A brilliant, sad and cynical masterpiece. Yes, I'm saying that about what's ostensibly a romantic comedy. But only Billy Wilder could make a romantic comedy and also a cynical, political film about post-WWII Berlin at the start of the Cold War.
Berlin hadn't yet been split into West and East (that was to happen shortly after the film's release) but the backdrop is sad, jaded and disillusioned. Billy Wilder, an Austrian Jew who spent several years living in Berlin before the Nazis came to power, knew and loved the city and returned to the Berlin as the setting for a couple of his films, 'A Foreign Affair' being one of them.
The film is about a US Army officer (John Lund) who is having an affair with an ex-Nazi turned cafe singer, played to absolute perfection by Marlene Dietrich. Jean Arthur plays an Iowan congresswoman who comes to Berlin to investigate the morale of US soldiers and begins to fall for John Lund, creating a strange love triangle in the middle of a bombed and devastated Berlin.
While this plays out, it allows Wilder to cynically dissect the political situation of his time. There are some dark and sombre observations that made it through to a Hollywood romantic comedy. Billy Wilder tells a lot without saying much. Marlene Dietrich talks about how hard it was for women when the Soviets came to Berlin. Rape and murder was commonplace in war torn Berlin. US soldiers swapping candy and watches for money to desperate Berliners shows only the surface of what else was being swapped. Prostitution was an unfortunate reality for some women just so they could make some money to survive, turning (in Jean Arthur's own words) soldiers into 'barbarians'. As Dietrich says later on in the film, life in that time of such destruction and uncertainty was about self-preservation. To be able to live on a day-by-day basis by any means.
By turns funny, dramatic and sad, 'A Foreign Affair' should stand as one of Wilder's strongest efforts. A cynical, observant and darkly funny look at human nature at the start of the Cold War.
Berlin hadn't yet been split into West and East (that was to happen shortly after the film's release) but the backdrop is sad, jaded and disillusioned. Billy Wilder, an Austrian Jew who spent several years living in Berlin before the Nazis came to power, knew and loved the city and returned to the Berlin as the setting for a couple of his films, 'A Foreign Affair' being one of them.
The film is about a US Army officer (John Lund) who is having an affair with an ex-Nazi turned cafe singer, played to absolute perfection by Marlene Dietrich. Jean Arthur plays an Iowan congresswoman who comes to Berlin to investigate the morale of US soldiers and begins to fall for John Lund, creating a strange love triangle in the middle of a bombed and devastated Berlin.
While this plays out, it allows Wilder to cynically dissect the political situation of his time. There are some dark and sombre observations that made it through to a Hollywood romantic comedy. Billy Wilder tells a lot without saying much. Marlene Dietrich talks about how hard it was for women when the Soviets came to Berlin. Rape and murder was commonplace in war torn Berlin. US soldiers swapping candy and watches for money to desperate Berliners shows only the surface of what else was being swapped. Prostitution was an unfortunate reality for some women just so they could make some money to survive, turning (in Jean Arthur's own words) soldiers into 'barbarians'. As Dietrich says later on in the film, life in that time of such destruction and uncertainty was about self-preservation. To be able to live on a day-by-day basis by any means.
By turns funny, dramatic and sad, 'A Foreign Affair' should stand as one of Wilder's strongest efforts. A cynical, observant and darkly funny look at human nature at the start of the Cold War.
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