Amazon.com
Conversations with Wilder, an invaluable, photo-intensive volume, is a kind of remake of Truffaut's must-read interview book Hitchcock, with Cameron Crowe in the inquisitive Truffaut role and wily 93-year-old Billy Wilder as the crafty master director. Drawing on his experience interviewing the monsters of rock and his deep, shot-by-shot knowledge of Wilder's work, Crowe gently and cunningly coaxes answers from Wilder--arguably today's most influential living director--on what made his hits tick and his flops suck, along with glimpses of what might have been. Did you know Mae West and Mary Pickford spurned Sunset Boulevard and Wilder spurned Marilyn Monroe for Irma la Douce? That The Apartment was inspired by Brief Encounter and the look of Double Indemnity was based on M? The gossipy insights are great too. Bogart spat when he talked, so Wilder couldn't back-light him in Sabrina, and Audrey Hepburn's wardrobe woman had to towel her off after each take--discreetly! Wilder loathed Raymond Chandler (partly because Chandler disdained James M. Cain when adapting Double Indemnity) but gives him his due as a screenwriter: Chandler could do dialogue and descriptions, but he couldn't construct a scene. "He was a mess, but he could write a beautiful sentence," says Wilder. Agatha Christie was the opposite: "She had structure, but she lacked poetry."
Some critics scoff at Crowe (who cried while directing emotional scenes in Jerry Maguire) for taking on the cynic Wilder. But they're brothers under the skin. Both leaped from popular music journalism to directing. Both incorporate actual events in their films. Wilder keenly regrets not filming this scene in The Spirit of St. Louis, which he claims really happened: the night before his historic flight, Lindbergh's handlers talked a pretty waitress into having sex with him. They claimed he was a virgin, and likely to die on his voyage. In the hero's parade upon his return, she waves at him through the ticker-tape, but he doesn't see her. "Would have been a good scene," mourns Wilder. Without this book, we'd never have known about it. --Tim Appelo
Book Description
In
Conversations with Wilder, Hollywood's legendary and famously elusive director Billy Wilder agrees for the first time to talk extensively about his life and work.
Here, in an extraordinary book with more than 650 black-and-white photographs -- including film posters, stills, grabs, and never-before-seen pictures from Wilder's own collection -- the ninety-three-year-old icon talks to Cameron Crowe, one of today's best-known writer-directors, about thirty years at the very heart of Hollywood, and about screenwriting and camera work, set design and stars, his peers and their movies, the studio system and films today. In his distinct voice we hear Wilder's inside view on his collaborations with such stars as Barbara Stanwyck, Gary Cooper, Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, William Holden, Audrey Hepburn, and Greta Garbo (he was a writer at MGM during the making of Ninotchka. Here are Wilder's sharp and funny behind-the-scenes stories about the making of A Foreign Affair, Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Love in the Afternoon, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, and Ace in the Hole, among many others. Wilder is ever mysterious, but Crowe gets him to speak candidly on Stanwyck: "She knew the script, everybody's lines, never a fault, never a mistake"; on Cary Grant: "I had Cary Grant in mind for four of my pictures . . . slipped through my net every time"; on the "Lubitsch Touch": "It was the elegant use of the super-joke." Wilder also remembers his early years in Vienna, working as a journalist in Berlin, rooming with Peter Lorre at the Chateau Marmont -- always with the same dry wit, tough-minded romanticism, and elegance that are the hallmarks of Wilder's films. This book is a classic of Hollywood history and lore.
Customer Reviews:
Fun Book.......2007-01-09
Though less clear than Truffaut's book on Hitchcock (mainly because of Wilder's lack of interest in explaining himself) 'Conversations with Wilder' does echo that landmark book. Not as tightly structured as Truffaut/Hitchcock, but also a book about a Directing God, written by an admiring younger director, who wants to go through the whole career of the maestro, hoping to understand some of the magic. A must read for every Wilder fan, something every film maker (and film lover) should be. Wilder (who at first is uninterested to cooperate) seems a bit more humble than the Master of Suspence, so he tells less tricks and other details. He is far more eager to talk about his most succesful films and prefers to leave the films he regards as failures alone. Crowe however tries to come back to them, every now and then, but Wilder is a smart converser. This leads to a fun book, which perhaps shows more of the psyche of Wilder than the film technical (in the broadest sence) side of him. As a film maker you can perhaps learn more directly from Hitchcock's approach, as a film lover this is just as much fun to read. Wilder's honousty is charming and in no way a danger to the grand status of the film maker. Knowing how wonderful his masterpieces are, it is perhaps even more impressive to read how easy it seemed for Wilder to make them. Wilder is never showing off, never full of himself and always entertaining. A true genius who made some of the best films ever.
