Avanti! (1972) is one of the best late-career films from writer/producer/director Billy Wilder, though he personally professed not to be terribly fond of it. Jack Lemmon plays a straight-laced, middle-aged American businessman who travels to Italy to collect the body of his father, who has died in a car accident. He soon meets an English woman (Juliet Mills) who has arrived to claim the body of her own dead mother. The two figure out that their parents had been carrying on an affair for ten years, meeting secretly in Italy every summer. When Lemmon and Mills encounter continuous bureaucratic red tape in trying to ship the bodies out of Italy, Mills suggests burying the bodies right there in the land that brought them so much happiness. The two meanwhile begin their own affair despite themselves, deciding to carry on their parents' tradition of meeting in Italy every year.
This strange mixture of the poignant and the macabre is oddly appealing and even lyrical, and
Avanti! is a movie that not only gets better as it goes along but which improves on successive viewings. Wilder never really saw it that way, telling Cameron Crowe in their book-length series of interviews: "Maybe we went a little overboard with some of the comic relief, because
Avanti! is not a comedy. If this film had worked the way we wanted it to, it would have had more of the quality of
The Apartment [1960]."
There are indeed similarities to
The Apartment here, with Lemmon's character functioning as something of a variation on his "C.C. Baxter" in the latter film. There are also shades of Gary Cooper from Wilder's
Love in the Afternoon (1957). Cameron Crowe, for his part, described
Avanti! as "a melancholy classic steeped in the feelings of a man a long way from home, entering the third act of his life."
Avanti! is based on a play by Samuel Taylor, whose earlier play
Sabrina Fair Wilder had adapted into the movie
Sabrina (1954). Unlike
Sabrina Fair, however,
Avanti! was not a Broadway success, closing after just 21 performances in 1968. When Wilder's regular writing partner I.A.L. Diamond was unavailable to work on the screenplay, Wilder turned to other collaborators: Julius Epstein, Norman Krasna and Italian writer Luciano Vincenzoni (
Seduced and Abandoned [1964];
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly [1966]) all took cracks at the script, but Wilder was unsatisfied. Finally Diamond became available, and the duo knocked out a script that worked. It was easy enough for them - they had already worked together eight times (and would do so again on three further films). Wilder recalled of his work with Diamond: "We changed the emphasis from a dialogue on American versus Italian values to a bittersweet love story, a little like
Brief Encounter [1945], which I always admired."
Wilder shot
Avanti! entirely in Italy in the summer of 1972, working mainly on the Amalfi coast with some studio work in Rome. He used an Italian crew who were awed by Wilder's friendly atmosphere on the set and by his accomplishment in bringing the film in $100,000 under budget. They also admired his exacting approach. Charlotte Chandler, for instance, has written that production designer Alessandro von Normann "described how Wilder had the hotel sets designed to accommodate the dialogue, timing how long it would take to speak lines while moving from one spot to another. 'He was so precise. To ask a production designer about this was unusual. He wanted to be sure the lines covered the movement.'"
As for the cast,
Avanti! marked the fifth time Wilder and Lemmon worked together. Two more films would follow (
The Front Page [1974] &
Buddy Buddy [1981]). Wilder said that playing romance was perhaps Lemmon's only weakness as an actor but that in
Avanti!, "we made him as romantic as possible."
For the leading lady, Wilder recalled how he searched and searched for an appropriate overweight actress. She had to be fat, he said, "so that you don't feel sorry for him because he goes back to his wife... She had to have some defect. I did not want her to limp [but to] just [be] a girl that if she wanted to, she could lose twenty pounds." After not finding an overweight actress who was right for the role, Wilder hired Juliet Mills, "and though she tried to gain the weight, she ate and ate and mysteriously couldn't gain a pound." Other sources, however, claim that Mills actually did gain 25-30 pounds for the part. Even Mills herself told author Charlotte Chandler, "It was more fun gaining it than losing it."
Lemmon and Mills have a nude scene together, the first to appear in any Billy Wilder film. Mills later said, "If one must do a nude scene, Jack Lemmon is the perfect partner. I think he was more nervous than I, but he was acting funny to help me through it."
"Avanti" is Italian for "advance," as in saying "come in" when someone knocks on the door. In 1975, playwright Samuel Taylor revised
Avanti! and changed the title to
A Touch of Spring for a run on London's West End. That production fared much better than the original Broadway version.
Producer: Billy Wilder
Director: Billy Wilder
Screenplay: I.A.L. Diamond, Billy Wilder, based on the play by Samuel A. Taylor
Cinematography: Luigi Kuveiller
Art Direction: Ferdinando Scarfiotti
Music: Carlo Rustichelli, Gianfranco Plenizio
Film Editing: Ralph E. Winters
Cast: Jack Lemmon (Wendell Armbruster, Jr.), Juliet Mills (Pamela Piggott), Clive Revill (Carlo Carlucci), Edward Andrews (J. J. Blodgett), Gianfranco Barra (Bruno), Franco Angrisano (Arnold Trotta), Pippo Franco (Mattarazzo).
