Recipe for Fedora: a pinch of The Twilight of the Gods , a few drops of The Bride of Frankesntein and a bunch of anecdotes life of the legendary Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich eternal, mix everything very well, and get to Fedora.
Based on the book by Tom Tyron a screenplay adapted by Billy Wilder and IAL Diamond , Fedora tells the story of Fedora (Marthe Keller ), an old movie star who died in Paris hit by a train. At his funeral, a movie producer (William Holden ) wondered if somehow influence in the death of the legendary actress for a few weeks before, had come to the island of Corfu, where he lived Fedora reclusive and withdrawn, for provide the role of Anna Karenina in his new film. But once there you will find a disturbing scenario. Fedora lives almost kidnapped by a curious group formed by the old Countess Sobrianski (Hildegard Knef ), a decrepit nurse, zombie-like driver and a surgeon who undergoes cosmetic surgery operations continued to maintain forever young. A sort of Dr. Frankenstein, who call their colleagues quacks.
Comparisons are always odious and so I will not compare to Fedora or Sunset Boulevard with Gloria Swanson Marthe Keller, or the young Wilder Wilder with the elderly. But if you could say that this is a pretty funny review of the legendary Sunset Boulevard.
Genius from the cradle to the grave, Wilder grabs us with This disturbing story, juicy, funny, witty, mysterious and, as always, leaves us speechless and admiring a little more than before.
Fedora's role was initially offered to Marlene Dietrich rejected it not like the original book or the script. So Wilder accepted the recommendation of Sidney Pollack and gave it to Marthe Keller. A shame about the rejection of Marlene, the whole film would have won with it, as he won Sunset Boulevard with Gloria Swanson , an actress displaced by the talkies, like Norma Desmond.
Like Fedora, Marlene became a recluse obsessed with the decline of his image.
And like Greta Garbo , Fedora retired at the top of his career. The best nod to Greta Garbo in the film is when asked to Fedora "Fedora You?" and she replies "I went Fedora " literally copying Greta Garbo's response to the same question and answer mythical " I was Greta Garbo."
is also curious that the role offered by the film producer to Fedora is that of Anna Karenina, one of the roles that overestimated to Garbo.
Another actress who refused a role in the film was Faye Dunaway.
Marthe Keller was not a true legend of cinema which is the touch that Marlene Dietrich could have given the film, but it was correct. Must see the end of the film to understand the interpretation der Keller in its entirety.
Rejection of Marlene Dietrich was the least of the problems of Wilder, as the Universal hesitated at the time of release the film because of the failure, four years before, his previous film Primera Plana, to the point that Wilder began offering the film to other studies. The film was acquired by Lorimar Productions, which raised assign to CBS for television. But before they made the offer, United Artists decided to release it. They released the film with little publicity in a small group of American and European facilities, which prompted Wilder to sue the studio. After retouching the film and cut it 12 minutes on the recommendation of the study, Wilder became the film in Santa Barbara and the audience began to laugh in the wrong scenes. In the end, Wilder became discouraged and refused to make him more touches. Finally premiered at the Cannes Film Festival as part of a retrospective of his work.
parallels aside, the only link that holds Fedora Sunset Boulevard William Holden is no doubt that, twenty years later, returns to break into the home of a mythical movie star to reveal the intricacies of the plot, this time in the shoes of Barry Detweiler.
Henry Fonda makes a cameo playing the president of the Academy of Cinema and Michael York playing himself.
Fedora was the penultimate film by Wilder, and while it is true that the strength of this film are its performances, it is true that you will not regret to see it and you will enjoy the maze of this mysterious story to blow flashback .
Greetings and Happy New Year 2011 to all. See you next year =)
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