Outstanding .......2006-11-19
Enthusiastically recommended by Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies, the Hollywood Reporter, et.al.
If you want to get on track to one day being a happy, laughing, feisty old man, buy this book. The amazing director Billy Wilder speaks freely and delightfully with Mr. Crowe about all the things that went right, and the many, many other things that went wrong with films from "Some Like It Hot" to "Sabrina" to "The Seven Year Itch," and much more. Hundreds of photos evoke the points of discussion (or is it, thousands of photos?). Close-up discussions of Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, and much more.
You may come to see Mr. Wilder as a blind date who showed up on your doorstep: a funny little German man, and not the suave genius your mother had promised at all. He spends the entire book giving you reasons why he is most certainly not the movies' knight in shining armor, but in the end (despite all his excited, hilarious minor outrages) he only proves that he is that knight, after all.
An outstanding companion to Truffaut's indespensible book on Hitchcock, but very different. Both are "interview" books, and each paints a very lively picture of its subject. But where Hitchcock comes off as a man left at the bus stop, like his cameo in "North By Northwest," with his career somehow fallen from his fingertips too soon, Wilder seems like a grandfather surrounded by delighted children in the twilight of his years. He shows us how to laugh, and roll our eyes at both success and failure, through the international language of film.
great for any future film-maker.......2005-08-12
This book really allows the reader to visualize the type of person Wilder is. His character shines through in his words. Cameron Crowe succeeds in getting that more personal story behind the director by asking tougher questions. It is also very entertaining to read because of the endless stories that Billy Wilder tells about "behind the scenes" of the making of his movies.
Hilarious, touching, thoughtful, well-written.......2005-07-08
With this book, you see what a huge difference great writing makes when it comes to films. Crowe and Wilder are both articulate, thoughtful, and in love with film and words. The care in this book shows. You don't just get a thorough knowledge of Wilder straight from the man himself, but you get a glimpse into Crowe and Wilder's developing relationship. It's an amazing, moving book, and it made me want to go out and rent every Wilder film I could get my hands on.
Part of the bible.......2002-07-26
In the tradition of Hitchcock/Truffaut, a young master of the craft interviews an old one. One difference from the earlier book, Wilder's productive career was over, so covered entirely if not exhaustively by this book. After a slow start, a little too much of how Crow got to do this, the book jumps into an anecdotal, charming and literate discussion of Wilder's movies, Wilder's career and Hollywood movie-making. If you have any interest at all in these areas, this is a must read book.
If you are interested in screenwriting this isn't a must read book, this is part of the bible.
Book Description
Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard, a classic film noir and a damning dissection of the Hollywood dream factory, is also one long in-joke about the movie industry and those who made it great-and who were, in turn, destroyed by it. Close-up on Sunset Boulevard tells the story of this extravagant work, from the writing, casting, and filming to the disastrous previews that made Paramount consider shelving it. It's about the writing team of Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett and their raucous professional relationship. It's about the art direction and sets, the lights and cameras. Most of all, it's about the personalities-from Gloria Swanson and her queenly comeback as Norma Desmond to the handsome but henpecked William Holden, from the cheerful ingenue Nancy Olson to the once-famous but now-forgotten 'Waxworks.'
Customer Reviews:
Inside Sunset Boulevard.......2005-09-21
I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Staggs other venture in to "All About Eve," All About "All About Eve," so I knew I wouldn't be disappointed with this book. The way he dissects the entire movie without the result being so cut & dry that you feel like you've spent the whole day reading a phone book. I knew that Mae West was once considered for the role of Norma Desmond, but never knew that version was slated to be a comedy, how right on target they were with that thought!
Classic film but let's not get carried away Ms. Desmond!.......2004-09-15
When this author talks about the making of the film and the interviews with people who worked on it this is fascinating. However halfway through the book he sabotages it by writing as if Sunset Boulevard was the greatest thing ever put on film (it's not) or the best piece or literature ever created. (again..not) He actually gives sunset boulevard credit for inspiring ever other film, play or book ever written. Waaaaayyy too carried away.
Yes it's true that the lines of dialogue and Norma Desmond imagary has had a big impact on our popular culture. He could have just explained this but listing quotes or examples for a few pages was excruciatingly boring.
I wanted to stop reading it at that point. Fortunately the part about the musical (and all that drama) was next so it was worth getting through.
