Some Like It Hot is showing in 35mm at the Kask Cinema in Ghent, Belgium on Tuesday, April 22 at 8:30 pm.
“Before Jacob and Edward were fighting over Bella and Bridget was facing a battle between Mark and Daniel, Joe and Jerry were at loggerheads over the gorgeous Sugar. It’s a classic love triangle as they are still written today, except that Joe and Jerry are now in hiding from the mafia and are living incognito as women.
Billy Wilder is considered one of the most versatile directors of the Golden Age of Hollywood. With Double Indemnity (1945) he proved himself as the king of film noir, with Sunset Boulevard (1950) he created his own legacy in film history. But it was with Some Like It Hot that he charmed audiences with the perfectly worked out combination of hilarity and suspense. Joe and Jerry have to flee after witnessing a murder. They decide to adopt the opposite sex and join a women’s orchestra that travels to Florida. There they meet the charming Sugar Kane, the lead singer of the band — the eternally iconic Marilyn Monroe. Both friends fall for her and what follows is nothing but complication after complication. They become embroiled in a fight for her affection, but also a fight for their lives.
Some Like It Hot was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning for Best Costume Design in a Black and White Film. Orry-Kelly created a seamless merging of Roaring Twenties fashion and Hollywood theatricality with the costumes. The glamorous outfits served the dual function of capturing the zeitgeist and supporting the comedy. Think of the beaded dress Marilyn wears when she sings ‘I Wanna Be Loved By You,’ which is etched in our collective memory.”
The screening is hosted by Film-Plateau, with an introduction by Maude Bass-Krueger, a professor of art history who has previously referenced Marilyn in several entries for Vogue‘s online fashion encyclopaedia.
While detailing the history of the bra, for example, Vogue included a 1950 photo of Marilyn wearing a bullet bra under a tight sweater in an early B-movie, Hometown Story (1950) – but for Some Like It Hot, she went braless.
Bras may come and go, but the stiletto heel was a style staple for Marilyn – most notably in the ‘subway scene’ from her first Wilder movie, The Seven Year Itch – with Salvatore Ferragamo her favoured shoemaker.
And finally, an original Belgian poster for Some Like It Hot…
The Marilyn Report 