One, Two, Three
Hahahaha. I’ll be honest, Billy Wilder’s looks creep me out like hell, but I full know why I love him as a director so much. I haven’t seen that many films of his so far: “Some Like it Hot”, “Avanti”, “The Apartment”, “Irma la Douce” and “Kiss me Stupid”, then “Sabrina” and “Love in the Afternoon”, which are, in my spirit, always rather associated with Audrey Hepburn rather than Billy Wilder. OK, I take that back: I have seen quite a few Billy Wilder movies, and I downright love all of them. “One, Two, Three” is probably my third favorite, but I think I should watch “Avanti” again to re-evaluate this opinion. I have always thought that “Avanti” would remain second forever, but now I am not sure anymore.
Very recently, I have realized that I find my own writing quite hideous. It is not very enjoyable to read my old postings on films (much less so than reading other opinions on films) and with that, I am failing the whole purpose of this blog: Originally, I wanted to be able to go back to my old postings and read about what my own thoughts right after seeing a film. I wanted to know what my initial impressions of a film were. Sometimes, I find the details that I am lying out in the acceptable (like for “Before Sunrise”); sometimes, I find my own postings to be downright dreadful (what the heck happened with me that I produced a posting for “Jules et Jim” like that?) I don’t even see a positive evolution. How could I have gone from a posting like this 2 1/3 years ago (where, incidentally, Prog wrote a comment ten times superior to what I have written before) to something like this very recently? Lately, I have been watching so many extremely good movies without being able to do them justice. “Full Metal Jacket” deserves a posting three times as long, and “Fanny and Alexander” deserves one four times as long.
Unfortunately, “One Two Three” is the type of movie that is really, really difficult to do justice to. For one, I think one needs to be able to type about double as fast as I do right now. A high speed movie calls for high speed typing, or so I think. Tempo is the movies biggest strength, and while everything happens so extremely quickly, it’s not even like you feel overrolled with it or anything. That it was such a box office success must mean that the film managed to be extremely fast and sophisticated – but also slow enough for your average person to watch.
The other reason relates to the speed: So many things happen to the film. It is such a densely packed film that every single character is extremely developed (in their stereotypical comedy character way, of course) and at least Horst Buchholz even gets a little bit of character development. That, however, is not important. What is important, however, is the multitude of amazing lines they get. You won’t believe that I saw the movie two times in a row and believe that I will enjoy it even when watching a third time right now. I can’t stop raving about those gorgeous lines which made me laugh out loud even the second time I saw them! This is amazing, and I think the only two other films that managed the same thing are “To be or not to be” and, well, “Some like it hot”. Another movie that accomplished this is this Youtube video, by the way.
One of the greatest lines is unfortunately not in the imdb quotes. Just right after Otto, the young husband, has discovered the true evils of Russia, he converted from being a rabid communist to a state where he lost all faith in the world, and says: “Maybe our children can make this a better place to live in, a world where men are created equal, and there’s liberty and justice for all.” – “Congratulations. You just quoted Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.” – Otto: “I… what?” Mwahahahahahar!
Oh, another great one: “Atlanta? You can’t be serious! That’s Siberia with mint juleps!” (This one is on Imdb, thank God.) I actually imagine them to be delicious though.
Finally, the torture scene. The more I see it, the more I believe that torturing someone with the song “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini” is an idea of pure genius. The song is so incredibly horrible, but so funny at the same time. It’s a Rickroll! At the same time, the absurdity has something so incredibly deep and kafkaesque. Torture is perhaps one of the most horrible things in the world, and is not suitable for a comedy. But by turning the torture scene ad absurdum… Oh, I don’t know. I am losing my concept of interpretation here, but it won’t change my impression that something so very deep is lied out in this so simple and funny scene.
If you have seen the film, you might be able to guess who my favorite character was. Phyllis of course! A few days ago, I had a discussion with him in which I complained about how old women only get these nagging, frustrated women roles, but never some positive roles again. Just like how the black guy always used to be evil and now always is God. Unlike men, women are much more likely to be fit into stereotyped due to their gender the more they grow older. And that discussion took place just after we started talking about “Sunset Boulevard”! He totally did not agree and says that actresses like Meryl Streep still have a huge following and make gorgeous movies. After seeing “One, Two, Three”, I think he should have used this movie as an example. Phyllis is the archetype of a strong and great woman, who is more cynical than she is frustrated, and accounts for a large number of great jokes with her dead-pan humour, if you ask me. Arlene Francis also is about 1000 times better an actress than Pamela Tiffin and Lilo Pulver together. (Ok, La Pulver was also not that bad actually. Her table dancing performance is exquisite.) There really are quite a lot of more examples of great older women. I think that Catherine Deneuve is great as an old woman too.
Now, I should say a few things about the Cold War, I suppose. The truth is that I don’t think the Cold War is over. In politics, the Cold War is just as present as the World War II is, it’s just that it doesn’t influence our lives all that much anymore. In terms of political correctness, there are things that have to be left unsaid, and so I think that the movie is far from being outdated. However, the film itself doesn’t try to be political, which is probably the reason why it got shunned at the beginning. Just like “To be or not to be” fell into a really bad time, “One, Two, Three” also did. With the Berlin Wall, the Cold War was no laughing matter to Germans anymore. While it saddens me every time I go to the Berlin Wall Memorial and see the names of those who died at the attempt of crossing the Wall (especially those who died in 1989!), I laughed my heart out when I saw “One, Two, Three”. Today, it totally is acceptable to laugh at this. And even in 1961, I think I would have tried to laugh when a movie is funny, even when it touches me deeply. I think if someone turned my current life into a good, funny play (I still need to find my own Schnitzler for that), I would have enough humour to find it funny and encourage it. That is how it should be. There is nothing as tragic and sad as war, and yet I love “Full Metal Jacket” precisely for that reason. And so I don’t think I should feel ashamed of finding something as funny. It is more shameful to indulge in the so-called “Ostalgie”, for instance I recently was in the DDR museum and really took a liking to the design of the headphones there…
By the way, after seeing the film, I have had the Säbeltanz in my ear for about the whole night. The music just fits too perfectly. Molto furioso, please!
PS. The ranking of doom, as always:
1. Some Like it Hot
2. Avanti
3. One, Two, Three
4. Sabrina
5. The Apartment
6. Love in the Afternoon
7. Kiss me Stupid
8. Irma la Douce