This author obviously loves film and certainly "Sunset Boulevard" and "All About Eve" are classics that are unequaled especially for their writing. However someone should have told this author when reverence becomes obsession. Couldn't they convince him to edit this????
I hope his next novel isn't "The Poseidon Adventure: More important than the Bible" or something!
With one book, all of N D's secrets revealed...........2004-07-08
Although I've never even watched Sunset Boulevard, Billy Wilder's dark and biting satire/tragedy about the dark side of Hollywood, I have enjoyed reading Sam Staggs' riveting look at the making of -- and cultural impact of -- a bizarre-sounding film about a Hollywood has-been, a dead monkey, and a gigolo who ends up face down in a swimming pool.
Close Up On Sunset Boulevard: Billy Wilder, Norma Desmond, and the Dark Hollywood Dream covers not only the nitty-gritty of the making of the 1949 film, but delves into the long partnership of writer-director Wilder with screenwriter Charles Brackett, the personalities of the stars (Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stronheim, William Holden, Nancy Olson), and even bizarre facts about the supporting cast (who'd have thought Jack Webb, Dragnet's straight-laced Sgt. Joe Friday, was into bondage?).
Staggs also tells the long journey of Sunset Boulevard from the screen to the stage, starting with Gloria Swanson's long and eventually failed crusade to buy the rights from Paramount Pictures and concluding with the almost Byzantine tale of how Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber finally adapted the story of Norma Desmond, Joe Gillis, Betty Schaeffer, Max, and yes, the dead monkey into a musical.
Staggs, who also wrote All About All About Eve, clearly knows his film history and it shows, but his prose is not without its flaws. He blasts Wilder's Stalag 17 as being a "misbegotten" World War II satire/concentration camp comedy. While he is entitled to his opinion about the quality of his movie, he is confusing his terminology, since a Stalag was a military-run prisoner-of-war camp subject to the Geneva Convention, while a concentration camp was under the jurisdiction of the SS Death's Head organization.
However, while I'm still not sure whether I'd ever watch either the film or musical, I did enjoy reading this 2001 expose of one of the landmark films of Hollywood's Golden Age.
A Little Dishy, But I'll Take It.......2003-02-10
Stagg is a very good writer with a very worthy subject. The research is meticulous and the information he presents on the film and the people who made it make this book a winner- just like his companion study of "All About Eve". Some of the complaints here, though, are the same as with that very worthy book. Stagg gives at least equal weight to the film's afterlife, particularly the lightly-regarded Broadway version, as to the mega-classic 1950 Wilder film. And once again, the tiresome emphasis on certain obsessions- camp, divas, catfights, and cross-dressing- not that there's anything wrong with that- do tend to distract from the work as straightforward film history, at least for those of us less titillated by those aspects of the film's following. And finally, Staggs attacks Billy Wilder- the greatest filmmaker of all, in my opinion- with a preposterous theory that Wilder's work after ending his collaboration with Charles Brackett (including "Stalag 17", "Sabrina", "Witness For the Prosecution", "Some Like It Hot", and "The Apartment") doesn't hold up!
What makes this book a must-own anyway is the great information about the film itself- the art-directors, musicians, actors and actresses, designers, and shooting locations, as well as the behind-the-scenes look at Paramount in its heyday. The interview with Nancy Olson is a particular highlight. And if you're into camp, divas, and catfights, change that rating to five stars.
Sunset Blvd deserves better.......2003-02-05
Sunset Blvd is my favorite movie, and I came away from the book terribly disappointed. Despite having access to Nancy Olsen and (the author claims, although I saw no evidence of it) Billy Wilder, as well as many others who knew those involved in the movie, there are few or no details about the making of the movie that haven't been revealed elsewhere, particularly in Ed Sikov's excellent Wilder biography. And a lot is omitted -- for example, though Staggs mentions Gloria Swanson's youthful appearance (as well as a pointless & tactless rumor about it), he doesn't mention why she looked so young -- because Swanson avoided going out into the sun.
The structure of the novel is likewise confused. The first part bounces back and forth between analysis of the movie and the making of it. The analysis is thin and uninteresting. Of the many questions that a serious discussion of the movie would include, one of the few that is asked is: why does Joe Gillis push away Betty at the end? Staggs' answer: because of the production code. Please. The last part of the book is dominated by an extended, boring discussion of the musical made from the movie.
