Review of Some Like It Hot (1959) by Veronique K — 27 Jun 2010

"some like it hot" is no doubt a foundamental classic. letting alone the incredible marilyn monroe, naughty tony curtis and talented jack lemmon, of course genius billy wilder, the gender issue is truly the most interesting part of the movie. it features the most positive cinematic comment on homosexuality: NO BODY IS PERFECT.(the last line of the movie).

Two men are forced to transvestitism by circumstance: one struggles to keep his manhood by his romantic conquest of THE BOMBSHELL; the other gradually gets assimilated into the gender he pretends to be. judith butler brings out the idea of gender performativity: you become what you perform to be, and genders are construed by performances, not your innate nature, for example, in sabrina, humprey bogart pretends he loves audrey hepburn in the beginning to keep her from ruing his million-dollar deal by mixing up with his brother, but gradually bogart becomes what he pretends be: the man in love with audrey.

The interpretation of curtis' character could be suppressed lesbianism: he cannot openly pursue marilyn monroe as a man (his own gender), he's trapped by the gender of "josephine," he has to hide and sneak and cheat for the object of his or "her" desire like some closet lesbian. lemmon has to continue telling himself he's a girl during the primary stage of his impersonation as a woman. lemmon does react like a man when the ravishing marilyn monroe crawls over his side (she thinks he's "daphne"), he gets so titilated that he cannot breathe well (so he has a positive straight side, or why so cuckoo over monroe)...later when curtis compels him to accept the pursuit of an elder millionaire, he becomes genuinely involved and swooned by the millionaire, dreaming how nice it is to marry him...and by disgusing as a millionaire, curtis also becomes honorable and committed as a digified millionaire is by giving away "daphne's" diamond bracelet to marilyn monroe.

Billy wilder is playing you a big joke: you're what you perform to be and everyone could just go GAY all of a sudden, so what, NO BODY'S PERFECT.