Fedora (1978) on Netflix
Fedora, a film star long in seclusion, lives on an island near Corfu. Hollywood producer Barry 'Dutch' Detweiler brings her a screenplay, hoping she will return to the screen.
- Netflix2.8/5
- IMDb6.8/105,975 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes71%
Trailer
Plot summary
Fedora is a foreign-born actress counted among the century's great film stars, known for a beauty that has lasted decades on screen. At the height of her fame she withdraws to an island near Corfu and lets no one see her. Barry 'Dutch' Detweiler, a Hollywood producer whose career has faded and who was once her lover, comes to her villa with a screenplay for a new version of Anna Karenina, and backers who will pay if she takes the lead. Fedora is receptive to the offer, yet she seems confused and cannot recall their affair, and she tells him she is a prisoner there. Countess Sobryanski, Miss Balfour, the chauffeur Kritos and Dr. Vando keep her there, and Dr. Vando is the surgeon whose work has kept her face young.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Fedora (1978)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Billy Wilder originally wanted Marlene Dietrich to play Fedora and Faye Dunaway to play her daughter Antonia, but Dietrich hated the source novella and felt the screenplay didn't improve on it, so neither was cast.
- Wilder cast Marthe Keller to play both mother and daughter after seeing her in Bobby Deerfield, but she had suffered severe facial nerve damage in a car accident and could not endure the heavy old-age makeup, forcing Wilder to hire Hildegard Knef to play the older role instead.
- After a rough cut showed that Keller and Knef were hard to understand and didn't sound alike, Wilder had German actress Inga Bunsch dub both of their voices for the English release, while Keller and Knef each re-recorded both roles themselves for the French and West German versions.
- At that Santa Barbara test screening, the audience began derisively laughing in all the wrong places partway through, and a dejected Wilder afterward refused to make any further edits to the film.
- Fedora was given such a small, low-key theatrical rollout that an insulted Billy Wilder claimed the studio had spent only about $625 on the entire marketing campaign.
