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It puzzles me why this film appears to have been so forgotten and neglected because I find it richly entertaining and, like so much of Wilder's work, it shows an abiding, (although not uncritical), love / hate of Hollywood and all it represented. Wilder has no illusions about the Monster Hollywood could be in its heyday when it created an almost parallel universe which consisted of those on the inside the industry, and the rest of us who paid homage at the box-office. Both parties were almost entirely oblivious of the reality of life as experienced by each other.

FEDORA is much more bitter-sweet than SUNSET BLVD., (his other film with which it is natural to compare it, and of course the presence of William Holden in both makes this even more compelling), but here we see people who, having made a pact with the devil of Hollywood fame and fortune, find it is a two edged sword that keeps them in the service of its mores and values forever, even though the effort of doing so nearly makes them die from exhaustion. Death or permanent seclusion is the only way to preserve a legend's immortality.

Beautifully structured, and with some excellent dialogue, all the cast acquit themselves with credit, and I find it a fascinating and valuable glimpse into a world that has now gone forever and which is never, ever likely to return. Perhaps more reflective and introspective than we expect a Billy Wilder film to be, but all the more richly satisfying for it. Highly recommended.

Billy Wilder is celebrated for a streak of movies that starts with the groundbreaking film-noir "Double Indemnity" and "Lost Weekend" and ends with the comedy classics "Some Like it Hot" and "The Apartment". In between, you have such titles as "Sunset Blvd.", "Stalag 17", Sabrina" and "Witness for the Prosecution", I guess if any movie lover was asked about the 10 greatest movies from the Golden Age, a fistful of Billy Wilder films would be mentioned.

This is just to say that this is the kind of legacy a foreign director, who escaped from the Nazis and never got rid of his German accent, can be damn proud of, he literally owned American cinema and defined many genres. After the sixties, he still had a share of enjoyable movies but they never reached the same iconic status. And when the New Hollywood was built on the ruins of the studio system, Billy Wilder became the incarnation of old school, conventional cinema: big names, big stars and big stories. Wilder's motto was "thou shall not bore the audience" but then came a time where moviegoers, mostly grown-up baby boomers, were enthralled by the spectacle of Bonnie and Clyde's machine-guns, the French Connection' chase, Scorsese's mean streets and the intimacy of the Corleone family. Wilder became the bore, audience-wise.

"Those kids with beards are running things" laments the has-been Larry Detweiller aka "Dutch" played remarkably by William Holden, and his words couldn't have echoed more Billy Wilder's resentment toward the new ways of Hollywood or what was left of it. In the midst of the raging bulls and easy riders' era, the merit of "Fedora" is to provide the interesting insight from a director of the old generation. When the time of Ford, Minnelli or Hitchcock was over, Wilder was still here and made one, deliberately conventional and classic move… or movie, so against the current it was meant to fail. But now, after four decades, "Fedora" has aged surprisingly well. It's not a masterpiece but the story is likely to content the movie lovers we are.

In fact, it illustrates this quote from Jean-Luc Godard: "the best way to criticize a film is to make one". And Billy Wilder, adapting the novel 'Crowned Heads', paid a tribute to the Golden Age through the portrayal of Fedora, a star who used to be big but then saw her stardom fade, only to resurrect a few years after. When asked if there was any similarity between "Fedora" and "Sunset Blvd.", Wilder naively said no, but even though it wasn't intentional, one can't have a cinema-themed Billy Wilder's film, featuring William Holden, much more in the narrator's role, and not have "Sunset Blvd." in mind. If anything, the film comes full circle with the classic noir: in the 70's, the Golden Age was the silent era, they didn't need blazing guns and naked breasts, only dialogues and faces.

Fedora was the biggest of her time, mentioning real-life stars and fictional movies as if the film was set in a parallel universe yet close to the reality, just like Norma Desmond interacting with Cecil B. De Mille, as to emphasize the dream-like aura of Hollywood. Then she abruptly ended her career and lived in in remote locations on the Riviera and started to make movies again after a few years of absence, this is where Dutch comes, trying to approach her to star in an adaptation of Anna Karenina, He notices some strange happenings, Fedora seems imprisoned by a group of people as colorful as intimidating: an old Countess with a husky voice (Hildegard Knef), a mysterious plastic surgeon played by Jose Ferrer and a sinister watchdog played by Frances Sternhagen (she was the sheriff's wisecracking wife in "Misery").