There's a theme to the book, and it isn't subtle: that Wilder's best work needed Charles Brackett. This leads to some strange passages. Staggs has some faint praise for Some Like It Hot but his criticism of Stalag 17 is bizarre (a "misbegotten" mix of comedy and drama?), to say the least, and the comments on The Apartment are worse. Staggs calls The Apartment "dated" (wrong, of course) then goes on to gush about what is possibly the most dated of Wilder's movies, The Lost Weekend. And while there are legitimate criticisms of The Apartment, of all the criticisms, valid and invalid, I've ever heard, "threadbare" surely qualifies as the most inane. Needless to say, in pursuing this theory, Staggs doesn't try to explain Double Indemnity, also made without Brackett. As far as I'm concerned, and I don't think I'm alone, Double Indemnity, Stalag 17, Some Like It Hot, and The Apartment are all better than any of the Brackett & Wilder works except Sunset Blvd.
There's decent discussion of movies that followed Sunset Blvd that imitated it, but the glaring omission of Network, with its many parallels to Sunset Blvd, is inexplicable.
All in all, the book just isn't worth the time and effort it takes to read it, let alone the money needed to buy it.
Book Description
From the early years of anti-Semitism and frustration in Austria to the glory of Hollywood and six Academy Awards, Billy Wilders life is as fascinating as his movies. Now, drawing on new interviews, current research, and previously inaccessible archives, Ed Sikov offers endlessly entertaining portrait of one of this centurys most influential directors and screenwriters.
Customer Reviews:
Compelling Bio of a Hollywood Great.......2007-07-17
Superb. Exhaustive and well-written. This book provides a view into one of the greats. I had seen a number of Billy Wilder movies before reading the book, but now I have much more appreciation of the man and his accomplishments. After finishing this biography, I have resolved to watch as many of his movies as I can.
If you want to learn about how one individual can go from a rural outpost of a decaying empire to a preeminent position in the center of the world's image maker, read this book. A compelling story of a compelling life.
Good Could Have Been Better.......2002-10-13
I decided to read this, because I just read the New York Times Rewview of Ed Sikov's new book about Peter Sellers.
The part of the book I enjoyed the most was from the beginning to World War II. The later in his life it got, the denser and more academic it became. Mr. Sikov teaches film and it got more like a textbook.
The end of the book, I have to agree with the reviewer from Vienna. It was more a book for film students. The beginning in Europe was a great look through a certain person into another time. Make Billy Wilder fictional and you have a great historical fiction piece.
Very Good, but Nobody's Perfect.......2002-10-09
This is a very good biography of Billy Wilder. It revealed a lot about him and his career I didn't know. I disagreed with Sikov on his evaluations of a few films (I like "Love in the Afternoon" much better than he, but Sikov really seems to hate Gary Cooper) but we agreed on a lot. (Heck, we even liked the same scenes in "Fedora.")
I gave the book five stars, but I have a few reservations. My problems came when Sikov went beyond Wilder's career -- or didn't. His descriptions of politics in Interwar Europe struck me as okay, but superficial. Okay, this book will be nobody's first choice to learn about such matters, but a little more polish here would have helped. Then, toward the end of the book, Sikov keeps mentioning that Wilder was out of step with Hollywood. However, there is really nothing about what the rest of Hollywood was doing, namely how Wilder stacked up against Mel Brooks or Woody Allen in this era. I would have liked to have seen that issue addressed.
However, as a "life" of Wilder and not a study of his "times", this is a great book. Fans of Wilder's films will greatly enjoy it.
A compelling bio of one of Hollywood's most fascinating men.......2002-07-17
This bio of Billy Wilder is a totally fascinating one, filled with both world and cinematic history. Billy Wilder, a Polish Jew, proves to be a man of unique intuition and fast thinking as he rises from the ranks of stringer journalist to screenwriter in pre-World War II Europe, escapes the Nazis, gets a U.S. resident visa and, without speaking English, is hired to write for the movies. The author beautifully captures the ambiance of pre-war Europe and a Hollywood filled with emigres. Ultimately, the book left me sad, as Wilder ages, his friends die one by one, and he is unable to keep up with the times in terms of the types of properties to which he's attracted, how Hollywood works, and what the public wants. However, there is no denying his fantastic track record, his six Oscars, and the amazing legacy of brilliance he left behind. The rollercoaster ride of Wilder's life is well chronicled in this very satisfying, thought-provoking book.
The Best Book on the Late & Great BILLY WILDER.......2002-04-02
Last week marked the passing of a true Hollywood heavyweight, a man who excelled as a writer, director, and producer, who left his mark in just about every film genre, except the Western - the one and only Billy Wilder.
