Cameron Crowe

Billy Wilder

Written in a question-and-answer format, this remarkable interview with the legendary Hollywood writer-director shares his thoughts on screenwriting, cinematography, the studio system, the Golden Age of film, and the many stars with whom he worked. Reprint. 35,000 first printing.

Conversations with Wilder

Samuel Wilder

Charles Brackett

D. M. Marshman

"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. This facsimile edition of the screenplay provides intriguing background information about Wilder and the film's casting and production.

Sunset Boulevard

I. A. L. Diamond

Screenplay

Some Like it Hot

نینوچکا

بعضی‌ها داغ‌شو دوست‌دارن

آپارتمان

Always daring Hollywood censors' limits on content, Billy Wilder directed greats such as Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, Ginger Rogers, Marlene Dietrich, Kirk Douglas, Audrey Hepburn, and Gary Cooper. Billy Wilder: Interviews follows the filmmaking career of one of Hollywood's most honored and successful writer-directors and spans over fifty years. Wilder, born in 1906, fled from Nazi Germany and established himself in America. Starting with a celebrated 1944 Life magazine profile, the book traces his progress from his Oscar-winning heyday of the 1940s to the 1990s, in which he is still witty, caustic, and defiant. Often playful and sometimes outrageous, but just as often very serious, Wilder details his rise as a Berlin cub reporter to a fledgling screenwriter in Hollywood's "Golden Age." He tells the stories behind his brilliant direction of such classics as Double Indemnity (1944), The Lost Weekend (1945), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Stalag 17 (1953), Sabrina (1954), The Seven-Year Itch (1955), Some Like It Hot (1959), and The Apartment (1960), among others. A dazzling raconteur, Wilder gives the scoop on the royalty of cinema, from the maddening magic of Monroe to the uncanny empathy of frequent alter ego Lemmon. Though his natural tendency is to spin marvelous anecdotes on the subject of show business, Wilder also delivers penetrating and instructive observations on his craft. On screen, his special blend of cynicism and romanticism was always expressed in a style that avoided showiness. Billy Wilder: Interviews includes in-depth profiles, spirited Q&A's, and on-the-set glimpses of the director at work. Taken together, the interviews form an unofficial memoir of a sophisticated artist once described by a colleague as the most unusual and amusing man in Hollywood. Robert Horton is the film critic for The Herald in Everett, Washington. His work has been published in Film Comment, New York Newsday, American Film, and the Seattle Weekly.

Interviews

"Before Billy Wilder (1906-2002) left Europe for the United States in 1934 and became a filmmaker, he worked as a newspaper reporter, first in Vienna and then in Weimar Berlin. This book, edited and introduced by Noah Isenberg and translated by Shelley Frisch, collects about 65 articles Wilder published in Austrian and German newspapers in the 1920s. The collection includes reported pieces on urban life, from a first-person account of Wilder's stint as a taxi dancer to an article about street sweepers; profiles of writers, movie stars and poker players; and dispatches from the international film scene, from reviews to interviews with such figures as Charlie Chaplin and Erich von Stroheim. Isenberg provides an introduction that gives biographical details and places the writings in context, emphasizing their historical moment and their connections to Wilder's later career"--

Dispatches from Weimar Berlin and Interwar Vienna

Billy Wilder on Assignment

A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year, chosen by Tom Stoppard "A revelation."—Marc Weingarten, Washington Post Acclaimed film director Billy Wilder’s early writings—brilliantly translated into English for the first time Before Billy Wilder became the screenwriter and director of iconic films like Sunset Boulevard and Some Like It Hot, he worked as a freelance reporter, first in Vienna and then in Weimar Berlin. Billy Wilder on Assignment brings together more than fifty articles, translated into English for the first time, that Wilder (then known as "Billie") published in magazines and newspapers between September 1925 and November 1930. From a humorous account of Wilder's stint as a hired dancing companion in a posh Berlin hotel and his dispatches from the international film scene, to his astute profiles of writers, performers, and political figures, the collection offers fresh insights into the creative mind of one of Hollywood’s most revered writer-directors. Wilder’s early writings—a heady mix of cultural essays, interviews, and reviews—contain the same sparkling wit and intelligence as his later Hollywood screenplays, while also casting light into the dark corners of Vienna and Berlin between the wars. Wilder covered everything: big-city sensations, jazz performances, film and theater openings, dance, photography, and all manner of mass entertainment. And he wrote about the most colorful figures of the day, including Charlie Chaplin, Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Prince of Wales, actor Adolphe Menjou, director Erich von Stroheim, and the Tiller Girls dance troupe. Film historian Noah Isenberg's introduction and commentary place Wilder’s pieces—brilliantly translated by Shelley Frisch—in historical and biographical context, and rare photos capture Wilder and his circle during these formative years. Filled with rich reportage and personal musings, Billy Wilder on Assignment showcases the burgeoning voice of a young journalist who would go on to become a great auteur.