The "Sunset Blvd." déjà vu deepens and Dutch' investigation leads to the ultimate revelation about the story of Fedora. And it is intriguing and haunting within its own limitation with a fascinating mix of real actors like Henry Fonda and Michael York, in the intrigue. The main problem with the film is that the peripheral characters actually work better than the central one, Holden is perfect but like many critics pointed out, there had to be an actress of Marlene Dietrich' caliber to play the faded star because the flashbacks don't leave us with the conviction of a Golden Age aura on Fedora. There had to be a Katharine or Audrey Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, but I guess the film was victim of its era, Wilder didn't have the same touch and only his old buddy William Holden was here to close the loop with "Sunset Blvd.".

But I love the way the film feels like a swan song of the old school and close the curtain on Wilder's five-decade contribution to Cinema, as if he was paying a final tribute to his art. He would later make a film with Lemmon and Matthau, a remake of a French classic farce but the film was of such abysmal quality it was dismissed as part of Wilder's canon, and "Fedora" is a worthy ending to his prolific career. I didn't necessarily enjoy the film, I would say I watched it with mere curiosity, able to appreciate its intent more than its result, but the making of the film is very fascinating, seeing the old Wilder wrestling with the new system to get his film made, along with I.A.L Diamond, is a great lesson of humility and determination.

After knowing the truth about Fedora, which is a self-referential cased of Naked Empress, Dutch says it would make a better story than the one he had in mind; I guess the same goes with the making of 'Fedora',

Billy Wilder's second-last film comes full circle from 1950's Sunset Boulevard.

Fedora begins with a news announcement of the great actress' death. Dutch Detweiler (William Holden) narrates the film, and attends Fedora's lying in state. He recalls what led up to that moment, and the story begins.

Dutch (William Holden) has a script that is perfect for the actress Fedora (Marthe Keller), a Garbo-like myth wrapped in a legend, who lives a reclusive life in Corfu.

One day, he sees her in town and reintroduces himself - they knew each other 30 years earlier. He is astounded by her unchanged beauty. She wears gloves because her doctor can't do anything about aging hands. and she asks him for a few dollars. When he asks if she received his script, she says that they hide the mail from her.

After some spying on Fedora, Dutch comes to the conclusion that she is not being well treated and is imprisoned. Desperate to see her, he tries every way he can to gain entrance to the house, and at one point actually breaks in, only to be knocked out by someone who acts as her chauffeur. When he comes to, he's in his hotel, and a week has passed. And lots has happened.

Fedora is based on the story in Tom Tryon's book, "Crowned Heads," which is three stories - the first about a Lana Turner-type, the second a combination of Clifton Webb and Ramon Navarro, and the third Fedora, actually based on Dietrich, Garbo, and a few other actresses. The first two stories were kind of sleazy. Fedora is really the best one.

I remember this did not get good reviews at the time. Billy Wilder had no end of problems with it. It did not get a full release internationally or nationally; it was not publicized; and it was so badly cut that audiences laughed in all the wrong places when it was shown initially.

It's pathetic to me that a great talent like Billy Wilder was treated so badly by modern Hollywood, but I'm not surprised.

I think this is an interesting story and if Wilder had been allowed to do what he wanted, it would have been a marvelous film. One of the things that brought it down for me was the abominable performance of Marthe Keller. This role brought an end to her brief Hollywood career.

What really bothered me was all the dubbing. Neither Knef's nor Keller's voices were used, and it's obvious. The actresses just sound dubbed with very little effort at performances. I may be overly sensitive; that dubbing sound is a big turnoff for me, but maybe not for others.

I think this plays better on television than it probably did in the theaters, and it's definitely worth seeing for Holden at least, who is Joe Gillis had he lived.

A series of unfortunate events spoiled what this film could have been, but it's still Billy Wilder, it's still William Holden, and you can't go too wrong.

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.

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.

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 .

William Holden made his fourth and final film for Billy Wilder who he always considered his lucky director. With such films as Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17, and Sabrina to their credit who wouldn't consider that lucky? Fedora doesn't quite belong in the same category as those others from the golden years of Wilder and Holden. Still it's an interesting film to watch and you can never make a visually bad film in the Grecian Isles.

Holden plays Barry Detweiler an interesting older variation on Joe Gillis from Sunset Boulevard. Imagine if Gillis had avoided Norma Desmond's bullets and had gone on to a great film career and you have Barry Detweiler.

But the digs that Norma Desmond had in Sunset Boulevard compare badly to the splendor of the regal exile that movie legend Fedora has on the Grecian isle of Korfu. It's been a mystery how Fedora has managed to appear eternally young.

