Ninotchka

Ernst Lubitsch - 1939
Lubitsch's style goes for some sort of establishing, and then, crucially, a great fluidity as we move in and about our closer work. The establishing can occasionally seem almost cursory, and focus more on a wider world (i.e., a whole city) than telling us eaxct room layouts. Elegant, sometimes quite complex pans ans tracks make a frame that has a certain airiness and roominess. When necessary, Garbo and other characters pop from their background by reducing depth of focus, coulour differences, and turning up the backlight in the usual three-point setup.
For standing-up we largely work with plan americain, just above the knees maybe, and we come to waist-high medium shots for sitting. These can be extremely long takes.
Lubitsch's editing is rythmic in the sense that he knows how to use certain framings for a punctuation. That is, the timing of a reaction shot, or using a close-up when one has not come before. Their is also the famous Lubitsch discretion, which is perhaps most notable when parties are shown from noises behind a door, or in small details (portraits etc) in the mis-en-scene.
The narrative here works as central long scenes which drive the plot on (and include within these dialogues shadings), often with longer takes, and with shorter scenes/ actions around these (often in the same locations), that usually provide the shadings. Lubitsch is able to overdetermine actions, and make us induce, from actions, states of mind, rather than either telling us of differences or ignoring them altogether.
As for the plot; well, the ideology has some nice points, but generally it falls into a rather silly bashing of the Soviets. Saying that, there are moments (the genuine community of some Soviet scenes, the discussions about how, yes, the USSR was working for the people) do undercut this, but are then forgotten in the main sentimental strain. Was this a necessity at the time, or Lubitsch's considered opinion? That is hardly the point. It does make the piece a touch irritating, and go on a bit. Nevertheless, the fine moments at the end, very 'Shop Around The Corner', where silence is used with a surprising cut, a medium to slow dawning rather than a shock, introduces that wave of mocked, but strong, romanticism.