Fedora (film)
| Fedora | |
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Original poster. The tagline reads, "Youth had been a habit of hers for so long that she could not part with it."
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| Directed by | Billy Wilder |
| Produced by | Billy Wilder |
| Written by | Billy Wilder I. A. L. Diamond Based on a novella by Tom Tryon |
| Starring |
William Holden Marthe Keller |
| Music by | Miklós Rózsa. Additional music : "C'est si bon" by Henri Betti (1947) |
| Cinematography | Gerry Fisher |
| Edited by | Stefan Arnsten Fredric Steinkamp |
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| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Running time
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114 minutes |
| Country | West Germany France |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6.7 million |
Fedora is a 1978 West German-French drama film directed by Billy Wilder. The screenplay by Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond is based on a novella by Tom Tryon included in his collection Crowned Heads, published in 1976. The film stars William Holden and Marthe Keller.
A reclusive foreign-born actress, one of the greatest movie stars of the century, has inexplicably retained her youthful beauty despite her advancing years. She commits suicide by throwing herself in front of a train, and among the mourners at her funeral is aging has-been Hollywood producer Barry "Dutch" Detweiler, with whom she once had a brief affair.
Detweiler recalls how he had visited Fedora two weeks earlier, at a villa on an island near Corfu, determined to convince her to star in a new screen adaptation of Anna Karenina. She had told him she was a prisoner in her remote retreat, held captive by aged Polish Countess Sobryanski, her overprotective servant Miss Balfour, her chauffeur Kritos, and Dr. Vando, who seemingly was responsible for keeping the one-time star looking so young. When he had tried to respond to Fedora's plea for help, Dutch had been knocked unconscious by Kritos. He had awakened nearly a week later, only to learn Fedora had killed herself.
At Fedora's funeral, Dutch accuses Vando and the Countess of driving Fedora to her death. The Countess ultimately reveals she actually is Fedora, and the woman who died was her daughter Antonia, who had been impersonating the actress for years after one of the doctor's treatments disfigured her. Antonia's charade was successful until she fell in love with actor Michael York while making a film with him and decided to tell him the truth. In order to ensure her silence, she was held captive and kept drugged, until she finally killed herself. Dutch bids the real Fedora farewell, and six weeks later, she dies too.
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Wikipedia