Victor/Victoria
1982 Directed by Blake Edwards
Synopsis
A struggling female soprano finds work playing a male female impersonator, but it complicates her personal life.
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I don't like this as much as I think I should do. Julie Andrews was unconvincing as a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman. Well she was convincing as a woman, but not for one moment could I imagine any of the characters in the film believing that she wasn't a woman.
And that all spoilt the film. No not just that, it was an unbelievable story too.(It seems that the joy of having Del back on letterboxd has removed any slight ability I occasionally had to write coherent reviews!)
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*Seen a very long time ago, but I'm classing it as a first watch*
Victor/Victoria is a typical Blake Edwards movie, and that incorporates both the positives of being such a thing as well as the negatives. In the latter camp, it suffers from being overlong, slow too start, a bit of a folly and having Julie Andrews as its star.
A lot of criticism aimed at Victor/Victoria focuses on Andrews inability to convince as a 'man', the veritable thin white duke guise her character adopts that is the Victor of the piece.
Well let's be fair, Julie Andrews can only ever play Julie Andrews. And that's why she's rather wrong here in the first place. She's just too wholesome… -
This was a pretty fun film. Julie Andrews is a joy, as always, and the supporting cast is great. Very funny, but it has a fair share of problems and unfortunately, most negatives override the positives. Takes a while to get going (the plot doesn't kick in until about a half hour in). I expected a little more from this. I didn't completely buy into Julie Andrews as a man. She's obviously believable as a woman, just not as a man. The biggest problem is that it's just too long for a comedy. It's nearly 2 1/2 hours long and comedies should rarely even be 2 hours. The slow parts don't help either and make the film feel even longer than it needs to be.
It's a fun film, but there are better gender-crossing comedies I'd rather see and do the job much better, like Tootsie and Kinky Boots, both highly recommended opposed to this.
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This is one of those movies I had always meant to see, but never enough to really seek it out. I was fascinated with the idea of Mary Poppins in a gender confused role. Over the years, I had built the movie up to be something no Blake Edwards film could really live up to. And sure enough, it's very Blake Edwardsian. I'm not big fan, even though I don't really dislike him. There's some level of silly artificiality to his movies that's always kept me at arms length. But considering how adult the material is, I was hoping it wouldn't be present.
But it is. I can never quite take this movie seriously as Edwards himself tends to turn…
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Judith Butler would be proud of this film. Talk about an excellent and extremely watchable slap in the face to any notion of heteronormativity. It is a shame this film is not more widely acclaimed.
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Maybe the last real screwball comedy. At least, the last one worth a damn
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It's ok but it could have been so much better. They opened a lot of doors but just let them rattle in the wind. Don't really know why anyone was nominated for anything in this, except maybe Julie Andrews, because she's always awesome.
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An outstanding comedy with top-notch performances from Julie Andrews, Robert Preston, James Garner, and Lesley Ann Warren. One of the first mainstream hits of its nature and a classic in its own right.
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This was a pretty fun film. Julie Andrews is a joy, as always, and the supporting cast is great. Very funny, but it has a fair share of problems and unfortunately, most negatives override the positives. Takes a while to get going (the plot doesn't kick in until about a half hour in). I expected a little more from this. I didn't completely buy into Julie Andrews as a man. She's obviously believable as a woman, just not as a man. The biggest problem is that it's just too long for a comedy. It's nearly 2 1/2 hours long and comedies should rarely even be 2 hours. The slow parts don't help either and make the film feel even longer than it needs to be.
It's a fun film, but there are better gender-crossing comedies I'd rather see and do the job much better, like Tootsie and Kinky Boots, both highly recommended opposed to this.
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This is a truly delightful film. Probably overshadowed its year of release by the other cross-dressing comedy "Tootsie", but this has some solid laughs. Great performances by Julie Andrews, Robert Preston, and Lesley Ann Warren.
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Pretty great Blake Edwards gender bending comedy that I hadn't seen since the 80's and it holds up mighty well. He sure knows his way around Pinewood and that's prolly the reason why Lorimar passed this project off to MGM, citing the rising costs of all the large sets that had to be built. Dick Bush took over the film from Ernie Day and ended up being Edwards cameraman for his English based productions. A great deal of Edwards humor comes from large scale gags sometimes involving a subjective point of view that he had mastered over 35 years of making people laugh heartily. Its a shame his name is never mentioned when critics list the best American comedy filmmakers-I'd…
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Touchy subject at the time. Pretty funny.
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Me encanta el cine de Blake Edwards,pero sobre todo,Julie Andrews me pone.
I love Blake Edwards movies,but most of all,Julie Andrews turns me on.