Ninotchka

Last week we went to see Ninotchka, the movie classic from 1939 with Greta Garbo. It's an amazing movie. It is very funny, and a wonderful break from the coarse, high speed rubbish that is shown in movie theaters in our times. Moreover, it made me think about the possibilities of teaching history through fictional movies.

Every now and then I show my students documentaries about historical events or developments, such as the WWI, the Cold War or Vietnam. Most of the time these documentaries are old, produced by people that (apparently) have no experience with teenagers, and the voice-over is usually so funny that it even makes me laugh.

At the same time, it amazes me how my students enjoy watching a fictional movie, even if it is not the average Hollywood product that they are used to. When I took my students to see 'The lives of others' about life in Eastern-Germany, they loved it. They were quiet throughout the entire 2,5 hour movie, and people even came to me afterwards to complement me on the wonderful behaviour of my students *blush*.

Apparently, living through historical events through the eyes of a fictional movie character brings history to life. In this way, Ninotchka could be a wonderful means to teach about communist Russia during Stalin's reign, and especially compare life in a communit society to that in a capitalist one (in this case Paris). Although in university the necessity of footnotes and correct sources is always stressed, I believe that for highschool students the way Ninotchka dreams about being able to buy a real French hat shows the negative sides of communism better than dry statistics about the number of victims of Stalin's terror.

The same holds true for the scene in Ninotchka's tiny apartment, that she has to share with three other 'comerades' and the censored letter she receives from her lover in Paris. The movie could also be used not at the end, but at the beginning of a series of lessons on communism. The students could then be given a little booklet with pictures from the movie and questions about certain scenes, and from there different historical events and actors could be introduced.

Ninotchka with Kopalski, Buljanoff and Iranoff