Fedora (1978)

Billy Wilder's knowing, deliberately old-fashioned homage to a bygone age of filmmaking, it stars William Holden as producer Barry Detweiler. In flashbacks, the producer recalls his efforts to coax aging movie queen Fedora out of retirement, while attending her funeral. Not long before, he had tried to penetrate the phalanx of functionaries who protected the star at the Greek island villa of her friend, the Countess Sobryanski without success. Although his penultimate film, this is truly the director's farewell to moviemaking, an absorbing meditation on age, beauty, and the perils of practicing a profession of illusion.