Billy Wilder in Hollywood

Billy Wilder in Hollywood PDF Author: Maurice Zolotow
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 9780879100704
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
A biography of the prominent film director and screenwriter follows him from his days in Germany as a paid escort and dancing partner through his years in Hollywood as an award-winning director

Billy Wilder in Hollywood

Billy Wilder in Hollywood PDF Author: Maurice Zolotow
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 9780879100704
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
A biography of the prominent film director and screenwriter follows him from his days in Germany as a paid escort and dancing partner through his years in Hollywood as an award-winning director

Some Like It Wilder

Some Like It Wilder PDF Author: Gene D. Phillips
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813139511
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 468

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Book Description
A biography of the six-time Oscar-winning director of films like Some Like It Hot and Double Indemnity, featuring analysis of his work. Although his career spanned fifty years and included more than fifty films, Austrian-American film director Billy Wilder (1906-2002) may be best known for the legendary shot of Marilyn Monroe’s dress billowing over a subway grating in The Seven Year Itch (1955). This “shot seen round the world” is representative not only of Hollywood’s golden era of cinema but also of one of its most prolific and brilliant directors. Wilder, whose filmography includes such classics as Sunset Boulevard (1950), Sabrina (1954), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), and Some Like It Hot (1959), is often remembered for his versatility, biting wit, and passion for challenging social and moral conventions. Author Gene D. Phillips departs from the traditional biography in Some Like It Wilder, offering new insights into the acclaimed director’s professional and private life. In preparation for the book, Phillips conducted personal interviews with Wilder and other key players from the legendary director’s life and times. Phillips’s unique combination of analysis and biographical detail brings Wilder to life, as both an artist and man. Phillips traces Wilder’s path from Berlin, where he worked as a scriptwriter for one of the city’s largest studios, to Hollywood, where he would quickly establish himself as a premier film director. Forming a partnership with writer-producer Charles Brackett, Wilder directed the classic films Five Graves to Cairo (1943), Double Indemnity (1945), and The Lost Weekend (1945), which earned Academy Awards for best picture, best director, and best screenplay. During the 1960s, Wilder continued to direct and produce controversial comedies, including Kiss Me Stupid (1964) and The Apartment (1960). The Apartment brought Wilder another round of Oscars for best picture, best director, and best screenplay. Wilder’s maverick approach and independent artistic vision pushed boundaries and ensured his legacy as one of the Hollywood greats. Sharply written, Some Like It Wilder serves as a comprehensive companion to Wilder’s films, offering a personalized and heartfelt account of the life and genius of this compelling director. Praise for Some Like It Wilder “Featuring Gene D. Phillips’ unique, in-depth critical approach, Some Like It Wilder . . . provides a groundbreaking overview of a filmmaking icon . . . . This definitive biography reveals that Wilder was, and remains, one of the most influential directors in filmmaking.” —Turner Classic Movies “[Phillips] goes beyond the surface and deep into the complex mind and soul of the famous film director . . . . This book is, in my view, definitive.” —Vincent LoBrutto, author of Martin Scorsese: A Biography

Billy Wilder

Billy Wilder PDF Author: Joseph McBride
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231554117
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 414

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Book Description
The director and cowriter of some of the world's most iconic films—including Double Indemnity, Sunset Blvd., Some Like It Hot, and The Apartment—Billy Wilder earned acclaim as American cinema's greatest social satirist. Though an influential fixture in Hollywood, Wilder always saw himself as an outsider. His worldview was shaped by his background in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and work as a journalist in Berlin during Hitler's rise to power, and his perspective as a Jewish refugee from Nazism lent his films a sense of the peril that could engulf any society. In this critical study, Joseph McBride offers new ways to understand Wilder's work, stretching from his days as a reporter and screenwriter in Europe to his distinguished as well as forgotten films as a Hollywood writer and his celebrated work as a writer-director. In contrast to the widespread view of Wilder as a hardened cynic, McBride reveals him to be a disappointed romantic. Wilder's experiences as an exile led him to mask his sensitivity beneath a veneer of wisecracking that made him a celebrated caustic wit. Amid the satirical barbs and exposure of social hypocrisies, Wilder’s films are marked by intense compassion and a profound understanding of the human condition. Mixing biographical insight with in-depth analysis of films from throughout Wilder's career as a screenwriter and director of comedy and drama, and drawing on McBride's interviews with the director and his collaborators, this book casts new light on the full range of Wilder's rich, complex, and distinctive vision.