Back in the day Holden had a fling with Fedora and he's played here as a young man by Stephen Collins. Hoping to cash in on a quick roll on the beach from the Fifties, Holden has a script for a new version of Anna Karenina. After much scheming he does get into see Fedora, played by young Marte Keller.

Unfortunately some intriguing things keep bringing Holden back and in the end he does uncover the secret of Fedora's eternal youth. Let's say it was something not available to Norma Desmond.

Best performance in the film for me is Jose Ferrer, a quack plastic surgeon who has attached himself to Fedora as part of her entourage. Ferrer steals every scene he's in, that man was never bad in anything he did.

Maybe Fedora would have been a classic if Marlene Dietrich had come back to play the part of the old countess that Hildegard Knef did and Faye Dunaway had played Fedora. Personally I think the part of the countess was too close to home for Dietrich, but Wilder definitely wanted her.

What a film that would have been.

"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!

William Holden was 60 when he made this, and three years later he was dead. 30 years earlier he had played a similar lead in "Sunset Boulevard" dissecting the same theme, also directed by Billy Wilder. Although they treat the same subject, they are extremely different, and there are oceans of differences between them. Gloria Swanson was a movie star from the silents who had become mummified in her great past, while Fedora is something of the contrary: she was in her heyday as great a star as Garbo, Dietrich, Crawford, Bette Davis and others like that but like Garbo resigned from the screen into total isolation, in which producer William Holden wishes to dig her out for a new version of "Anna Karenina", as the reputation of Fedora is that she, like Garbo, stopped aging and just remained as beautiful as ever. That's a movie legend of the kind that Hollywood and the film industry live on and which just can't be shattered. Fedora is a realist and does what she can to prevent the legend from dying, and succeeds - beyond death. That is what this film is about - the necessity of eternity, when once it has been granted by a world audience, and Henry Fonda even delivers an Oscar to her in her isolation of old age. William Holden says in his departure that a film with her of the true story would have made a much better film than the "Anna Karenina" manuscript, well aware that such a good film never could be made, but Billy Wilder made it.

After just finishing Ed Sikov's wonderful biography of Billy Wilder, I got interested in this movie, seeing as it was another pairing of Wilder and one of my favorite actors, William Holden. Shot in 1978, it has a very dream like quality to it, due to the cinematography, which adds to the somewhat creepy atmosphere of the movie.

Trying to track an elusive movie star who has retired to a Mediterranean villa to star in his latest film, Barry Detweiller (Holden) cannot seem to catch the elusive beauty. Her compound is secluded, and all access is restricted. His calls and letters go unanswered. But he must get in to see the elusive Fedora.

After sneaking in to the compound, Detweiller believes he has caught his quarry. But a strange turn of events, reveal to him that all is not what it seems in paradise. Wilder's next to last film, is something of a return to his great "Sunset Blvd' featuring another Joe Gillis like character, and a another Norma Desmond as well. The two movies do bookend each other I believe, and if you are a fan of the former, you should try and see the latter.

The former successful and famous Polish actress Fedora (Marthe Keller) commits suicide at the Mortcerf Station, jumping off in front of a train. The broken Hollywood producer Barry 'Dutch' Detweiler (William Holden) attends the funeral at her house in Paris and recalls that he might have caused her death.

Two weeks ago, Dutch traveled to Greece Island of Corfu seeking Fedora out in the Vila Calypso, located in an isolated island owned by the bitter Countess Sobryanski (Hildegard Knef). Fedora has been living an unsocial reclusive life for the last years in the villa with the countess, the plastic surgeon Doctor Vando (José Ferrer) and her assistant Miss Balfour (Frances Sternhagen), since she abandoned the set of a film that she was shooting in London with Michael York.

Dutch brings the screenplay with a version of "Anna Karenina" to offer to Fedora, with the promise that investors would finance the film if Fedora accepts the lead role. Fedora, who is impressively young, is receptive to the offer, but the countess and the doctor tell that she is mentally unstable and paranoid and can not act again.

When Dutch discovers that Fedora will be secretly sent to a mental institution owned by Dr. Vando in Mortcert, he tries to rescue the actress from the island but he is hit on the head and faints with a concussion. One week later, when he awakes, he learns that Fedora is dead. Dutch travels to Paris and meets Countess Sobryanski that him the truth about Fedora.

