cinema obscura: billy wilder's "fedora" (1978)

While many of his contemporaries were slowing down with only an occasional film every now and then, Billy Wilder remained a vital, prolific filmmaker, particularly in the 1950s and '60s, churning out title after title.

His only equal at the time was Alfred Hitchcock.

In 1957 alone, Wilder produced a wildly diverse trio - "Love in the Afternoon," "The Spirit of St. Louis" and "Witness for the Prosecution."

But after "The Fortune Cookie" in 1966, he abruptly pulled back. It was four years later when he returned with the troubled but appealing "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes," followed another two years by "Avanti!," a sophisticated but rather middle-aged "romp" based on a semi-successful play by Samuel Taylor. Wilder was beginning to slow down, too.

He would make only three more films, two of them rather lethargic Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau teamings, "The Front Page" and "Buddy Buddy," the latter being Billy Wilder's final film. But sandwiched in-between those two was 1978's compelling "Fedora," an attempt by Wilder to return to form. More accurately, it was a companion piece to his triumphant "Sunset Blvd." (1950), replete with the same leading man - William Holden. It was nearly 30 years later -  and Wilder and, to a degree, Holden were out to prove that they still had it in them to make a seminal, influential movie about the moviemaking process. Only this time, the pervasive eeriness of the material wasn't simple camp. "Fedora" is genuinely eerie - actually downright creepy.

Once again, Holden plays a washed-up movie opportunist hoping to nudge a retired, reclusive actress - the Polish-born Fedora - toward a comeback with his new version of "Anna Karenina." But something is amiss, strange.

And when Fedora dies suddenly, after jumping in front of a moving train, Holden attempts to ferret out the ... "truth." That word comes with ominous underpinnings in this atmospheric, chilly affair which is not quite as companionable as "Sunset Blvd." And while Wilder opted for color cinematography (courtesy of Gerry Fisher's painterly hues), rather than black-&-white, he conjurs up dreamy shadow imagery that efficiently distills his film's disturbing themes. (A French-German co-production, "Fedora" is essentially the European sibling of "Sunset Blvd.")

Wilder surrounded Holden with both a top international cast - Marthe Keller and Hildegard Kneff as two incarnations of Fedora, along with José Ferrer, Frances Sternhagen, Henry Fonda, Mario Adorf, Arlene Francis and Michael York - and also a hugely photogenic backdrop, the Greek Island of Corfu.

Stephen Collins is a good match-up as the young version of the Holden character in flashbacks.

The film's Big Secret - concocted by Tom Tryon (the late film-actor-turned-writer) for a short story in his 1978 collection, "Crowned Head" - remains provocative. For the occasion, Wilder adapted Tryon's story with his long-time writing partner, I.A.L. "Izzy" Diamond, and these vets make it clear that the aim of their collaboration is not for the modernity of the other films at the time but for something ageless - not unlike "Sunset Blvd."

Their efforts here almost matched their previous project. Almost.

Note in Passing: In his book, "Conversations with Wilder," Cameron Crowe writes, "Wilder is quick to point out that his original casting plan would have served the picture better." I believe, if my recollections are correct, that his original plan was to cast Vanessa Redgrave and her mother Rachel Kempson is the roles ultimately played by Keller and Kneff.

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~images~
(from top) 

~Artwork for "Fedora"

~William Holden and Marthe Keller in a scene from "Fedora"

~Mario Adorf and Holden in another scene from the film
~photography: Lorimar/United Artists 1978©