Fedora

"Fedora" was made with German and French money.It speaks volumes about what America thought of the commercial potential of one of its greatest directors.

As "Buddy Buddy" ,remake of a FRench comedy does not count ,"Fedora" is Wilder's last opus.And it is a good film,nay a splendid one regarded in context,the best last movie Wilder could make ,which is just as well ,because when epitaphs are seen as worthless,the things that came before can sometimes been retropectively tarnished by association."Fedora" stands in little danger to bring this about.It is a last film ,soon,like the others ,to yellow with age but never lose its poignancy.

Some said it was a poor man's "Sunset Blvd" .There are similarities: flashbacks,real-life actors (Cecil B.De Mille in "Sunset" Henry Fonda and Michael York" in "Fedora" ) and the terror of getting old ,the longing for eternity.There the comparison ends.

For "Fedora" was ,in 1978,a "modern" film which the European (notably the FRench critic) hailed as a young man's work."Fedora" is absorbing from start to finish:it is ,in turn,a romantic story (the affair with York) an investigation à la "Citizen Kane" ,a thriller and even a Gothic horror movie.William Holden,Hildegarde Knef , Swiss Marthe Keller,Mario Adorf and Jose Ferrer are all excellent.

The first scene when the heroine throws herself under the train recalls the techniques of the forties/fifties .Whereas "Fedora " is a thoroughly modern film,it manages to display nostalgia for the things we lost when the cinema began to lose its innocence or became intellectual or "got small!"The same nostalgia we felt in "Avanti" .The luminous blue Mediterranean sky is in direct contrast to the darkness of Wilder's earlier films noirs.

With "Fedora" Wilder came out blaring!

I devoured Tom Tryon's book and I made my own film in my mind. Needless to say, I loved it. Then I heard that Billy Wilder was going to direct the film version. Perfect, I thought, perfect. I wanted to write to Mr. Wilder to let him know about the film I had already in my mind, not camera shots, naturally, but casting. There was only one actress who could play the Garboesque Fedora in all her mysterious splendor and that was Vanessa Redgrave, then,at that exact moment in time. She was the only actress who could be all the other actresses we've always known and loved rolled into one. That in itself made her unique, spellbinding. Rachel Kempson a great British actress plus Vanessa's mother in real life, to play the old lady. The film was made with Marthe Keller and Hildegarde Kneff in those roles. I hoped for Terence Stamp to be the actor of Fedora's dreams. They chose Michael York. I remember a review by Pauline Kael I believe, when she came to review Michael York in this film her comment was succinct: "Michael York plays himself, unconvincingly". Maybe this is a suitable case for remake. With all due respect to Mr. Wilder, one of my heroes, maybe Cameron Crowe should have a go.

Billy Wilder revisits the territory of his Hollywood Babylon classic Sunset Boulevard, with the same male lead (William Holden) in an almost identical role as a washed-up screenwriter trying to get to a reclusive and mysteriously ageless one-time screen queen in order to pitch her a comeback script. Story elements include Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray and (off-screen) the many mad-doctor yarns of the 1930s and 1940s in which Boris Karloff messes about with Things We Were Never Meant To Know. Looks great in a brittle and glitzy 1970s way, as befits its scornfully depicted international-rich-white-trash milieu. Essentially it's a sombre but humanistic sermon on the hopeless worship of physical youth and beauty: as a medieval English writer put it, "who sows hope in the flesh reaps bones". A very relevant film for our narcissistic times, its only big flaw is that it's a mighty chilly piece of work, easier to admire than to love.

A shamefully overlooked movie , it is Wilder's testament with a lot of attractive ingredients as brooding drama , thrills , sensitive theme , amazing twist finale, in a word , emotion . It deals with a washed-out producer : William Holden who attempts to hire an old star called Fedora : Marthe Keller , she is nowadays retired and living at a mansion in Corfu along with a cripple countess : Hildegard Knef , their assistant : Frances Sternhagen and a mysterious doctor : Jose Ferrer.

Dramatic and witty film about cinema world containing realism, illusion, a twisted love story and tragedy . A flashy film and cynical at times , compellingly made by the great maestro Billy Wilder , at his last feature along with Buddy Buddy, but Fedora only superficially does it resemble Sunset Blvd . Colorfully set on Corfu , including nice cinematography by George Fisher , but a perfect remastering being really necessary . It explores deeply the basis of the cinema by thought-provoking and deranged portrayals of tarnished stars and the disastrous attempts to make time stop , providing a narrative assurance beyond the grasp of most filmmakers today.

Accompanying by a sensitive and stirring musical score by classy composer Miklos Rozsa . This moving motion picture was stunningly directed by the great Billy Wilder , giving one of the most sublime achievements of the Seventies , though it failed at the international boxoffice . Wilder was one of the best Hollywood directors who made various masterpieces and with special penchant for comedy , such as : The Major and the Minor , The Seven Year Itch , Sabrina , Some Like Hot The Apartment , One Two Three , Irma La Douce , Kiss Me Stupid , The Fortune Cookie , Avanti , The Front Page . Although Wilder also made Film Noir and Dramas, such as : The Lost Weekend , Double Indemnity , Five Graves to Cairo , A Foreign Affair , Ace in the Hole , Stalag 17 , The Spirit of St Louis , Witness for the Prosecution , Fedora , among others .

Many reasons for see this little gem. the performances, the atmosphere, the crumbs of old Hollywood, the tragedy of glory in passing time. and a touching story. remembering "Sunset Blvd". but being, for its bitter poetry, so different. for me, the basic motif for see it was the presence in cast of William Holden. and this "key" works. for discover not exactly a world but a form of survive. and its precise limits. a film about the traits of past. and meeting with wise use of suggestion, from illustrious names to small details of biographies for transform the film in a form of trip across Hollywood Golden Age.