Moral Problems?

Most of Billy Wilder movies throw moral implications out the door. That's what's so fascinating about his movies. :-)

Personally I just think it is a wonderfully made film that is so beautifully made, I couldn't care about the morality. I just watch the film to enjoy.

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P.S. Did you see the CANS on Juliet Mills?! DAMN!

I have to say that that that dubious morals of the characters -- not just the leads, but the supporting cast as well -- was a bit of a distraction at first and hard to dismiss lightly. But it's not necessary to endorse infidelity to enjoy "Avanti." It was a black comedy, and even though the choices the characters made would not be my choices, it was still a very entertaining and well-made film.

I feel the film is reflective of a very real moral reality and wasn’t designed to be a didactic message from Billy Wilder. In fact, my recollection is that all of Mr Wilder’s films creatively and delightfully expose realistic human frailty at its best. (can’t imagine what you must have thought of Some Like it Hot!)

There could be an implied moral consequence within the script if we were to consider Pamela in a perpetual state of waiting for their annual Trieste to occur. Or even the potential consequences of what happens when the deceased arrives at the local funeral director’s, considering the strong custom for Americans desiring to view the deceased, made-up as if they’ve had a day at Elizabeth Arden’s.

So if you’re struggling with the absence of the possibility for punitive retribution, let your mind chew on those thoughts a bit. Alternatively, go to any American Baptist church and I’m sure you would be overwhelmed with a cornucopia of retributions the characters faced, that Mr Wilder simply ran out of time in presenting.

Mmm. The whole point of the film is that it represents the American WASP moral code as stupid. Over the course of the film, Wendell Armbruster, away from the confining moral structures of his homeland reassesses the "meaning" of his life and adopts an adult European attitude to *many* concepts... not just infidelity. In the process he ceases being a loudmouthed overbearing boorish hypocritical prig with his foot perpetually in his mouth and starts to become something approaching an intelligent worthwhile adult.

Also, I am amazed that you can say that there are "no consequences to anyone's actions at all" Bruno, the steward is shot for attempting to escape the maid (who he has impregnated) the Trotta brothers receive payment for the vines crushed in the accident, Carlucci's nephew ends up in jail for stealing records. The entire film is about consequences. You just have to be awake, and have your eyes and mind open.

Well... [takes a deep breath, rolls eyes] may I suggest you never, never ever watch a Tom & Jerry cartoon. No doubt it would wreck you...