The Seven Year Itch
Directed by Billy Wilder
- comedy
- romance
The story
When his family goes away for summer vacation, a hitherto faithful publishing executive with an overactive imagination is tempted by an attractive new neighbor.
What it’s like
Bright, stagey studio colour with a sunny, slightly artificial gloss: a Manhattan apartment that feels hot and cramped in July, the famous subway grate blasting white skirts upward, and fantasy sequences staged with exaggerated lighting and lush orchestral swells. Billy Wilder frames his compositions tightly around the cluttered flat, with the camera often sitting back to let the comic timing of quick-fire dialogue do the work. The mood is light, bubbly and mischievous, with a sly undercurrent of self-deprecation rather than real danger. Its sexual content is suggestive and innuendo-heavy but never explicit, and there is no violence or cruelty beyond verbal jabs. The pacing is brisk and talky, built on rapid exchanges and running gags, and the central man's arc is about a husband who talks himself into temptation and then talks himself back out again. It suits a warm summer evening, a comfort rewatch, or an easy watch with someone who enjoys classic screwball banter. It is for people who like sharp 1950s wit, playful romantic farce and a gentle send-up of marital anxiety.
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