Billy Wilder’s “Avanti!” – An Underrated Gem (Fabulous Friday Flicks)

Billy Wilder’s “Avanti!” – An Underrated Gem

I will begin with three  confessions. First, I think Billy Wilder may be the greatest American movie director of all time. His ability to transcend genres is unparalleled. His scripts were always ahead of their time. As a director, he coaxed fabulous performances out of actors  in unique and wonderful ways. It seems almost impossible that one director could make “Some like It Hot” and “Stalag 17” and “The Apartment” and “Double Indemnity.” Although Billy Wilder’s “Avanti!” is not in the class of those masterpieces, it is a very special film.

Second, I love Italy and films set in Italy. The richness of the culture, the depth of color and the magnificent physical beauty of Italy make it a unique and magical background.

My final confession is that I did not like Billy Wilder’s “Avanti!” at all when I first saw it. I thought many of the situations were too forced and many of the jokes too broad. It is too long. There is a misplaced nude scene. The film was made very late in Billy Wilder’s career. It does not represent his greatest work, and I remember thinking it very sad that such a great director had made such a middling movie.

When I first saw “Avanti!,” however, I was very young. As a middle-aged husband and father who has lost his parents, I think about life and art differently than I did in 1972. I have rediscovered Billy Wilder’s “Avanti!” and realize that in its best moments, it is a truly extraordinary film. I am deeply moved each time I view it.

The advertising poster for the film

The poster for “Avanti”

was, I think, part of the problem. It seemed to advertise a wild, fast-paced farce. Billy Wilder’s “Avanti!” certainly has moments like that, but the tone is much deeper. The laughs are almost inconsequential to a film that is reflecting some very deep thoughts about life and love and loss. In its best moments the tone of the film is powerful and startlingly unique. Just as the film comes very late in Billy Wilder’s career, I think it is best appreciated by people who have experienced love and disappointment and who have begun to reflect on their lives.

The plot centers around an extremely straight-laced American businessman (Jack Lemmon) who has to rush to Italy to deal with the unexpected death of his father. The father had been a pillar of the community and a national interests conservative industrialist. Arriving at the hotel where his father spent part of every summer for many, years, the son discovers that his father had had a deep and long-standing affair with a free-spirited Englishwoman who met him and lived with him in Italy every summer.

Many adults are surprised when they come to understand their own parents as people. The flawless, moral centers of our lives take on a different perspective when we begin to see them as people and not just as parents. Jack Lemmon’s discovery of the truth about his father startles him but also makes him question what else in his life he doesn’t understand well. He meets the Englishwoman’s equally free-spirited daughter, played by the charming Juliet Mills. Naturally, this being the movie, the two of them move from disliking each other to misunderstanding each other to loving each other. What makes the film so poignant is the background to their love story. They are in Italy, after all, to claim the bodies of their parents who had died together in an accident. Look at the picture of Juliet Mills and see the haunting contrast between the mood of the character and her physical surroundings. The impossibly lovely musical score and superb cinematography deepens the tone of the film to reflect the changing relationship and understanding of the two main characters. It is almost as if the overwhelming physical beauty of Italy itself tries to block sadness.

The farce ensues when the by-the-book businessman (Lemmon) encounters the byzantine and bewildering Italian bureaucracy. He also faces ‘comic’ kidnappers. The former comic subplot is moderately funny; the latter falls completely flat.  There are definitely smiles to be had, but don’t expect a laugh-a-minute pace.

Instead, watch as Lemmon and Mills fall in love amidst their grief and come to appreciate their past in new and revealing ways.

“Avanti!” is often considered a failure. It was not well-received by critics or audiences. Where Billy Wilder Avanti fails is actually when it becomes farce. It is also too long. Wilder acknowledged the failings of the film, stating. “Audiences thought it was too long and too bland.” He noted, “Maybe we went overboard with some of the comic relief, because Avanti! is not a comedy.”

Although Billy Wilder’s Avanti! is quite funny at points, the most memorable scenes come in the quieter moments as Lemmon and Mills grasp their changing realities – past, present and future.

As a film lover, it is always an interesting moment for me when I realize I feel differently about a film now than my initial reaction. Sometimes I will view a film I thought was wonderful and realize I was wrong.  And then there are films like “Avanti!” that I have come to respect and cherish more as I mature in my vision and understanding.