"“I’ve been to Paris, France and Paris, Paramount. I prefer Paris, Paramount,” Ernst Lubitsch once famously remarked. This is Lubitsch and Paris, Paramount, at their absolute peak."

"I wanted to throw a comedy in there. I just remember seeing that movie, and Jimmy Stewart, and just the whole way Ernst Lubitsch tells his story comedically… I’m sure there were ones that came before that, but to me it felt innovative in the sense that it was a bunch of disparate storylines coming together in the end.#"

"To use another alcohol metaphor, owning the Criterion DVD of Ernst Lubitsch’s endlessly effervescent 1932 masterpiece is like being able to uncork and savor the same bottle of expensive champagne over and over again. A love triangle among social-climbing riffraff and upper-class beauties (call it “The Thief, the Pickpocket, and the Perfume Executive”), with Herbert Marshall torn between the beautiful Miriam Hopkins and the stunning Kay Francis, Trouble in Paradise has the great advantage of being made before the Code. It’s as frank and scintillating as it is urbane and surprisingly touching, and it’s one of the rare American screen comedies to be completely comfortable with European sophistication. Peter Bogdanovich’s video introduction lucidly explains the meaning of the “Lubitsch touch.”"

"And Ninotchka. You know Ninotchka? I recommend it. It’s kind of a mess, too. It was before, you know, we got slick editing tools, so it kind of chops along. You can tell that they shot one thing one day, and then when her hair was a little longer, they shot it again. [laughs] It’s Ernst Lubitsch, wonderful director, not too many comedies, and I think that’s kind of the reason for the not-so-fluid flow of this film. But it’s Greta Garbo being funny – I’m a huge Greta Garbo fan – and it shows she has a sense of humor about herself, behind all that Swedish draw; she had a great sense of humor about herself. And I just love Melvyn Douglas; he’s wonderful in it."