Billy Wilder on Assignment

Billy Wilder on Assignment PDF Author: Billy Wilder
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691194947
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
"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"--

"It's the Pictures That Got Small"

Author: Charles Brackett
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231538227
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 463

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Book Description
“Brackett’s diaries read like a funnier, better-paced version of Barton Fink.” —Newsweek Screenwriter Charles Brackett is best remembered as the writing partner of director Billy Wilder, who once referred to the pair as “the happiest couple in Hollywood,” collaborating on such classics as The Lost Weekend and Sunset Boulevard. He was also a perceptive chronicler of the entertainment industry, and in this annotated collection of writings from dozens of Brackett’s unpublished diaries, film historian Anthony Slide clarifies Brackett's critical contribution to Wilder’s films and enriches our knowledge of Wilder’s achievements in writing, direction, and style. Brackett’s diaries re-create the initial meetings of the talent responsible for Ninotchka, Hold Back the Dawn, Ball of Fire, The Major and the Minor, Five Graves to Cairo, The Lost Weekend, and Sunset Boulevard, recounting the breakthroughs and the breakdowns that ultimately forced these collaborators to part ways. In addition to a portrait of Wilder, this is rare view of a producer who was a president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Screen Writers Guild, a New Yorker drama critic, and a member of the Algonquin Round Table. With insight into the dealings of Paramount, Universal, MGM, and RKO, and legendary figures such as Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Edna Ferber, and Dorothy Parker, this book reveals the political and creative intrigue at the heart of Hollywood’s most significant films. “A fascinating look at Hollywood in its classic period, and a unique and indispensable must-have for any movie buff.” —Chicago Tribune “This feels as close as we can get to being in the presence of Wilder’s genius, and he emerges as the cruelest as well as the wittiest of men.” —The Guardian “Not only rare insight into their often-stormy partnership but also an insider’s view of Hollywood during that era.” —Los Angeles Times “Very entertaining.” —Library Journal

On Sunset Boulevard

On Sunset Boulevard PDF Author: Ed Sikov
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1496812654
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 675

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Book Description
On Sunset Boulevard, originally published in 1998, describes the life of acclaimed filmmaker Billy Wilder (1906-2002), director of such classics as Sunset Boulevard, The Lost Weekend, The Seven Year Itch, and Sabrina. This definitive biography takes the reader on a fast-paced journey from Billy Wilder's birth outside of Krakow in 1906 to Vienna, where he grew up, to Berlin, where he moved as a young man while establishing himself as a journalist and screenwriter, and triumphantly to Hollywood, where he became as successful a director as there ever was. Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot, and The Apartment"Wilder's cinematic legacy is unparalleled. Not only did he direct these classics and twenty-one other films, he co-wrote all of his own screenplays. Volatile, cynical, hilarious, and driven, Wilder arrived in Hollywood an all-but-penniless refugee who spoke no English. Ten years later he was calling his own shots, and he stayed on top of the game for the next three decades. Wilder battled with Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, Bing Crosby, and Peter Sellers; kept close friendships with William Holden, Audrey Hepburn, Jack Lemmon, and Walter Matthau; amassed a personal fortune by way of blockbuster films and shrewd investments in art (including Picassos, Klees, and Mir's); and won Oscars--yet Wilder, ever conscious of his thick accent, always felt the sting of being an outsider. On Sunset Boulevard traces the course of a turbulent but fabulous life, both behind the scenes and on the scene, from Viennese cafes and Berlin dance halls in the twenties to the Hollywood soundstages of the forties and the on-location shoots of the fifties and sixties. Crammed with Wilder's own caustic wit, On Sunset Boulevard reels out the story of one of cinema's most brilliant and prolific talents.

Nobody's Perfect

Nobody's Perfect PDF Author: Charlotte Chandler
Publisher: Applause Theatre & Cinema
ISBN: 9781557836328
Category : Motion picture producers and directors
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The author of "I, Fellini" offers a candid look at the life and career of the great film director, Billy Wilder--much of it told in his own voice. 20 photos.

Billy Wilder

Billy Wilder PDF Author: Billy Wilder
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 9781578064441
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
In-depth profiles, spirited Q & A's, and on-the-set glimpses of the director at work

A Foreign Affair

A Foreign Affair PDF Author: Gerd Gemünden
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 0857450662
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
With six Academy Awards, four entries on the American Film Institute's list of 100 greatest American movies, and more titles on the National Historic Register of classic films deemed worthy of preservation than any other director, Billy Wilder counts as one of the most accomplished filmmakers ever to work in Hollywood. Yet how American is Billy Wilder, the Jewish émigré from Central Europe? This book underscores this complex issue, unpacking underlying contradictions where previous commentators routinely smoothed them out. Wilder emerges as an artist with roots in sensationalist journalism and the world of entertainment as well as with an awareness of literary culture and the avant-garde, features that lead to productive and often highly original confrontations between high and low.

Billy Wilder, Movie-Maker

Billy Wilder, Movie-Maker PDF Author: Karen McNally
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786485205
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
Billy Wilder's work remains a masterful combination of incisive social commentary, skilled writing and directing, and unashamed entertainment value. One of Hollywood's foremost emigre filmmakers, Wilder holds a key position in film history via films that represent a complex reflection of his European roots and American cultural influences. This wide-ranging collection of essays by an international group of scholars examines the significance of Wilder's filmmaking from a variety of original perspectives. Engaging with issues of genre, industry, representation and national culture, the volume provides fresh insights into Wilder's films and opens up his work to further exploration.