"Fedora" is the swan song of Billy Wilder, with an engaging story; a complex screenplay and many twists about aging, selfishness and loss of youth and identity. The plot has many elements of "Sunset Boulevard", with a washed-up producer looking for a former glamorous Hollywood actress that surprisingly has not aged like she should and might represent his comeback to the glory. The secret about Fedora and her friends is unpredictable. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Thanks to mubi, I was able to see Billy Wilder's penultimate film. I was really enjoying the first half of it. William Holden was great as ever and the whole mystic surrouding Fedora and what was really happening at the mansion gripped my attention. However, I think that due to the casting of some actors, the things that got me so excited in the first half completely vanished in the second. Nevertheless, it's a really intelligent screenplay, courtesy of the mind of one of the greats, on the cult of a person, cinema's glamour and how it really works out, and the expectations we create for our loved ones and how that can corrupt them.

I wish to defend Fedora somewhat from the sole previous IMDB reviewer. It is not a great movie such as "Sunset Boulevard" but it is hugely enjoyable and a real treat for anyone interested in old Hollywood, and the bitter-sweet quality of fading glamour.

Since the death of Marlene Dietrich, and especially with the publication of a biography by her daughter Maria Riva, it is now clear that Fedora is a direct portrait of Ms. Dietrich with much telling accurate detail.

Billy Wilder knew Dietrich and old Hollywood well, and even though made in the 70's, the film captures a genuine essence probably for the last time as figures from the golden age of film have since then moved into retirement and sadly largely slipped the mortal coil.

The real story of the EXTRAORDINARY Ms. Dietrich is better than any of her movies, and Fedora tells some of that story. It makes for more comfortable viewing than Maximillian Schell's documentary "Marlene".

Wilder is an intelligent director, which makes "Fedora" worthwhile viewing. I have always found "Sunset Boulevard" a little too arch and self-consciously aware; "Fedora" is a more lyrical piece by the director as an older man.

"Fedora" is the penultimate film that Billy Wilder directed (his final being "Buddy Buddy" with Walter Mathau and Jack Lemmon) and I cannot recall another one of his films that is this unusual. The structure of the plot is very odd as well as the story...but if you are patient, it's well worth seeing.

The story is mostly set in Italy. An American film producer (William Holden) has come there to try to convince a timeless actress, Fedora, to come out of retirement and star in his new film. Unfortunately, his task turns out to be a lot more difficult than he anticipated and it turns into a strange mystery. When he finally is able to get around Fedora's handlers, she tells him she's being held prisoner by them and she desperately wants to escape. There is MUCH more to the story than you'd think at this point...and the plot goes in some very unexpected directions. There is much more I could say about the plot, but won't as it might give away some of these plot twists.

The acting is generally good, though I wasn't as impressed by Fedora nor the Contessa's acting. The story, while very oddly constructed, was interesting and I think that the film's lousy performance in theaters was very unfortunate, as it really is a creative and interesting story. Well worth seeing.

....Billy Wilder's genius oozes in his final film. Fedora is an absorbing story with interesting twists. Good performances all over and some lovely shots of the beautiful Greek island of Corfu.

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.

This is Billy Wilder's penultimate film, made in 1978 entirely outside the conventional Hollywood system, filmed and shot on locations and sound stages in Europe. The script is by Wilder and his longtime collaborator Izzy Diamond based on a story by the actor/writer Tom Tyron, but it is not one of their famous comedies. The film is a return gander at mankind's grotesqueries, more in the style of the black and white films Wilder made with Charles Brackett at Paramount in the Forties and Fifties. In some ways it is a sequel or a theme and variations on Wilder and Brackett's great success SUNSET BOULEVARD with a middle-aged Joe Gillis now a desperate producer rather than a desperate screenwriter. The Gillis-like character has come to an island in Greece, Corfu, to peddle a script to a recluse actress, a character obviously based on the great Garbo, here called Fedora, as in the hat. After many futile attempts to reach the great star on her island, he comes across her, shopping in town, hidden behind her celebrated chapeau only to discover she is not an aged diva long retired from the movie business but an attractive if skittish young woman with the voice and movements of a stage ingenue. Holden accepts this unusual phenomenon without question, just as we, the audience, are expected to do. Much time is then spent in the plot trying to explain how this could be possible, and in craftsman-like fashion Wilder and Diamond tie it all up or bundle it together by the grand finale. The film is elegantly photographed by the English cinematographer Gerry Fisher, lighting spectacular sets built in the Bavarian film studios by Wilder's longtime collaborator, the great Hungarian production designer Alex Trauner (LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS). But none of this, as well-made as it is, can hide the greatest flaw in the film--the many plot improbabilities. Others here have listed some of them but let me add one more: Towards the end of the film, Fedora in hospital receives a phone call she thinks is from the great love of her life Michael York, played as Pauline Kael once wrote "unconvincingly by Michael York," but it is not Michael with his distinctly posh English voice who is calling but Jose Ferrer with his unmistakable American vowels pretending to be. Fedora is fooled, of course, as was Holden in the Corfu marketplace, and as we are constantly asked to be. Sadly, this reasonable request for suspension of disbelief --after all it's only a movie--is not helped at all by the performances of the two female leads. Both earnest but ill-suited for the task. Martha Keller is extremely attractive and talented, but too young and too incapable of acting a young woman trapped in an old woman's body or is it an old woman trapped in a young woman's body. Maybe Meryl Streep might have succeeded but lovely Martha does not. Hildegard Knef as the Polish countess jailer has a few good moments of vulnerability towards the end of the film, but in the beginning scenes she is asked to do nothing more than play an old gorgon barking at Holden in her German accent.

