Billy Wilder achieved major cultural impact with earlier films such as Sunset Boulevard, The Apartment, Some Like It Hot, The Lost Weekend, Stalag 17, and The Fortune Cookie. Wilder's work in the 1970s received significantly less success and is often seen as less relevant to that era's cinematic story. The 1972 comedy Avanti! functions as a lucid crystallization of the socioeconomic and sexual mores of its day. Co-lead Juliet Mills recalled that the film was panned by critics and that Wilder was very disappointed by its reception. The film follows Wendell Armstrong Jr. (Jack Lemmon) traveling to Italy to recover his corporate mogul father's body and discovering his father had maintained a decade-long affair.
I would place a sizable wager, however, that next to no one says Billy Wilder when thinking about the 1970s. Wilder's most celebrated work is likely "Sunset Boulevard," the scathing, cautionary tale of Hollywood gone wrong - squarely defined by its 1950 release date. "The Apartment" is another seminal work, thag one positioned firmly in 1960 corporate America. "Some Like it Hot," "The Lost Weekend," "Stalag 17," hell, even "The Fortune Cookie" each made their way into the marrow popular culture, breaking through the crowded zeitgeist to represent something tangible about their respective decades.
The work that Wilder made in the '70s was greeted with significantly less success, and continues to be seen as less relevant to the story of that era as his earlier films were to their own, but his most interesting film from that time period - the 1972 comedy " Avanti!" - deserves to be recognized as a lucid crystallization of the socioeconomic and sexual mores of its day. In a recent conversion with IndieWire, "Avanti!" co-lead Juliet Mills discussed making the film, and how its themes and message reflect something unique about the culture.
"When it came out, it got panned by the critics," Mills said. "Who knows why, really? But you know, sometimes they suddenly have a go at people who are so successful [like Wilder]. "I remember Billy was very, very disappointed with the reception of the film."
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