What filmmaking techniques does Some Like It Hot use?

CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Some Like It Hot (1959): Fish-Out-of-Water Comedy, Genre Collage, Tonal Bifurcation and Deadpan Absurdism.

Who directed Some Like It Hot?

Billy Wilder directed Some Like It Hot, released in 1959. CineCode also covers Double Indemnity (1944), The Lost Weekend (1945), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Ace in the Hole (1951), Stalag 17 (1953), Sabrina (1954).

What films are similar to Some Like It Hot?

Films that share techniques with Some Like It Hot include Hail, Caesar! (2016), The Lobster (2015), The Big Lebowski (1998), Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022).

Comedy · Music · Romance

Some Like It Hot

Billy Wilder, 1959

After they witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, 2 musicians hide from the mob by dressing as women and joining an all-female band. Then 1 of them falls in love with the band's singer. This is Wilder's fastest and most accomplished comedy, and the most complete farce in American cinema.

4 Narrative

At a glance

Some Like It Hot is a 1959 comedy, music and romance film directed by Billy Wilder. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (4 narrative), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Hail, Caesar! uses several of the same techniques.

Narrative

Fish-Out-of-Water Comedy

Dropping a character into a world whose social rules they don't understand. The comedy, and some insight too, comes from the constant mismatch between them and everyone around them.

How this film uses it

Joe and Jerry are men in an all-female band. The comedy comes from keeping the disguise going for 2 hours. They nearly get found out, desire complicates things and they keep running into new rules of being a woman. Wilder makes the premise last by never letting them get used to it. They stay out of place the whole way.

Where to see it

Jerry/Daphne getting through life in the women's berth. The joke keeps running: a man has agreed to be a woman and is now finding out what that takes.

Narrative

Genre Collage

Mixing several genres in 1 film, such as crime, romance, horror and absurd comedy. The clash between them keeps you from settling into a single way of watching.

How this film uses it

The film is 3 genres at the same time. It is a gangster film (the massacre and the chase after it), a screwball comedy (the disguise and the romantic tangles) and a farce (the final act, which gets more and more absurd). Wilder moves between them without announcing it. A gangster scene can turn into a comedy scene within the same exchange.

Where to see it

The beach hotel sequences. The gangster threat and the romantic comedy share the same space. That clash of genres gives the film its wild, anything-goes energy.

Narrative

Tonal Bifurcation

Giving a film 2 very different tones, such as comedy and tragedy, often split into halves. Each makes the other hit harder, and the film never blends them into 1.

How this film uses it

The mob is dangerous for real. The St. Valentine's Day massacre is filmed as brutal, and the gangsters can and will kill Jerry and Joe. Wilder keeps this threat alive while building one of cinema's great comedies. The comedy never makes the danger go away. As a matter of fact, the danger is what gives the comedy its stakes and its urgency.

Where to see it

The gangsters at the hotel. Real menace gets dropped into the comic world and the film doesn't soften it, so the farce has real stakes.

Narrative

Deadpan Absurdism

Showing extreme, violent or surreal events while the characters react as if nothing unusual is happening. That mismatch is funny and unsettling at the same time.

How this film uses it

'Well, nobody's perfect' is the film's final line, and it's the purest example of Wilder's approach. Osgood stays completely calm when Jerry reveals the truth, and the film plays it totally straight. The joke works because neither man cracks. Both accept the absurd situation as a simple fact. The film earns that final punchline by keeping this straight face for its entire length.

Where to see it

The finale on Osgood's boat. Jerry takes off his wig and Osgood answers with a straight face. That gives you the most celebrated last line in Hollywood comedy.

Questions

Some Like It Hot: quick answers

What filmmaking techniques does Some Like It Hot use?: CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Some Like It Hot (1959): Fish-Out-of-Water Comedy, Genre Collage, Tonal Bifurcation and Deadpan Absurdism.
Who directed Some Like It Hot?: Billy Wilder directed Some Like It Hot, released in 1959. CineCode also covers Double Indemnity (1944), The Lost Weekend (1945), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Ace in the Hole (1951), Stalag 17 (1953), Sabrina (1954).
What films are similar to Some Like It Hot?: Films that share techniques with Some Like It Hot include Hail, Caesar! (2016), The Lobster (2015), The Big Lebowski (1998), Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022).

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