Fedora (1979)

Please don't spend money on this.

good back-story, and good acting

best movie i've ever seen.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Years ago, I started watching Fedora with my girlfriend. I'm a huge fan of Billy Wilder, who has made many brilliant movies, and I was shocked by how bad this one was. It seemed downright inept. After 20 minutes to half an hour I decided I had enough. My girlfriend though, even though she wasn't thrilled with it, decided to continue watching it in hopes it would improve. About half an hour later she called to me and said, START WATCHING IT AGAIN: IT'S A COMEDY! And the odd thing is, if one looks at Fedora as a sort of parody of Sunset Boulevard it's actually quite amusing.The movie popped into my head recently so I decided to check out reviews here to see if anyone else had the same take on it, but no one does. And so I wonder, did Wilder made a sly satire or just a bad movie? But if you don't like it try and think about that. If I ever see it on TV I'll have to take another look.

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.

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.

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.