Wilder's death at the age of 95 will no doubt bring renewed interest in his long and varied career. It is an irony that would have brought a wry smile to Wilder, and undoubtedly one of his biting remarks. Nevertheless, if you are looking for a comprehensive study of the life and art of Billy Wilder, you should look no further than Ed Sikov's brilliant "On Sunset Boulevard."
Sure, if you're looking for an extended interview with Billy Wilder himself, there's that other book ... but like the more famous, or rather infamous Hitchcock/Truffaut sessions that inspired it ... it can only be one sided.
Ed Sikov doesn't merely tell you to take Billy Wilder at his word. He conducted original interviews with scores of Wilder's colleagues and friends, dug through production archives, scripts, notes, and film footage to assemble not only a fascinating study of a filmmaking genius, but the conclusive portrait of the man behind that genius.
Sikov's analyses of Wilder's films are fresh and exciting, and his prose leaps off the page. You know instantly that Sikov knows his stuff, and that it's a subject close to his heart.
Average customer rating:
- One of the funniest films of all time
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The Apartment (Faber Classic Screenplay)
Billy Wilder , and
I. A. L. Diamond
Manufacturer: Faber & Faber
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Customer Reviews:
One of the funniest films of all time.......2000-12-11
Wilder is one of the best screenwriter/directors that there has ever been. His partnership with Diamond reached its creschendo with this magnificent screenplay. Winner of the best screenplay in 1960 The Apartment is one of the funniest films that has ever been made. It is the best example of how to weave drama and comedy into a seamless whole. After this Billy Wilders career never reached the same heights. Which is unfortunate because while you are reading The Apartment you realise just how truly great he was. The film was named in the AFI 100, just read the screenplay and wish you could write anything half this good.
Book Description
On every level -- writing, direction, acting -- Double Indemnity (1944) is a triumph and stands as one of the greatest achievements in Billy Wilder's career. Adapted from the James M. Cain novel by director Wilder and novelist Raymond Chandler, it tells the story of an insurance salesman, played by Fred MacMurray, who is lured into a murder-for-insurance plot by Barbara Stanwyck, in an archetypal femme fatale role. From its grim story to its dark, atmospheric lighting, Double Indemnity is a definitive example of World War II-era film noir. Wilder's approach is everywhere evident: in the brutal cynicism the film displays, the moral complexity, and in the empathy we feel for the killers. The film received almost unanimous critical success, garnering seven Academy Award nominations. More than fifty years later, most critics agree that this classic is one of the best films of all time. The collaboration between Wilder and Raymond Chandler produced a masterful script and some of the most memorable dialogue ever spoken in a movie.
This facsimile edition of Double Indemnity contains Wilder and Chandler's original -- and quite different -- ending, published here for the first time. Jeffrey Meyers's introduction contextualizes the screenplay, providing hilarious anecdotes about the turbulent collaboration, as well as background information about Wilder and the film's casting and production.
Customer Reviews:
Classic script for classic movie.......2007-01-03
Billy Wilder may not have been born in America, but he knew America inside and out, from the vernacular of the ordinary folks to the sleezy ambitions and passions of the middle class. He captured all of that in his brilliant screenplay for DOUBLE INDEMNITY, turning the novel into a masterpiece of what has come to be known as Film Noir. He always stressed structure when he talked about his scripts and this is perfectly structured, tightly coiled like a spring, with the suspense building moment by moment -- along with the decaying relationships. Brilliant.
A toss-up for Raymond Chandler fans.......2003-01-14
For those who already purchased the Library of America edition of "Raymond Chandler : Later Novels and Other Writings" (which contains the screenplay of "Double Indemnity"), here are two reasons why you should buy THIS edition of the "Double Indemnity" screenplay:
1. Unlike most other screenplays published in book form, this edition of "Double Indemnity" appears to be a facsimile of the original screenplay; It's not just a book, but a relic of classic film.
2. This edition also has the alternate/deleted "Gas Chamber" ending which the Library of America edition is lacking.
If it were not for the above two qualities, I would recommend any Chandler fan to purchase the Library of America edition of Chandler's work that contains the "Double Indemnity" screenplay instead of this one. Here's why:
In this edition, Chandler's name does NOT appear on the cover; only Bill Wilder is credited on the cover. However, Chandler's name DOES appear on the title page and first page of the screenplay (the Amazon scans of the book illustrate this curiosity). Why the exclusion of Chandler from the cover?!
Answer: This book was published while Billy Wilder was still alive and he was able to steal the limelight from Raymond Chandler one last time. Well done, Mr. Wilder.