C-144m. Letterboxed.
by Jeremy Arnold
Sources:
Charlotte Chandler,
Nobody's Perfect
Cameron Crowe,
Conversations With Wilder
Bernard F. Dick,
Billy Wilder
Don Widener,
Lemmon
Maurice Zolotow,
Billy Wilder in Hollywood
Avanti!
Avanti! (1972) is one of the best late-career films from writer/producer/director Billy Wilder, though he personally professed not to be terribly fond of it. Jack Lemmon plays a straight-laced, middle-aged American businessman who travels to Italy to collect the body of his father, who has died in a car accident. He soon meets an English woman (Juliet Mills) who has arrived to claim the body of her own dead mother. The two figure out that their parents had been carrying on an affair for ten years, meeting secretly in Italy every summer. When Lemmon and Mills encounter continuous bureaucratic red tape in trying to ship the bodies out of Italy, Mills suggests burying the bodies right there in the land that brought them so much happiness. The two meanwhile begin their own affair despite themselves, deciding to carry on their parents' tradition of meeting in Italy every year.
This strange mixture of the poignant and the macabre is oddly appealing and even lyrical, and Avanti! is a movie that not only gets better as it goes along but which improves on successive viewings. Wilder never really saw it that way, telling Cameron Crowe in their book-length series of interviews: "Maybe we went a little overboard with some of the comic relief, because Avanti! is not a comedy. If this film had worked the way we wanted it to, it would have had more of the quality of The Apartment [1960]."
There are indeed similarities to The Apartment here, with Lemmon's character functioning as something of a variation on his "C.C. Baxter" in the latter film. There are also shades of Gary Cooper from Wilder's Love in the Afternoon (1957). Cameron Crowe, for his part, described Avanti! as "a melancholy classic steeped in the feelings of a man a long way from home, entering the third act of his life."
Avanti! is based on a play by Samuel Taylor, whose earlier play Sabrina Fair Wilder had adapted into the movie Sabrina (1954). Unlike Sabrina Fair, however, Avanti! was not a Broadway success, closing after just 21 performances in 1968. When Wilder's regular writing partner I.A.L. Diamond was unavailable to work on the screenplay, Wilder turned to other collaborators: Julius Epstein, Norman Krasna and Italian writer Luciano Vincenzoni (Seduced and Abandoned [1964]; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly [1966]) all took cracks at the script, but Wilder was unsatisfied. Finally Diamond became available, and the duo knocked out a script that worked. It was easy enough for them - they had already worked together eight times (and would do so again on three further films). Wilder recalled of his work with Diamond: "We changed the emphasis from a dialogue on American versus Italian values to a bittersweet love story, a little like Brief Encounter [1945], which I always admired."
Wilder shot Avanti! entirely in Italy in the summer of 1972, working mainly on the Amalfi coast with some studio work in Rome. He used an Italian crew who were awed by Wilder's friendly atmosphere on the set and by his accomplishment in bringing the film in $100,000 under budget. They also admired his exacting approach. Charlotte Chandler, for instance, has written that production designer Alessandro von Normann "described how Wilder had the hotel sets designed to accommodate the dialogue, timing how long it would take to speak lines while moving from one spot to another. 'He was so precise. To ask a production designer about this was unusual. He wanted to be sure the lines covered the movement.'"
As for the cast, Avanti! marked the fifth time Wilder and Lemmon worked together. Two more films would follow (The Front Page [1974] & Buddy Buddy [1981]). Wilder said that playing romance was perhaps Lemmon's only weakness as an actor but that in Avanti!, "we made him as romantic as possible."
For the leading lady, Wilder recalled how he searched and searched for an appropriate overweight actress. She had to be fat, he said, "so that you don't feel sorry for him because he goes back to his wife... She had to have some defect. I did not want her to limp [but to] just [be] a girl that if she wanted to, she could lose twenty pounds." After not finding an overweight actress who was right for the role, Wilder hired Juliet Mills, "and though she tried to gain the weight, she ate and ate and mysteriously couldn't gain a pound." Other sources, however, claim that Mills actually did gain 25-30 pounds for the part. Even Mills herself told author Charlotte Chandler, "It was more fun gaining it than losing it."
Lemmon and Mills have a nude scene together, the first to appear in any Billy Wilder film. Mills later said, "If one must do a nude scene, Jack Lemmon is the perfect partner. I think he was more nervous than I, but he was acting funny to help me through it."
