Fedora

In Fedora, Billy Wilder approaches Hollywood stardom in the same fashion as he did in Sunset Boulevard--with cynicism, regret, understanding, and awe. Fedora (Marthe Keller) is film's most intriguing movie queen. Rumored to be well into her sixties, the actress has remained a starlet for over four ...more

Billy Wilder's Fedora was meant to be an incisive film about Hollywood's love of youth, but it turned out to be proof of it. By the movie's release in 1978, the 73-year-old Wilder had been eclipsed by the people that Fedora's hero calls "kids with beards" -- young filmmakers like Spielberg, Coppola, Altman, Scorsese, Lucas, and Malick. Despite rave reviews from venerable movie critics Janet Maslin and Vincent Canby, Fedora suffered a short, unremarkable theatrical run. Those who did see the film ...more