A Foreign Affair, directed by Billy Wilder,
with Marlene Dietrich
7 out of 10
A different
version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVa4_CsRStSBBDo4uJWT8BSWtTTn0N1E
and
http://realini.blogspot.ro/
This film
has been included by The New York Times on its list of Beat 1,000 Movies Ever
Made:
The premise
is excellent:
For the
director is one of the most accomplished:
-
Billy Wilder, winner of six Academy Awards and of other
formidable prizes for masterpieces like:
-
The Apartment, Fortune Cookie, Some
Like It Hot, Witness for the Prosecution, Sunset Blvd. and many other
There is
also Marlene Dietrich.
She is one
of the most acclaimed and loved stars.
I am not a
fan.
But I admit
there is a special halo around this actress, albeit for me it a rather chilling
effect and I am rather frozen than attracted by this star.
She plays a
singer in this film:
-
Erika von Schluetow
In the love
triangle that is at the heart of the story, Erika von Schluetow has an affair
with Captain John Pringle.
The other
leading role has a politician, which is rather strange, given that she is a
woman, in an era when that was rare.
Congresswoman
Phoebe Frost flies to Berlin with a team of congressmen, to see firsthand what
happens in the city.
World War
II is over and the allies have occupied the city which we can see during the
tour that the officials get has been nearly destroyed.
The congresswoman
has a package to deliver to Captain John Pringle, from a girl that seems to
love him very much.
He would
later dismiss that claim, saying that she was in the habit of forming repeated
relationships with other men.
The cake
has his name on it and love, happy birthday – details which will make it
recognizable in the black market.
This is
where people buy and sell everything, from mattresses to milk, food and now a
birthday chocolate cake.
John Pringle
wants to trade the cake for a mattress that he intends to give as a gift to the
singer, Erika von Schluetow.
Alas, the congresswoman
happens on the cake in the black market and is very unhappy that the package
she had brought all the way across the ocean ended there.
The cunning
captain pretends to be outraged as well, claiming with a loud voice that
someone has stolen his desert.
It is going
to be pretense – and some humor, but not belly laughs for me- all the way from
here, during the investigation.
Phoebe Frost
is a good name for a woman that appears to be, well, frosty.
She finds
out that the singer had been a kind of collaborator who had had close
relationships with the Nazi grandees.
In a film
that she shows the captain, Erika von Schluetow is in conversation with Hitler
and they joke with each other.
The congresswoman
wants to get the American officer that protects this Nazi sympathizer and that
happens to be…
-
The man she talks to
The comedy
is kept going by the paradox of the captain looking for…himself and trying to
spy on the woman that he actually sleeps with.
It all
becomes a somewhat amusing “ménage a trois” when the effort to keep the
investigating congresswoman brings her into this love game.
In conclusion,
it is not a bad comedy but I was expecting more.
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