this was a pretty widespread viewpoint at least among more artistic/avant-garde directors and theorists in the late 20s.

Like a lot of late Wilder it’s both more sentimental and more mean-spirited than the good stuff. And yet, somehow, there’s a lot that’s really charming about the film.

It’s got rampant fat-phobia which is both awful and nonsensical since the actress in that role, Juliet Mills, is not remotely overweight and apparently just could not gain weight for the role.

The only post-The Apartment film I halfway like is Avanti! which is deeply, deeply problematic and flawed but what works well works really well. The less said about Buddy Buddy the better.

I teach Citizen Kane in my intro to film class and each time it’s students’ least favorite film, and each time I’m stunned. They like it less than silent films, non-English language films—anything!

The use of a ridiculous made-up statistic in this (~ 40% survival rate) is just perfect.

Cinematography by the legendary Boris Kaufman (L’Atalante, On the Waterfront, etc.)

From what I remember all the original song rights were cleared except for the final sequence, which was originally “Unforgettable” but they couldn’t get the rights so replaced it with a reprise of “This Bitter Earth”

Glanced at this quickly and thought, “why is Trump talking about Francisco Lindor?”