Cold Bishop wrote:vivahawks wrote:It's a classic because it works completely as a romantic comedy while simultaneously probing the assumptions and implications of the form. That's why at first glance and in bits and pieces it seems so "normal": it neatly follows all the rules of the game, the meet-cute, the misunderstandings, etc, but then it taps into the real emotions behind these cliches and compares them with the cookie-cutter responses the characters and audience expect. And it does turn out to be a dangerous film and a dreadful one in the true sense, because what's worse than to find out that all your pretensions and lofty ideas about love, life, destiny, etc are trite and derivative? And like many of the greatest Hollywood films Shop wraps this dark and complex level up in the most charming and entertaining packaging possible, so you can choose for yourself whether to examine it closely or not.
So you're saying the movie gets more interesting?
What makes
Shop Around the Corner work for me most of all is that it's one of the few comedies that really is about the workplace experience -- not a fantasy version of it, or a sentimental "working people" version, or the workplace nightmare from Billy Wilder's
The Apartment (or for that matter the Lubitsch
If I Had a Million sketch that influenced the look of
Apartment), but just the everyday reality of people who need to work and can't afford to lose their jobs.
Lubitsch and Raphaelson filled
Shop with these moments that really ring true, such as the uncomfortable situation of having your boss ask you for his opinion on his stupid idea (and the varying reactions of the employees: Jimmy Stewart tells him straight out that it's a bad idea, Ilona tries to find something noncommittal to say, Joseph Schildkraut sucks up and Felix Bressart's character just runs away and hides), or trying to get away from work a little early so you can go on a date, or dealing with the boss when he's in a bad mood, or the "routine" retail workers have to go through with their customers. The romantic comedy has extra depth because it takes place in this real atmosphere of the working life, between two people who have real-world work problems on their minds and often argue over work issues. Most romantic comedies, including Lubitsch's, are about people who either don't have to work or for whom work is a secondary concern. Here it's at the heart of everything.
And so many key moments in the film have extra resonance because of that real atmosphere of workplace politics, like when Felix Bressart, a character who is deathly afraid of losing his job and constantly worries about making ends meet for his family (including paying for medical care) admonishes Frank Morgan for firing Jimmy Stewart: the moment could be small, but instead it's a big moment because we know how fearful this man is of saying anything that might cost him his job.
I'd compare it, in a weird way, to
The Office (both versions). Whether that means that John Krasinski is the new Jimmy Stewart is another matter entirely.