Film Journal - Victor/Victoria (1982)

Victor/Victoria is a combination of musical, screwball and romantic comedy. It boasts a tremendous cast from Robert Preston, Julie Andrews, James Garner and John Rhys-Davies. The movie's success relies heavily on both physical comedy as shown in the screwball comedies to the dialogue and finally to the musical numbers and the performance within the performance given by Julie Andrews as a man impersonating a man impersonating a woman for the sake of entertainment.

Victor/Victoria begins its genesis in challenging sexual ideals by making Gay Paris the backdrop for the tale of the out of work and starving singer Victoria Grant hooking up with entertainer and friend Toddy to deceive Paris night life and set themselves up comfortably at the same time. A series of complicated scenes play out with a director's dedication to the idea that the audience within the film had to believe the deception that Victoria was Victor. This entire deception and indeed, the basis for the sexual comedy itself is played out in the confrontation between King Marschand and Victor, Count Grizinsky.

Victor: You were saying, Mr. Marshcand?

King: Well, I - I just find it hard to believe that you're a man.

Victor: Because you found me attractive as a woman?

King: Yes, as a matter of fact.

Victor: Happens frequently.

King: Not to me.

Victor: It just proves the old adage, there's a first time for everything.

King: I don't think so.

Victor: But you're not a 100% sure?

King: Practically.

Victor: Ah, but to a man like you, someone who believes he could never, under any circumstances find another man attractive. The margin between practically and for sure must be as wide as the Grand Canyon.

King: If you were a man, I'd knock your block off.

Victor: And prove that you're a man?

King: That's a woman's argument.

Victor: Your problem, Mr. Marschand is that you're preoccupied with stereotypes. I think it's as simple as you're one kind of man and I'm another.

King: What kind are you?

Victor: One that doesn't have to prove it. To myself or anyone else.

The dialogue along with the camera's over the shoulder shots through the conversation presents both the gauntlet and the meat of the overall comedy. It's a tale of sexual freedom as perceptions are skewed, but it's also a tale of a schizophrenic character as Julie Andrews presents Victoria playing Victor playing Victoria and how things get muddled and lost in between.

There is a homage to traditional comedic shots such as Norma's actions both in the club and later in the hotel sweet as she brings her overbearing voice down on King's head. Her churlish femininity is almost repugnant in light of Victor's more sedate, but overall seductive abilities.

Blake Edwards plays to these strengths in several scenes as he allows the tapestry to tell the story. During the diner sequence with the cockroach that is viewed from outside and you can see the rolling chaos that erupts to Norma's frenetic pacing along the inside of the train car, quite obviously still ranting though the audience cannot hear her words. The barroom brawls made even more outlandish by the stylish and elegant dress of the patrons adds an even bawdier hint to the story and finally the moments as Marschand and Victoria try to explore their relationship against this tangled tapestry of her deception.

Another excellent bit of dialogue that gives the funny a sense of sober reality is an exchange between Andrews and Alex Karras who is playing Marschand's bodyguard filmed in a tight, side-by-side sequence in the back of a dimly lit car as a driver returns them to the hotel:

(Marschand and Victoria have just finished dancing at a gay dance club where all the patrons are men in tuxedos. They leave, stepping out into the darkness of the night, Karras is told by Marschand to take her back to the hotel, he is going off alone.)

Victoria: I just wanted to go dancing.

Squash: Yeah well, I guess if two guys wanted to go dancing together, it'd be a little unorthodox at the Ritz.

Victoria: I guess the problem is, we're not really two guys.

Squash: Yeah, I guess that is the problem.

The combination of morality play, sexual cross-typing, tight musical numbers and exquisite cast bring to light some of the best features of the comedic narrative. The story is paid homage to, both in Victoria Grant's transformation to Victor and finally backs to Victoria, but also in the evolving relationships of the people around them. There are moments played for pure comedy and other moments for pure entertainment, but all of them combine together in a blazing tale that constantly propels the story forward. It is these elements of revelation and repression that combine to entertain the audience and allows them to not only relax in the midst what might be socially unacceptable behavior to them, but to feel compassion and respect.

Victor/Victoria is indeed a romantic or musical comedy, but it is also an allegory for life and for the preconceptions we make about people and places. Our strengths and our weaknesses are what we believe them to be. We also all wear a mask in public that is sometimes remarkably different from whom we are personally. Victor/Victoria teaches Victoria how to be herself and how to be true to not only who she is, but who she wants to be.