ashdoc
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Fedora ( 1978 )
William Holden plays Barry Detweiler , who wants to make a film starring an old reclusive actress called Fedora ( Marthe Keller ) because he has a crush on her since his boyhood days when he was spotboy for her film shoot and had the good fortune to see the full glory of her nude breasts from up close while tasked with placing flowers over them as she was shooting in a pool . And she had taken a liking for him and called him to her room and asked him if he found her nude body hot , and had said that he must be a pansy if he did not like her body----meaning she would feel insulted if he did not admire her flesh ; a true narcissist our Fedora , just like a true film star....
Having briefly dated this famous movie star a long time ago and been on long drives in her car with her , Barry just can't get her out of his mind . And here he now , trying to meet her decades later on an island where she has mysteriously disappeared after leaving films and joining them again . And he closes onto the villa where Fedora lives , only to find out that it is heavily guarded by tough looking humans and even tougher dogs .
But Barry is nothing if not persistent , and he soon makes contact with her . But she tells him that she is being held captive by a countess and her men . When Barry tries to renew the contact he is beaten and left unconscious by one of Fedora's overseers . When he wakes up , he finds out that she is dead having committed suicide .
As he comes to pay his last respects to her body , Barry accuses the countess and her husband of having conspired to kill Fedora . And the countess is then forced to blurt out the jaw dropping truth . That Fedora was actually she herself and she was even more narcissistic than Barry thought . That in order to satisfy her narcissism she used to take regular treatments from her doctor that one day had the opposite effect of disfiguring her . And she had gone into hiding . But when she got news that the academy award had been awarded to her , she had prepared her daughter to receive the award impersonating her . And the impersonation was so good that the daughter soon was working in films as Fedora , impersonating her of course .
But when the daughter fell in love like all young women do , she wanted to reveal the secret to the young man she loved . That she was not older than him as he thought and that they could be together without any age gap between them . But the idea of the revelation of this secret exploded the vanity of the older real Fedora like a poisonous snake being disturbed , and she did the most cruel and vile thing that a woman could do---held her own child drugged and captive .
Seeing the film I was disgusted with these filmy people and their horrible ego and their self absorption . More so because such people actually exist in the film industry and are not fiction . The film evokes Hollywood of the forties---extravagant sets and movies and even more extravagant egos .
And yet people are willing to pamper and pander to these extravagant egos . For Barry agrees to keep the secret of the countess , as Fedora is called in her new avtar . And why ? For old times sake of course....to remember with happiness the time he had briefly dated this great star .
The film is suspenseful in the beginning and the explanation of the suspense is even more shocking than we thought . In that sense the film exceeds our expectations . Acting and photography is okay but colours are not great . Background music is okay too .
Verdict---Good .
Three and a half stars out of five .
William Holden plays Barry Detweiler , who wants to make a film starring an old reclusive actress called Fedora ( Marthe Keller ) because he has a crush on her since his boyhood days when he was spotboy for her film shoot and had the good fortune to see the full glory of her nude breasts from up close while tasked with placing flowers over them as she was shooting in a pool . And she had taken a liking for him and called him to her room and asked him if he found her nude body hot , and had said that he must be a pansy if he did not like her body----meaning she would feel insulted if he did not admire her flesh ; a true narcissist our Fedora , just like a true film star....
Having briefly dated this famous movie star a long time ago and been on long drives in her car with her , Barry just can't get her out of his mind . And here he now , trying to meet her decades later on an island where she has mysteriously disappeared after leaving films and joining them again . And he closes onto the villa where Fedora lives , only to find out that it is heavily guarded by tough looking humans and even tougher dogs .
But Barry is nothing if not persistent , and he soon makes contact with her . But she tells him that she is being held captive by a countess and her men . When Barry tries to renew the contact he is beaten and left unconscious by one of Fedora's overseers . When he wakes up , he finds out that she is dead having committed suicide .
As he comes to pay his last respects to her body , Barry accuses the countess and her husband of having conspired to kill Fedora . And the countess is then forced to blurt out the jaw dropping truth . That Fedora was actually she herself and she was even more narcissistic than Barry thought . That in order to satisfy her narcissism she used to take regular treatments from her doctor that one day had the opposite effect of disfiguring her . And she had gone into hiding . But when she got news that the academy award had been awarded to her , she had prepared her daughter to receive the award impersonating her . And the impersonation was so good that the daughter soon was working in films as Fedora , impersonating her of course .
But when the daughter fell in love like all young women do , she wanted to reveal the secret to the young man she loved . That she was not older than him as he thought and that they could be together without any age gap between them . But the idea of the revelation of this secret exploded the vanity of the older real Fedora like a poisonous snake being disturbed , and she did the most cruel and vile thing that a woman could do---held her own child drugged and captive .
Seeing the film I was disgusted with these filmy people and their horrible ego and their self absorption . More so because such people actually exist in the film industry and are not fiction . The film evokes Hollywood of the forties---extravagant sets and movies and even more extravagant egos .
And yet people are willing to pamper and pander to these extravagant egos . For Barry agrees to keep the secret of the countess , as Fedora is called in her new avtar . And why ? For old times sake of course....to remember with happiness the time he had briefly dated this great star .
The film is suspenseful in the beginning and the explanation of the suspense is even more shocking than we thought . In that sense the film exceeds our expectations . Acting and photography is okay but colours are not great . Background music is okay too .
Verdict---Good .
Three and a half stars out of five .