FEW directors embody the golden age of Hollywood quite like Billy Wilder. Over five illustrious decades the much loved film-maker and screenwriter gifted us game changers like Some Like It Hot, Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity and The Apartment.
By the time he delivered his penultimate movie Fedora (freshly released for the very first time on DVD and blu-ray via Eureka Home Entertainment) in 1978 his star was clearly on the wane but his skill and vision remained undimmed.
A lush and languorous love letter to cinema itself, Fedora has a dreamlike quality that must have made it feel utterly out of step in the 1970s but it remains a beautiful snapshot of the old Hollywood system in all its romantic glory.
A study of how the studios treated their talent as they got older and the seedier side of the industry, it’s easy to see it as an update on Wilder’s earlier take on the trials and tribulations of Tinsel Town, Sunset Boulevard and a clear inspiration to later films like David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. That it failed to find an audience at the time and remains a relatively unloved entry in the director’s CV only goes to show how unfair the world of cinema can be.
William Holden, always one of Wilder’s favourite actors, is Barry 'Dutch' Detweiler, an ageing Hollywood director who’s badly in need of a box-office hit. He hopes to score that hit by tracking down a great star of yesteryear, the reclusive Fedora (played by Marthe Keller) and convincing her to return to the silver screen one more time to star in a new production of Anna Karenina.
Despite the passing years Fedora has retained her beauty, her Hollywood-sex-symbol allure and her leading lady charm. Trouble is, she has retired from the public eye on a tiny Greek island where she lives with a slightly sinister entourage that includes her doctor (Jose Ferrer), her driver (Gottfried John), her PA (Frances Sternhagen) and a mysterious regal figure by the name of Countess Sobryansky (Hildegard Knef).
The first half of the film unfolds like a classic mystery thriller as Dutch tries to unravel the secret behind the ex-star’s reclusive life on the island. Why has she retired there and what exactly are the roles of all those interested parties who hang on her every movement? He also tries to figure out how she has kept her ravishing good looks.
Beyond that simple, if slightly offbeat, mystery lies another film, however, and as the second half arrives so we are thrown into Wilder’s personal obsession with the movie industry itself.
By the time of Fedora’s release Wilder may not have held the sway that he did in his prime but it still stands proud alongside his finest work.
Released as part of Eureka’s admirable Masters of Cinema series, this long-overdue restoration looks astonishing and as a study of the obsession with glamour, youth and vitality that the silver screen continues to exude, it’s a worthy addition to the director’s CV.
