35mm Restoration - some questions (possible spoilers)

I quite enjoyed this film, which I saw on celluloid in Vancouver yesterday:
http://www.thecinematheque.ca/ucla-festival-of-preservation/thirty-day -princess

Here are my questions:

1. The scene where Zizzi and Nancy sit down together and converse, was that cutting-edge special effects in 1934, or was it pretty standard? Obviously done with a static camera but there was no detectable seam, even though the bouquet of flowers in the background was quite intricate. I assume they weren't real live flowers!

2. The plot put me in mind of a number of later films, on the one hand The Great Dictator and Dave; on the other hand, The Major and the Minor and Tootsie. Are there previous films with plots that resemble elements of Thirty Day Princess? Or if not films, then plays or novels?

3. The theatre where I saw it (link above) bills the print as "restored", but the UCLA web site (http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/events/2013-03-23/thirty-day-princess-1934- working-man-1933) uses the term "preserved" rather than "restored". Is there a distinction? What was the process used in creating this new print, was it converted to 4K digital or whatever, and then cleaned up before being transferred back to film? Or something else?

If anyone from the UCLA Film & Television Archive, or the Stanford Theatre Film Laboratory, happens to read this, I'd be interested in learning more about the preservation procedure. (Just reply to this message and I will get an alert to check back here.) Thanks!