Como se tornar um bom dançarino profissional e ganhar gorjetas no hotel? O que faz uma "bruxa moderna" da cidade grande? Quais são os pontos de encontro mais disputados de Berlim? Tem como dirigir um filme com orçamento mínimo e convencer alguém a bancar a empreitada? Para todas essas perguntas, Billy Wilder tem a resposta. Se não a possui, pode ter certeza de que se jogará em busca dela. Antes de se tornar um dos diretores de cinema mais celebrados e míticos de Hollywood, autor de clássicos inescapáveis como Quanto mais quente melhor, considerado a obra-prima de Marilyn Monroe, e Crepúsculo dos deuses, espelho crítico da própria indústria cinematográfica, Billy Wilder era um mero repórter para diferentes jornais de Berlim e Viena nos anos 1920. Nessas cidades fervilhantes de cultura, pôde acompanhar os desvarios que marcaram a República de Weimar como um período de liberdade e descoberta, que logo viria a ser esmagada pela ascensão do nazismo. A capital alemã, em especial, era uma grande farra, ponto de encontro de intelectuais e artistas que perseguiam a liberdade irrestrita. O sonho, como a história nos ensinou, pouco durou – os nazistas chegaram ao poder e Wilder, de origem judaica, precisou fugir da Europa. Em Billy Wilder: um repórter em tempos loucos , os textos reunidos por Noah Isenberg, de qualquer maneira, oferecem um testemunho único e pessoal de um artista que se arremessou no olho do furacão para capturar os tempos loucos encapsulados entre a Primeira e a Segunda Guerra Mundial, além de dar um vislumbre de como se desenvolveu a mente de um dos maiores cineastas da história.

Billy Wilder: um repórter em tempos loucos

Drehbuch von Billie Wilder frei nach dem Roman von Erich Kästner zu Gerhard Lamprechts Film von 1931

Emil und die Detektive

Alison Castle

Dan Auiler

The complete guide to Billy Wilder's masterpiece! Find out everything you could ever want to know (and more) about the movie voted best comedy of the century by the American Film Institute. A daring tale of crossdressing from a time when the subject was all but taboo, Some Like it Hot (1959) tells the story of two jazz musicians who are forced to go undercover in an all-girls? band to escape from the mob. With an ingenious screenplay by I.A.L. Diamond and Billy Wilder, and flawless performances by Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and the famously difficult Marilyn Monroe, Some Like it Hot is the embodiment of comic perfection. Includes: Interviews with Billy Wilder, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and others Complete facsimile of the screenplay with film stills from every scene Excerpts from the script's first draft Behind-the-scenes photos Original promotional materials from all around the world Annotated/illustrated Billy Wilder filmography The editor: Alison Castle studied philosophy as an undergraduate (Columbia University) and went on to receive her graduate degree in photography and film (New York University/International Center of Photography masters program). She lives in Paris, home of the world's best cinemas. The interviewer: Dan Auiler is the author of Hitchcock's Notebooks (HarperCollins/Bloomsbury) and Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic (St. Martin's Press). His books on Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver and Goodfellas (Putnam/Bloomsbury) were published in 2002. He lives in Long Beach, California.

Some Like It Hot

Gary Cooper

Barbara Stanwyck

Samuel Goldwyn, Inc

Ball of Fire

"A revelation."—Marc Weingarten, Washington Post Acclaimed film director Billy Wilder’s early writings—brilliantly translated into English for the first time Before Billy Wilder became the screenwriter and director of iconic films like Sunset Boulevard and Some Like It Hot, he worked as a freelance reporter, first in Vienna and then in Weimar Berlin. Billy Wilder on Assignment brings together more than fifty articles, translated into English for the first time, that Wilder (then known as "Billie") published in magazines and newspapers between September 1925 and November 1930. From a humorous account of Wilder's stint as a hired dancing companion in a posh Berlin hotel and his dispatches from the international film scene, to his astute profiles of writers, performers, and political figures, the collection offers fresh insights into the creative mind of one of Hollywood’s most revered writer-directors. Wilder’s early writings—a heady mix of cultural essays, interviews, and reviews—contain the same sparkling wit and intelligence as his later Hollywood screenplays, while also casting light into the dark corners of Vienna and Berlin between the wars. Wilder covered everything: big-city sensations, jazz performances, film and theater openings, dance, photography, and all manner of mass entertainment. And he wrote about the most colorful figures of the day, including Charlie Chaplin, Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Prince of Wales, actor Adolphe Menjou, director Erich von Stroheim, and the Tiller Girls dance troupe. Film historian Noah Isenberg's introduction and commentary place Wilder’s pieces—brilliantly translated by Shelley Frisch—in historical and biographical context, and rare photos capture Wilder and his circle during these formative years. Filled with rich reportage and personal musings, Billy Wilder on Assignment showcases the burgeoning voice of a young journalist who would go on to become a great auteur.

Double Indemnity

Double Indemnity (a Paramount Picture)

Harry Kurnitz

Final Script, June 10, 1957

Witness for the Prosecution

Billy Wilder won two Oscars - as co-screenwriter and director - for this mordant comedy about getting ahead in the corporate world. Jack Lemmon played the 'schnook' who lends out his apartment for his boss's sexual trysts, only to fall in love with the boss's girl - played by Shirey MacLaine. The Apartment is a beautifully judged piece of writing saved from cynicism by Wilder and Diamond's tenderness towards their central characters. This edition of the screenplay includes a specially commissioned introduction by Mark Cousins.

The Apartment

Raymond Chandler

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.

Billy Wilder

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