All in all, this may take the prize as the worst film ever written by two men of genius. It plays as if after the death of Joe Gillis in SUNSET, Norma Desmond, who had once written a script of SALOME as her comeback vehicle, decided to have another go at screenwriting by herself and came up with something even more "outlandish" than her last attempt. That in a word is FEDORA.

Fedora is one of the most bizarre films I've ever seen, to say the least. At points I'm almost laughing at the movie's plot twist yet the more bizarre and highly improbable the movie became the more I found myself getting engaged in the story, waiting in eager anticipation to find out what will happen next with those oh so joyous "I did not see that coming" moments. The film's highly implausible plot manages to draw the thin line between being completely absurd but never feeling like a parody.

The character of Fedora herself is a reclusive movie star who goes to extreme lengths in order to stay "on top" and retain her eternal youth to the point which even Norma Desmond would consider crazy. Early during the film, I suspected Greta Garbo to be the likely source of inspiration for the character of Fedora (whom Wilder always had great admiration for) but as the plot progressed I thought to myself "ok even Garbo was never this nuts".

One of Fedora's other intriguing aspects is the film's critique of New Hollywood and how times have changed since Hollywood's golden era came to pass. Fedora is the only film I've seen which displays a harsh attitude towards New Hollywood with lines referring to Hollywood being taken over by kids with beards who don't need a script, just a handheld camera with a zoom lens as well as the demise of glamorous movie stars of the past. This is one of several aspects of Fedora which makes it similar to what you could call its spiritual cousin Sunset Boulevard; which itself commented upon what was lost when the silent era came to an end. I could go on making comparisons between the two films from William Holden playing a Hollywood hack in both films to Michael York's role the in film being similar to the role Cecil B. Millie played in Sunset Boulevard.

I imagined by 1978 Wilder was far past his directing prime, not to mention after the 1950's he seemed to become content with only directing comedies; thus I'm surprised to consider Fedora as one of his greatest films and a return to the roots of his earlier work as a director. As soon as William Holden's narration begins you can instantly tell this is classic, old-school Billy Wilder.

'They do not make movies like this any longer' could very well be a motto or maybe even an alternative title for 'Fedora', the penultimate film directed by Billy Wilder in 1978. At first glance it could be a resumption of the theme of return on the screen of a famous movie star that had brought Wilder the fame in 'Sunset Blvd.', perhaps the best film of his career. The screenplay written by Wilder along with I.A.L. Diamond (the Romania-born screenwriter) talks to viewers about the aging of the 'stars' and their role in Hollywood, on the background of a changing film industry. Explicit messages are subtly amplified by the very way the film is made. At the end of the 70s, the decade when the new generation of American directors took control of the big studios,Billy Wilder no longer finds his place or financing in the US, and leaves for Europe to make a film that, although its story takes place in France and Corfu talks about Hollywood. Moreover, he does it in the style of 'the movies they don't make like this any longer'. Immediate success avoided him. But I think posterity is more lenient with this film, which is an interesting piece of cinema in many ways.