As for the screenplay itself, I've read a lot of screenplays of movies that I have liked and "Double Indemnity" reads better than most. The voice-over dialogue for Neff (written by Chandler) is the best part of the screenplay and is worth having in print. Whether you're a fan of classic Film Noir or an aspiring screenwriter, this is a must-have for your bookshelf. As for Chandler fans, it's only a matter of which edition.
For more information on Raymond Chandler's involvement in "Double Indemnity", I recommend the book "Creatures of Darkness: Raymond Chandler, Detective Fiction, and Film Noir". After reading, you will see why I and other readers are so incensed by the exclusion of Chandler's credit from the cover.
A brief tangential rant........2002-05-03
Nearly everyone who is likely to view this page knows and loves the movie, and would most likely prefer watching it to reading it. This leaves devoted fans of Wilder and Chandler to consider it, as well as perhaps students of the form.
The screenplay itself is an unquestioned masterpiece, and has not even the movie's very very few faults (poor acting by secondary characters, etc.). So I will limit my comments to my assertion that this edition GREATLY underestimates the contributions of Chandler, going so far as to paint him as a pasty fussbudget ignorant of the craft of writing. Not true, bud, not by a long shot.
Wilder and Chandler got along like cats and dogs. That's no secret. Yet while Chandler had his faults, Wilder seemed to live to antagonize him, and quite uncharitably described him in some comments reprinted here. Saying how the married Chandler envied Wilder for "having all the pretty girls at Paramount" is one example of how cheap and childish the director's opinion of his co-writer was, as stated in this edition, quoting Wilder's bio. Either Wilder or Meyers had some crude bias against Chandler, if the introduction of this tome is to be believed at all. Because it's not even an accurate presentation of what Wilder really felt, as quoted in Chandler's own hit-and-miss bio written by Tom Hiney.
Anyway, much of the *structure* of the screenplay- the flashbacks, the additional scenes, the ebb and flow- is Wilder's tremendous savvy. But the things film historians seem to treasure above all else in this movie are the rapid-fire, crudely poetic, vernacular dialogue, as well as the feeling of cynical decay wrapped around the doomed couple's whole misbegotten endeavor like a shroud. And for those, I propose, Chandler must be given the majority of the credit. His novels are too sad and complex and perfect, providing ample evidence that he could not have been the doofus this book portrays.
There's my speech. Take it for what it's worth. The book is a good buy for serious students. But Chandler fans will be ticked off.
Wilders First Undoubted Masterpiece.......2000-12-11
Double Indemnity is one of Billy Wilders best films. The screenplay is taut and extremely well written. You cannot miss this opportunity to read the master at the top of his game. Among the many highlights is the supermarket scene between the two conspirators. An absolute must read
Book Description
"'Nobody's perfect' is the line that most sums up my work," Billy Wilder told writer Charlotte Chandler. "There is no comedy, no drama about perfect people."
Film is the Cinderella Art of the 20th century, and Billy Wilder was one of its most legendary figures. When he died recently, Wilder left behind an incredible celluloid legacy. Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot, Double Indemnity, The Apartment, Lost Weekend, Sabrina, and other Wilder films have become a part of our shared experience and collective memory.
In Nobody's Perfect, Billy Wilder speaks for himself, in what is as close to an autobiography as there ever will be. Charlotte Chandler, author of earlier authorized biographies of Groucho Marx and Federico Fellini, met Wilder in the mid-1970s and began a friendship that continued until his death. Over the course of more than twenty years, she interviewed not only Wilder, but many of the actors and other creative people who worked with him. The result is this remarkable book, a very personal look at one of Hollywood's true creative geniuses.
In a life as dramatic as his films, Wilder survived World War I and escaped the Holocaust, though his mother and grandmother both died at Auschwitz. When he arrived in Hollywood, he found himself a writer without a language, a man without a country.
Wilder's great gift as a screenwriter soon became apparent, as did his easy rapport with actors. As a writer-director, he worked with such stars as Greta Garbo, William Holden, Tony Curtis, Barbara Stanwyck, Marlene Dietrich, Ginger Rogers, Gloria Swanson, Audrey Hepburn, Gary Cooper, James Cagney, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, and Marilyn Monroe -- most of whom were interviewed for this book.
He gave Garbo her laugh, Swanson her comeback, Holden his stardom, Lemmon a career, Matthau an Oscar, and contributed greatly to Marilyn Monroe's immortality.
Actors from Wilder's films talk enthusiastically about Wilder. Danielle Darrieux, the star of the first picture he directed, remembers him from 1933. Ginger Rogers tells how The Major and the Minor paralleled her own life. Jack Lemmon reveals how wearing a dress affected him as a man. Tony Curtis talks about what it was like to work with Billy Wilder -- and under Marilyn Monroe.
