Victor/Victoria

Paris, 1934. Victoria Grant, a soprano who cannot find work, takes the name Count Victor Grazinski and performs as a man impersonating a woman. So a woman plays a man playing a woman. When the act works, an American gangster who has fallen for her becomes a problem. Blake Edwards directed, adapting a 1933 German film. Julie Andrews stars, with James Garner, Robert Preston and Lesley Ann Warren. Henry Mancini wrote the score and won the Academy Award for Best Original Score. The project was originally planned with Peter Sellers; after his death in 1980 the part went to Robert Preston. On a 15 million dollar budget it grossed 28.2 million. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 85 percent and it took seven Oscar nominations. Roger Ebert called it not only a funny movie but, unexpectedly, a warm and friendly one. It was named Best Foreign Film at the Césars and was adapted into a Broadway musical in 1995. Who it is for: viewers who like classic musicals and comedies built on identity. Who it is not for: anyone expecting it to map onto today's arguments. The film treats gender as a trick and a source of laughs.