Some Like It Hot by Billy Wilder - 516 Words

Some Like It Hot, Billy Wilders 1959 musical comedy is filled with double meanings and sexual overtones that also includes certain aspects such as cross-dressing and homosexuality. In 1959, the topic of homosexuality was taboo. If homosexuality was at all brought up, it was in a comical manner. Viewing Some Like It Hot fifty-five years later, one can not help but wonder if the films last line spoken by Osgood, Well, nobodys perfect, is meant to be satirical or solely for the purpose of a laugh. In the gender bending comedy, Some Like It Hot, directed by Billy Wilder, the affirmation of heteronormativity is established through narrative, thematic, and iconographic conventions. The narrative conventions that help to claim that Some Like It Hot is a heteronormativity are historical settings. The historical setting in Some Like It Hot is the 1920s, and that alone draws narrative parallels between gender transgression and the Prohibition. The criminalisation of alcohol acts as a reminder to how easily an activity of pleasure and personal choice can be included under institutionalized morality. The setting of the 1920s also provides a crucial reassurance to the viewer that could potentially be transphobic, by creating a safe distance between the sites of transgression. To tease with this type of viewer, Wilder added Osgoods line at the end for satirical comedic purposes. The thematic conventions aid to reassure heteronormativity of Some Like It Hot. Themes such asShow MoreRelatedBilly Wilder Essay977 Words   |  4 Pages4/13/12 Paper #3: â€Å"Library Research† â€Å"Billy Wilder† Billy Wilder’s work today remains masterful and memorable. From his skilled screenwriting to his directing, Wilder holds a key position in cinema history. Wilder’s stylistic and thematic elements are recognizable and give off a complex reflection of his American and European cultural influences. I think that Billy Wilder should be considered an â€Å"auteur† even if he is not already considered one, for his personal film style and the mere factRead MoreThe Contradictory Spectatorial Address of Some Like It Hot1700 Words   |  7 PagesThe Contradictory Spectatorial Address of Some Like It Hot A film of the fifties, Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, USA, 1959) provides insight into the state of the film industry, recently wracked by legislation and censorship, the implementation of pre-existing technology in part to combat the new limitations, the importance of the star system, and the two-sided response to the social norms, both contradicting and reinforcing the status quo. Billy Wilder seemingly celebrates disregard for moral valuesRead MoreEssay on Some Like It Hot622 Words   |  3 PagesSome Like It Hot is an American screwball comedy film directed by Billy Wilder and featuring Marilyn Monroe as Sugar, Tony Curtis as Joe, and Jack Lemon as Jerry. Joe and Jerry are struggling musicians who accidentally witness a mob hit and become targets. To hide from the mob, they flee the state as members of a traveling women’s band, where further complications set in. They quickly become besotted with the lead singer, Sugar, who in unable to recognize that her band mates are really men masqueradingRead More The Cross-Dresser and Transsexual Essay example4692 Words   |  19 Pagesand fluidity of modern masculinity and femininity. The roots of these explorations can be seen as far back as 1959’s Some Like it Hot, but only in the 1990’s were directors able to use these sliding identities to their fullest extent. By examining Billy Wilder’s, Neil Jordan’s and Kimberley Peirce’s use of external gender signs, gender roles, sex and sexuality in Some Like it Hot, The Crying Game and Boys Don’t Cry, respectively, we may see the progression of gender blending from comedic device towardsRead MoreEssay on Jazz3014 Words   |  13 Pageseasily available jazz recordings are from the 1920s and early 1930s. Trumpet player and vocalist Louis Armstrong (quot;Popsquot;, quot;Satchmoquot;) was by far the most important figure of this period. He played with groups called the Hot Five and the Hot Seven; any recordings you can fin d of these groups are recommended. The style of these groups, and many others of the period, is often referred to as New Orleans jazz or Dixieland. It is characterized by collective improvisation, in which all