Chandler's conversations with Wilder and the others began when he was still a working director and continued through the time he was retired but didn't know it. A man of the 20th century, Billy Wilder lived into the 21st century, alone from his time, a legend forever.
This revealing and vastly entertaining book is a wonderful, timely tribute to this great writer-director, a legacy of Wilder's wit, insight, and remarkable wisdom.
Customer Reviews:
Engaging story of one of the great figures of 20th century.......2004-10-06
Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder by biographer Charlotte Chandler is the personal and engaging story of one of the great figures of 20th century movie-making -- the legendary Billy Wilder (1906-2002). The great director perhaps best known for classics such as "Some Like It Hot", "The Apartment", "Sunset Boulevard", and many more, Billy Wilder narrates much of "Nobody's Perfect" in his own words, rendering it as close to an autobiography as any story of his life can be. A filmography complements this witty, insightful, life story of a creative visionary.
Charlotte Chandler is very, very imperfect.......2004-09-20
I read Cameron Crowe's book a couple years ago, and it is head-and-shoulders above this. What Charlotte essentially does in this "personal" biography is string together a long series of celebrity interviews into one barely coherent narrative.
One gets the distinct impression it was far more important for Charlotte to "get to know" these interview subjects than it was for her to write this book. What makes me think that? Perhaps it's the photos of Charlotte and several of her interviewees sprinkled throughout this book.
On the whole, "personal" seems to be shorthand for "lazy."
An Enjoyable Look at a Supreme Opportunist.......2003-04-28
My love of films came to fruition during a brief period when the "auteur theory" held sway in the 1960s and 1970s. Auteurist critic Andrew Sarris classified Billy Wilder in his "Less Than Meets the Eye Category," primarily because he was "too cynical for the more serious demands of middle-class tragedy (DOUBLE INDEMNITY) and social allegory (ACE IN THE HOLE). A director who can crack jokes about suicide attempts ... and thoughtlessly brutalize charming actresses like Jean Arthur (FOREIGN AFFAIR) and Audrey Hepburn (SABRINA) is hardly likely to make a coherent film on the human condition."
It was only as a result of seeing Wilder's films that I discovered what Sarris was really saying was that the director was both too versatile and too successful -- and it didn't help that his approach to directing films was as a writer rather than as a visual artist.
Reading Charlotte Chandler's oral history of Wilder's career, I was impressed with Billy Wilder's ability to be able to create iconic native masterpieces of film noir (DOUBLE INDEMNITY) and Hollywood Gothic (SUNSET BOULEVARD) without the benefit of growing up in the United States. While his later comedies (such as SOME LIKE IT HOT) owe much to his collaboration with Lubitsch, Hawks, and Mitchell Leisen, Wilder developed his own style of comedy and retained his ability to make good films well into his eighties.
In the chapter on SUNSET BOULEVARD, actress Nancy Olson makes an astute comment: "Billy said, 'Every character in SUNSET BOULEVARD is an opportunist.' It seemed to me that what he is saying is that this picture is not only about opportunism, but about ... the consequences of it."
A little light bulb went on in my mind. Wilder's films are all, in their own way, about opportunism. Walter Neff and Phyllis Dietrichson take advantage of each other for their own nefarious ends in DOUBLE INDEMNITY. In picture after picture, I see a pattern of characters using one another with interesting results, with the ultimate example being Kirk Douglas in ACE IN THE HOLE.
Chandler's interviews are mostly interesting, though the intrusion of plot summaries in the middle of each chapter is intrusive: These should have been relegated to the Filmography in the back of the book. I was disturbed that Chandler did not see fit to add any of her own observations about Wilder except insofar as to provide a segue for the many quotes. Still, it is both a useful and entertaining book and a valuable addition to the literature about this fascinating filmmaker.
