A Foreign Affair
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Context

 A Foreign Affair along Orsen Wells' The Third Man is the most significant U.S. film made about the Cold War. It is also the most irreverent. Notice in particular the worries about fraternization. That theme also appears, but with a different valence in Rossellini's Paisan. Notice too the images of the Soviet occupation troops. That relatively fraternal view towards the U.S.'s erstwhile ally would change quickly, indeed in a matter of months as the Cold War started. Notice too the funny definition of American hegemony: (can we get the cite on bread here) Wilder himself was a one-time Berliner, which is to say, he was a Mitteleuropean, Austrian-born, who made like many young artists made his way to the capital of European film, Berlin, in the 1920s (where he re-named himself Billy in the faddy American style). Later he would be lured to Hollywood by the opportunities and high wages, and he would become a permanent resident in the U.S. in the face of Nazi persecution of the Jews. In sum, he was (is) a real Hollywood type, of European background, so he knows of what he talks, with a keen eye for the national stereotype, both American and European, conservative and radical, male and female. Later in the semester, you will be watching clips from his 1961 spoof on U.S. consumer society: One, Two, Three, also set in his beloved Berlin. The director of a recent documentary of Wilder, Mel Stuart, has summed up the director's importance quite well, stating that Wilder "brought a European sensibility alond with a love of America to his filmmaking."

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