearly every contemporary movie which flickers across a screen? Even allegedly sophisticated Euro-film suffers from this problem, at least insofar as I am aware. I do believe that Catherine Breillat is trying to single-handedly eradicate the act of sex entirely by ensuring that anybody who suffers through one of her films (& one is enough, believe me) will feel so gross about sex that they will never want to engage in it again.

Ugh. I don't want to think about her anymore. I'm gonna look at the rest of my pictures of beautiful girls from the 1930s.