"Avanti" is Italian for "advance," as in saying "come in" when someone knocks on the door. In 1975, playwright Samuel Taylor revised Avanti! and changed the title to A Touch of Spring for a run on London's West End. That production fared much better than the original Broadway version.
Producer: Billy Wilder
Director: Billy Wilder
Screenplay: I.A.L. Diamond, Billy Wilder, based on the play by Samuel A. Taylor
Cinematography: Luigi Kuveiller
Art Direction: Ferdinando Scarfiotti
Music: Carlo Rustichelli, Gianfranco Plenizio
Film Editing: Ralph E. Winters
Cast: Jack Lemmon (Wendell Armbruster, Jr.), Juliet Mills (Pamela Piggott), Clive Revill (Carlo Carlucci), Edward Andrews (J. J. Blodgett), Gianfranco Barra (Bruno), Franco Angrisano (Arnold Trotta), Pippo Franco (Mattarazzo).
C-144m. Letterboxed.
by Jeremy Arnold
Sources:
Charlotte Chandler, Nobody's Perfect
Cameron Crowe, Conversations With Wilder
Bernard F. Dick, Billy Wilder
Don Widener, Lemmon
Maurice Zolotow, Billy Wilder in Hollywood
TCM Remembers - Billy Wilder
A FOND FAREWELL TO ONE OF HOLLYWOOD'S MOST GIFTED DIRECTORS - BILLY WILDER, 11906-2002
Billy Wilder had the most deliciously dirty mind in Hollywood. The director dug into racy, controversial subjects with cynical wit and rare candor; he set new standards for film noir, sex comedies and the buddy film and his movies continue to inspire new generations of filmmakers.
Cameron Crowe, screenwriter and director of contemporary hit films such as Jerry Maguire(1996), was one of those moved by Wilder's film sense. The struggling filmmaker struck up a friendship with the 93-year old veteran and found a friend and a mentor. Their conversations were recently chronicled in a book by Cameron Crowe entitled Conversations with Wilder(published by Knoft).
Billy Wilder might have been born in Vienna, but American culture influenced him from the earliest days. Given the name Samuel, Wilder's mother called her son 'Billy' in honor of Buffalo Bill Cody. The name stuck.
Billy was as restless as his namesake and left law school to become a journalist. While grinding out articles for a Berlin newspaper, Wilder joined with future film directors Fred Zinnemann, Robert Sidomak and Edgar G. Ulmer to make a short film, Menschen Am Sonntag (1929). By the mid-1930s, he had written seven scenarios and even tried his hand at directing. After Hitler's rise to power in 1934, Wilder fled his homeland. Once in Hollywood, Wilder and roommate Peter Lorre had to learn English quickly if they wanted to join the American film industry. Together the German expatriates learned the language and began staking their territory in the Dream Factory.
As a writer, Wilder could craft realistic relationships with sharp dialogue; he proved this in his scripts for Ninotchka (1939) with Greta Garbo and Howard Hawks' Ball of Fire(1941). As a filmmaker, Wilder was well acquainted with the shadowy, brooding style of German Expressionism. He brought these two gifts together to create a landmark film noir - DOUBLE INDEMNITY(1944). He followed this cinematic triumph with a risky project, the story of an alcoholic on a three-day binge. Not the usual subject matter for a Hollywood studio, THE LOST WEEKEND (1945) nevertheless claimed the Academy Award for Best Picture. By the end of the decade, Wilder dared even to paint a portrait of Hollywood stardom gone awry in Sunset Boulevard (1950).
Each of these films is an undisputed classic today, but even at the time, his films were lauded. Six of his screenplays were nominated for Oscars between 1941-1950. Three of his eight Best Director nominations also came during this period. Billy Wilder claimed the American Dream; he was successfully playing by his own rules.
By the end of the '50s, as censorship guidelines were easing, Wilder's projects became even more daring. Sex was central to Wilder's world and Hollywood celebrated his candor. He directed Marilyn Monroe in two of her most sensuous roles, The Seven Year Itch (1955) and SOME LIKE IT HOT(1959). More often than not, Wilder liked pointing his finger at the hyprocrisy of people's sexual mores. In THE APARTMENT(1960), Wilder took an incisive look at corrupt businessmen exploiting their employees for sexual favors. In IRMA LA DOUCE (1963), the world of a Parisian prostitute was lovingly painted in Technicolor tones. In Kiss Me, Stupid (1964), Wilder finally stepped over the line with the story of a struggling composer willing to offer his wife to sell a song.The film, which seems so innocent today, was scandalous in its own day. Critics called Kiss Me, Stupid pornographic smut and buried the picture. Audiences ignored it. Today, the film is a risque farce with great performances by Dean Martin and Kim Novak. The critical lambast deeply affected Wilder; this would be his last sex comedy.
