Festroia

Saturday, June 2--------It seems inconcievable to me that the current generation of filmgoers (and possibly even most of the filmmakers) do not know who Billy Wilder was. Or is, for his style of filmmaking remains remarkably fresh and current. For myself, Wilder is one of the giants, who combined the pace of Hollywood filmmaking with the sophistication of his European roots. His movies remain decidedly adult and deal with human emotions that are still very much in style. For local audiences who first saw his films in their original releases, or young people curious to learn more about the Master, the Festival is offering a mini-retrospective of five of his celebrated films from the 1940s and 1950s. The first of these, SABRINA (1954), an intoxicating satire on the moneyed set on New York's Long Island, screens today. This delightful bauble is among his most delicious....with a dream cast that includes Audrey Hepburn as the beguiling chauffer's daughter, Humphrey Bogart as the no-nonsense businessman who unexpectedly reveals a tender heart, and William Holden (one of Wilder's great muses) as the irresponsible younger brother who flirts with disaster when he falls for the family servant. The film, adapted from a stage success, has the winning Wilder touch of comedy, satire, drama and emotional yearning.

Holden also stars in two of the other Wilder films in the program...........SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950) is the ultimate Hollywood horror story, about an unemployed writer (Holden) who falls in with a slightly mad former silent screen goddess (the unforgettable Gloria Swanson). Although it gave him celebrity and wealth, Wilder always felt contempt for the Hollywood system...especially the way it discarded its citizens after they had become less useful or profitable. For Swanson and her delusions of a comeback and Holden, whose cynicism is only matched by his hunger for recognition, the glamour of the silver screen was never captured so accurately and left such a bitter taste in the mouth of the audience, who then as now, hungers for the celebrity that they confer on their movie idols. STALAG 17 (1953) is also based on a stage play, this one depicting life in a prisoner-of-war camp behind Nazi lines. Holden stars as a cynical prisoner who keeps to himself and finds way to make a profit in the prison camp black market. For his performance as the not very likeable anti-hero who discovers his patriotism and his pride, Holden won the Best Actor Oscar of that year.

Also screening in the Retrospective are two powerful films that explore the angst of the war years and their aftermath. In DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944), Wilder scored his first big success in the tale of a woman (Barbara Stanwyck, never more deadly) who conspires with an insurance salesman (an admirably blank Fred McMurray) to kill off her husband. Not much love is lost between these two schemers, who are drawn into the murder plot with a force that only be described as obsession. Only an investigative hound of an insurance inspector, wonderfully played by the great Edward G. Robinson, foils the plot of murder most foul.

In A FOREIGN AFFAIR (1947) a satire of the American occupation of post-war Germany, the gifted comedienne Jean Arthur stars as a prim senator who comes to Germany to see how tax dollars are being used to revialize the German nation. In her first straight out comedic performance, the iconic Marlene Dietrich mesmerizes as a chanteuse who has an affair with an American officer (very much against the rules). Wilder brings great pathos and much hilarity to this tale of the victors and the vanquished (and delights in questioning which is which).

For introducing these films to a wider audience, the Festroia is to be congratulated. This is truly Wilder and wonderful.

Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Online Dailies Editor