Billy Wilder

Having seen and loved his two comedy classics 'Some Like It Hot' and 'The Apartment', I'm now making my way through his other work. Films such as 'Double Indemnity' and 'Stalag 17' really are just fantastic, and I recently watched 'The Fortune Cookie' which was also good. I want to see 'Ace in the Hole' next, his satirical swipe at the media business which was panned upon release but has since gained a cult status. Any other fans of his out there? He could soon overtake Woody as my favourite film maker.

Was watching Sunset Boulevard again the other night. Just a brilliant, almost flawless film.

Quote: Tim Walker @ April 2 2010, 9:24 PM BST

Was watching Sunset Boulevard again the other night. Just a brilliant, almost flawless film.

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It's a great film no doubt, but I'm so inane that it bothered me tremendously that a dead guy was narrating the film. I think I have serious problems
I preferred double indemnity, film noir at it's finest.

He also directed The Lost Weekend, one of the great films about alcoholism.

Quote: chipolata @ April 2 2010, 10:13 PM BST

He also directed The Lost Weekend, one of the great films about alcoholism.

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Indeed. The other main great one being The Days Of Wine And Roses (starring Jack Lemmon).

Quote: Tim Walker @ April 2 2010, 10:39 PM BST

Indeed. The other main great one being The Days Of Wine And Roses (starring Jack Lemmon).

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I'd have plumped for Arthur II: Love On The Rocks, but each to his own.

Quote: chipolata @ April 2 2010, 10:51 PM BST

I'd have plumped for Arthur II: Love On The Rocks, but each to his own.

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If you don't like Billy Wilder films then you don't like films.

Love Billy Wilder, great topic!

Some Like it Hot has always been one of my favourite movies--I love Marylin Monroe. Seven Year Itch is another great Monroe/Wilder movie.

I own Fortune Cookie, it has some of the best black and white football (American kind) footage that I have ever seen.

Is possibly the finest, most natural film maker that ever lived. There are cleverer, flashier directors than him, but for consistently good/great narrative films he's no.1. Another one to throw in the ring, The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes, superb film.

The Spirit of St Louis, about Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic, is on Channel 5 on Easter Monday at 2:25 in the afternoon. Another good Wilder film.

Billy Wilder rather bridged the gap between 'Old Hollywood' and 'New Hollywood'. He knew and respected a lot of the conventions of movies going right back to the silent days, whilst also wanting to subvert the genre and develop new techniques and ideas. He was the Scorsese of his day, but actually rather more successful, insofar that he had greater success making films to suit a mainstream audience.

He was also a cracking, first-rate screenwriter, his writing so efficient and at the same time so lyrical and witty. He was the only screenwriter working in Hollywood of the time who had lost his parents in the concentration camps during WWII and many say this fostered the dark and cynical edge his work often had, which most writers/directors didn't (at least when it came to movies) express.

I think we've found out whatever happened to Mark Cousins.

His writing was easily his strongest suit I'd say, he was a director-writer/partner writer rather than a director of other writers' ideas and scripts. To me this is why several of his films are among the best story films of all time. To have that ear for dialogue must really help a director tell their story.