The film opens with a suicide scene filmed in the style of 'film noir', which may be reminiscent of Anna Karenina's suicide at the end of Tolstoy's novel and of the films it inspired. The woman who committed suicide is Fedora, a former great Hollywood star of Polish origin, mysteriously retired at the peak of her career. Barry Detweiler (William Holden), a producer whose days of glory are behind him, is attending her funeral in Paris. A series of feedbacks reconstitute his attempt to bring Fedora back to the screen and the trip to the island of Corfu, where she lived far from the world. Armed with the memories of their youth and with a script that is nothing more than a new version of 'Ana Karenina', the producer had tried unsuccessfully to bring back to the world of film the star, who lives, perhaps against her will, in a decadent villa in the company of mysterious characters. Fedora's secret will be revealed gradually, and viewers will have time to think about her fate (inspired by Greta Garbo's biography) and the difference between the Hollywood of the glory years and the 'new Hollywood' that is the '70s dominated by 'bearded young directors'.

If Billy Wilder had managed to cast Marlene Dietrich and Faye Dunaway in the lead female roles, as he had originally planned, we might have been talking about 'Fedora' today as a second peak of his career. However, it seems that here we are dealing with another similarity between the story in the film and the history of its production. Same as the hero of the film, director Billy Wilder, exiled from Hollywood, found a more modest funding in Europe, but the actresses who ended up playing the female roles perform below expectations. Too bad, indeed, especially since William Holden is excellent in the role of producer, achieving a creation in the good classic style, just as the director intended. Henry Fonda and Michael York also appear in the cast, acting in their own roles in a film in which the distances between the art of cinema and the lives of those who make films are blurred in many moments. Even if it is not the masterpiece that it could have been, and even if it failed to become a comeback to glory for Billy Wilder, 'Fedora' is a film impregnated with love and nostalgia for a certain style of cinema, a film on which fans of Wilder and of the glory days of Hollywood, but not only them, will surely appreciate.

I enjoy the kind of outlandish stories like the one found in FEDORA. The whole story is so much larger than life that seeing the sorta mediocre result is disappointing because this story needed grandeur, big budget, big cast, big everything, to elevate the over-the-top story to its sublime glory. Oddly enough (and unfortunately for us) Billy Wilder's movie mimics the film's story to a tee. The story is about a famous but reclusive film star (obviously patterned after Greta Garbo) who lives on an isolated Greek island. A producer/writer (played by a too old William Holden) wants to meet with Fedora and have her come out of retirement so she can star in his new film. Fedora had already retired before but experienced a comeback a few years ago before disappearing from the silver screen, this time for good. When Holden meets Fedora, the woman seems totally crazy. The story that unfolds afterwards is preposterous, soapy, twisted, quasi-operatic and yet fitting, for a story about Hollywood.

The funny thing about FEDORA is how Wilder critiques old Hollywood and the then current Hollywood of the 1970s and proceeds to shoot himself in the foot. The convoluted story of a Hollywood legend unable to live up to her famous past is exactly what happened to Wilder when he decided to direct this film: Wilder was too old to direct this film. FEDORA, the film itself, is a pale example of what the director could do when compared to his films of the past, like SUNSET BOULEVARD and SOME LIKE IT HOT. Not only that, but Wilder also samples his older films' glory to drive his point in FEDORA, which, in turns renders the whole thing even more pathetic than it needed to be.

FEDORA, the film, is not really about the fictional story about a legendary actress but more about Billy Wilder, the director, a bitter old man trying to prove a point by showing to the world how over-the-hill he was.

The casting in FEDORA can only be described as disastrous. Hiring Holden was a very bad idea. His presence kept reminding me of SUNSET BOULEVARD, which even if that film was made in the good old days of the 1950s, was more sharp, more ironic, more iconic, more modern in its understanding of how image can distort reality than anything seen in FEDORA, which was made in 1978. Showing Marthe's breasts does not equate to anything than a pathetic attempt to be with the times. Casting Marthe Keller and Hildegard Knef was also a very bad idea. The voices for both actresses were dubbed throughout the entire film, which was needlessly distracting and watered down whatever attempt at acting those two tried to achieve. And Jose Ferrer looks bored out of his mind. In fact, the whole film looks bored, sounds bored, moves boringly. THE LEGEND OF LYLAH CLARE, which share the same kind of improbable storyline, is, even as bad as it is, more fun and enjoyable to watch than this dreary thing.

The film's bite would have been more convincing if FEDORA had more punch to it, more life, more style, more irony. As it is, FEDORA is just sad and pathetic. It's a shame because like I said, I love these kind of stories and it annoys the heck out of me that Wilder was more concern in trying to voice a (tired) opinion than actually trying to create a great film first. A proper remake, with grand production values and a bit more class (the film creates a sorta repellent image of Garbo), and hopefully without Michael York, should be done one of these days. The improbable, over-the-top, almost operatic story definitely deserves it.