Fedora
Filmfest 2014
Federal Republic of Germany, France 1978
Original version
(Original: English)
German Premiere
Director: Billy Wilder
Section: Special Screenings
FEDORA is a marvelous lesson in classical storytelling and the pleasures to be had from an absorbing narrative. It's almost as if Wilder is bidding adieu to the Golden Age of Hollywood, utilizing opulent sets, elegant crane shots, ultra-slow dissolves, and a flourish of voice-overs and flashbacks-within-flashbacks in a final demonstration of virtuoso scenario construction, only to tear it down at the end and show it was all a lie. Just as the Countess's villa is like a fortress of antiquity guarding against the encroachment of the modern age, Wilder's film is a bitter attack on the 'New Hollywood', with Detweiler speaking for Wilder when he says: "they don't need scripts anymore, just give 'em a hand-held camera and a zoom lens."
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The digital restoration lets the film glow with crisp colors again.
Cast: William Holden, Marthe Keller, José Ferrer, Frances Sternhagen, Mario Adorf
Credits
Screenplay: Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond, Original von/ by: Thomas Tryon
Director of Photography: Gerry Fisher
Film Editor: Fredric Steinkamp
Composer: Miklós Rózsa
Production Designer: Alexandre Trauner
Costume Design: Charlotte Flemming
Sound: David Hildyard
Producer: Billy Wilder
World Sales: Bavaria Media GmbH
Director: Billy Wilder