In 1966 Wilder brought together the dynamic combination of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau with THE FORTUNE COOKIE. Director and stars teamed again for The Front Page (1974), a remake of the newspaper classic; and Buddy, Buddy (1981), the story of an assassin and a sad sack ready to commit suicide.
Wilder's many years in Hollywood produced an amazing string of hits. From sarcastic and cynical social commentary to outrageous sex farce, Wilder pushed his audiences to look at their own values and morals. He was an outsider who wasn't afraid to point out the follies of his fellow man or the worst aspects of American culture. He will be sorely missed.
By Jeremy Geltzer
TCM Remembers - Billy Wilder
A FOND FAREWELL TO ONE OF HOLLYWOOD'S MOST GIFTED DIRECTORS - BILLY WILDER, 11906-2002
Billy Wilder had the most deliciously dirty mind in Hollywood. The director dug into racy, controversial subjects with cynical wit and rare candor; he set new standards for film noir, sex comedies and the buddy film and his movies continue to inspire new generations of filmmakers.
Cameron Crowe, screenwriter and director of contemporary hit films such as Jerry Maguire(1996), was one of those moved by Wilder's film sense. The struggling filmmaker struck up a friendship with the 93-year old veteran and found a friend and a mentor. Their conversations were recently chronicled in a book by Cameron Crowe entitled Conversations with Wilder(published by Knoft).
Billy Wilder might have been born in Vienna, but American culture influenced him from the earliest days. Given the name Samuel, Wilder's mother called her son 'Billy' in honor of Buffalo Bill Cody. The name stuck.
Billy was as restless as his namesake and left law school to become a journalist. While grinding out articles for a Berlin newspaper, Wilder joined with future film directors Fred Zinnemann, Robert Sidomak and Edgar G. Ulmer to make a short film, Menschen Am Sonntag (1929). By the mid-1930s, he had written seven scenarios and even tried his hand at directing. After Hitler's rise to power in 1934, Wilder fled his homeland. Once in Hollywood, Wilder and roommate Peter Lorre had to learn English quickly if they wanted to join the American film industry. Together the German expatriates learned the language and began staking their territory in the Dream Factory.
As a writer, Wilder could craft realistic relationships with sharp dialogue; he proved this in his scripts for Ninotchka (1939) with Greta Garbo and Howard Hawks' Ball of Fire(1941). As a filmmaker, Wilder was well acquainted with the shadowy, brooding style of German Expressionism. He brought these two gifts together to create a landmark film noir - DOUBLE INDEMNITY(1944). He followed this cinematic triumph with a risky project, the story of an alcoholic on a three-day binge. Not the usual subject matter for a Hollywood studio, THE LOST WEEKEND (1945) nevertheless claimed the Academy Award for Best Picture. By the end of the decade, Wilder dared even to paint a portrait of Hollywood stardom gone awry in Sunset Boulevard (1950).
Each of these films is an undisputed classic today, but even at the time, his films were lauded. Six of his screenplays were nominated for Oscars between 1941-1950. Three of his eight Best Director nominations also came during this period. Billy Wilder claimed the American Dream; he was successfully playing by his own rules.
By the end of the '50s, as censorship guidelines were easing, Wilder's projects became even more daring. Sex was central to Wilder's world and Hollywood celebrated his candor. He directed Marilyn Monroe in two of her most sensuous roles, The Seven Year Itch (1955) and SOME LIKE IT HOT(1959). More often than not, Wilder liked pointing his finger at the hyprocrisy of people's sexual mores. In THE APARTMENT(1960), Wilder took an incisive look at corrupt businessmen exploiting their employees for sexual favors. In IRMA LA DOUCE (1963), the world of a Parisian prostitute was lovingly painted in Technicolor tones. In Kiss Me, Stupid (1964), Wilder finally stepped over the line with the story of a struggling composer willing to offer his wife to sell a song.The film, which seems so innocent today, was scandalous in its own day. Critics called Kiss Me, Stupid pornographic smut and buried the picture. Audiences ignored it. Today, the film is a risque farce with great performances by Dean Martin and Kim Novak. The critical lambast deeply affected Wilder; this would be his last sex comedy.
In 1966 Wilder brought together the dynamic combination of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau with THE FORTUNE COOKIE. Director and stars teamed again for The Front Page (1974), a remake of the newspaper classic; and Buddy, Buddy (1981), the story of an assassin and a sad sack ready to commit suicide.
Wilder's many years in Hollywood produced an amazing string of hits. From sarcastic and cynical social commentary to outrageous sex farce, Wilder pushed his audiences to look at their own values and morals. He was an outsider who wasn't afraid to point out the follies of his fellow man or the worst aspects of American culture. He will be sorely missed.
By Jeremy Geltzer
