A Foreign Affair (1948)

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1. 

   kameeltje

   I stil can't believe that Arthur and Dietrich were 47 and 46 when they played in this movie. They look fabulously! 6 years 10 months ago
2. 

   meerkate

   What an enchanting performance by Jean Arthur! 7 years 1 month ago
3. 

   Siskoid

   What a strange platypus of a film A Foreign Affair is. With a title like that, and the post-war Berlin setting, you'd think it was a spy-adjacent thriller, and it does have some of those elements. But it also contains some rather educational/didactic moments where the film is trying to convince you that America is doing good work rebuilding Germany, and there's a strong focus on the Marlene Dietrich-John Lund love affair, which pegs it as a romance. But then there's Jean Arthur, in the interesting role (at least at first) of a prim, puritanical Republican congresswoman come to see the "good work" for herself. And the comedic vibe her reactions give off eventually turn A Foreign Affair into outright comedy, albeit a comedy where people can get shot, that includes Nazis, and that very toxic "romance". (I don't know how we're supposed to like Lund's character when his whole flirting strategy is threatening Dietrich with violence.) I'm not saying the mix of drama and comedy doesn't work, because it does, but the movie keeps changing directions, much like Arthur's character who, once the romcom takes hold, because a silly, flighty thing all of a sudden. It's got memorable scenes - like Dietrich's "Black Market" song - but mostly, this felt as awkward as its jokes about Nazis. 1 year 7 months ago

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