A WILD, ENJOYABLE READ ABOUT A MOST PERFECT DIRECTOR.......2003-02-09
There is no one wilder in Hollywood than Billy - Billy Wilder, that is. And the new bio of him, "Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder: A Personal Biography," is as close to the "perfect" non-critical, fun history of a man and his movies. Written by Charlotte Chandler (whose previous works include "I, Fellini" and "Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends"), the tome is based on interviews she conducted with Wilder and his friends over a period of years. The result is a wonderful kaleidoscope of movies, politicians, actors, geniuses and louses. From Sigmund Freud to Louis B. Mayer, from Richard Strauss to Joan Fontaine, from Prince Yussupov to Walter Matthau --- Wilder knew them all. He is the man who put Marilyn Monroe over a subway grate, Jack Lemmon in a dress and Gloria Swanson in the most famous close-up of them all. The great beacon shining through the entire book is, of course, the wit and humor of the man. Wilder is certainly one of the great comic directors of all time, and his legacy is astounding. By structuring the book around the subject's work in a strictly chronological manner, Chandler creates a picture of Wilder that is at once true and wildly engrossing. The early stories about journalism in pre-war Berlin are as fascinating as the later tales of success in glittering Hollywood. That the last 20 years of his life, arguably the most creative time in an artist's life, were spent without a single film project is the underlying tragedy of this book, and Chandler doesn't exactly dwell on it, but the painful reality is certainly there. We like to think of him as this way: Billy Wilder, Somebody's Perfect. (Submitted by staff member Stephen J. Finn)
Highly Entertaining.......2002-12-19
Billy Wilder made some of the greatest American movies such as Some Like It Hot, Sabrina, and Sunset Boulevard. He was also in charge of filming the liberation of Nazi concentration camps in the 1940's. This interesting and informative book covers his life and career, and behind-the-scenes stories of each major movie he made are in here, too. Whoever said "they don't make movies like that any more" wasn't kidding! I highly recommend this book.
Customer Reviews:
The Genius of Wilder Augmented by Wondrous Photographs.......2004-12-06
To me, Billy Wilder is synonymous with the best of what Hollywood offered during the mid-century golden era. A consummate screenwriter, who eventually evolved into one of the leading directors and producers, Wilder has made film classics that have endured into our collective consciousness. Author Glenn Hopp does a nice job following Wilder's career from his birth in Austria in 1906 to his escape from the Nazi uprising in Germany to his eventual settlement in Hollywood. He started writing for his mentor, Ernst Lubitsch, penning the scripts for lovely confections such as "Bluebeard's Eighth Wife" and the Garbo classic, "Ninotchka". Then he made his directorial debut with a Ginger Rogers romper, "The Major and the Minor" in 1942. After that film he had a string of critical and commercial hits - "Double Indemnity", "The Lost Weekend", "Sunset Boulevard", "Stalag 17", "Sabrina", "Love in the Afternoon", "Witness for the Prosecution", and arguably his high-water marks, "Some Like It Hot" and "The Apartment", both non-coincidentally starring a never-better Jack Lemmon. Wilder continued into the 1980`s, but he became less assured with his later films. The book covers each film and provides tantalizing glimpses into the stars involved. It also has some interesting inserts on the visual style he displayed in certain films like "The Apartment", the use of minor characters, and most interesting, deleted scenes like a shot of Fred MacMurrray facing the gas chamber at the end of "Double Indemnity".
For those who want a more critical and detailed assessment of Wilder's career, this is not it. The book breezes through much of his history, but the photographs are wonderful, some familiar, many completely new to me, for example, color shots on the set of "Some Like It Hot". But if you are looking for a more comprehensive view of his work and his filmmaking process, as well as more on his personal life and dealings with his casts, then I suggest you pick up Ed Sikov's "On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder", a fairly thorough, even-handed biography. As with most of the Taschen books, this is well worth getting simply for the plentiful photographs beautifully presented.
Book Description
Sunset Boulevard (1950) is one of the most famous films in the history of Hollywood, and perhaps no film better represents Hollywood's vision of itself. Billy Wilder collaborated on the screenplay with the very able Charles Brackett, and with D. M. Marshman Jr., who later joined the team. Together they created a film both allusive and literate, with Hollywood's worst excesses and neuroses laid out for all to see. After viewing Sunset Boulevard Louis B. Mayer exclaimed: "We should throw this Wilder out of town!" The New York Times, however, gave the movie a rave review, praising "that rare blend of pungent writing, expert acting, masterly direction, and unobtrusively artistic photography." The film was nominated for Best Picture, and Wilder won an Academy Award for Best Story and Best Screenplay.
This facsimile edition of Sunset Boulevard makes it possible to get as much pleasure from reading the highly intelligent screenplay as from seeing the film. Jeffrey Meyers's introduction provides an intriguing array of background details about Wilder, the film's casting and production, and the lives of those connected to what has become a classic.
Customer Reviews:
I think it is one of the best pieces of literature ever........1999-09-25
I think the way Billie Wilder expresses the life of a washed up actress and the life of a starving screnwriter is a wonderful interpratations of life ever. i loved the musical although I found it far fetched from the book.
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