The Emperor Waltz

It's the 1948 Billy Wilder film that is better than Ace in the Hole, Stalag 17, Sabrina, The Seven Year Itch, The Spirit of St. Louis, Love in the Afternoon and Some Like It Hot, and essentially as good as Visconti's The Leopard [Il gattopardo, 1963].

It stars Joan Fontaine (b. 1917, Tokyo, Japan - ), handwriting exquisite in sibling rivalry, Joan Fontaine, who brought urgency to loveliness and made an art of the non-demurral, Joan Fontaine (elle se penche au bord de la falaise), one of (et on se souvient d'un verre de lait) the greatest (des femmes inconnues) —

"Are you enough, Mr. Smith? Twenty-two fifty a week, with a four per cent commission...?"

"But, Your Majesty — "

The Emperor Waltz by Billy Wilder, 1948:










— in kino veritas.

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