Billy Wilder

src: www.theparisreview.org

Samuel " Billy " Wilder ( ; German: The Apartment , Wilder became the first to win the Academy Awards as a producer, director and screenwriter for the same movie.

Wilder became a screenwriter in the late 1920s while living in Berlin. After the rise of the Nazi Party, he went to Paris, where he made his directorial debut. He moved to Hollywood in 1933, and in 1939 he got hit when he co-wrote the screenplay for the romantic comedy film Ninotchka , starring Greta Garbo. Wilder upholds the director's reputation with the adaptation of James M. Cain Double Indemnity (1944), a film noir. Wilder co-wrote the scenario with criminal novelist Raymond Chandler. Wilder earned Best Director and Best Screenplay Academy Awards for the adaptation of Charles R. Jackson's The Lost Weekend (1945), on alcoholism. In 1950, Wilder co-wrote and directed the critically acclaimed Sunset Boulevard, as well as Stalag 17 in 1953.

Since the mid-1950s, Wilder made most comedy. Among the classic Wilder created during this period are the Seven Years Itch (1955) and Some Like It Hot (1959), and satirites like The Apartment (1960). He directed fourteen different actors in the Oscar nomination show. Wilder was acknowledged with the American Film Institute (AFI) Achievement Award in 1986. In 1988, Wilder was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Award. In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

Video Billy Wilder

Kehidupan dan karier

Austria dan Jerman

Samuel Wilder was born on 22 June 1906 in an Austrian Jewish family in Sucha Beskidzka, son of Eugenia ( nÃÆ' Â © e Dittler) and Max Wilder. She was nicknamed "Billie" by her mother (she turned this into "Billy" upon arriving in America). He has an older brother, William Lee Wilder (1904-1982), who is also a screenwriter, film producer and director. His parents owned a successful and famous pastry shop at Sucha railway station and failed to try to persuade their son to join the family business. Soon the family moved to Vienna, where Wilder attended school. Instead of attending the University of Vienna, Wilder became a journalist. To advance his career, Wilder decided to move to Berlin, where, before his success as a writer, he allegedly worked as a taxi driver.

After writing crime stories and sports as headlines for local newspapers, he was finally offered a permanent job in the Berlin tabloids. Developing interest in movies, he began working as a screenwriter. He collaborated with several other novices (with Fred Zinnemann and Robert Siodmak) on the 1929 feature People on Sunday. He wrote the screenplay for the 1931 film adaptation of the novel by Erich KÃÆ'¤stner, Emil and Detective. After the advent of Adolf Hitler, Wilder, Jew, departed for Paris, where he made his directorial debut with the 1934 film Mauvaise Graine. He moved to Hollywood before being released.

Her mother, grandmother and stepfather all died in the Holocaust. For decades it was assumed that it happened at Auschwitz, but when researching the Polish and Israeli archives, Austrian biographer Andreas Hutter discovered in 2011 that they were murdered at a different location: his mother, Eugenia "Gitla" Siedlisker - in 1943 at Plaszow ; his stepfather Bernard Berl Siedlisker, in 1942 at Belzec and his grandmother Balbina Baldinger, died in 1943 at the ghetto in Nowy Targ.

Hollywood Career

After arriving in Hollywood in 1933, Wilder continued his career as a screenwriter. He became a naturalized American citizen in 1939, having spent time in Mexico waiting for the US government after his six-month visa expired in 1934, an episode reflected in his 1941 Hold Back the Dawn. Wilder's first significant success was Ninotchka in 1939, a collaboration with fellow German immigrants Ernst Lubitsch. This romantic comedy starring Greta Garbo (commonly known as a tragic hero in film melodrama), and popular and critically acclaimed. With the byline, "Garbo Laughs!", It also brought Garbo's career into a new direction. The film also marks the nomination of Wilder's first Academy Award, which he shared with coauthor Charles Brackett (though their collaboration on Bluebeard's Eighth Wife and Midnight has been well received). For twelve years Wilder co-wrote many of his films with Brackett, from 1938 to 1950. He followed Ninotchka with a series of box office hits in 1942, including his book Hold Back the Dawn and Ball of Fire , as well as their debut directorial feature, The Major and the Minor .

His third film as a director, Double Indemnity (1944) was a big hit. A film noir , nominated for Best Director and Screenplay, was co-written with Raymond Chandler's mystery novelist, though the two men did not get along. Double Indemnity not only sets the conventions for the noir genre (such as "venetian blind" lighting and voice-over narration), but also a landmark in the battle against Hollywood censorship. The original James M. Cain novel Double Indemnity shows two love triangles and a premeditated murder for insurance money. Although this book is very popular among the reading community, it is deemed unenforceable under the Hays Code, since adultery is central to its plot. Double Indemnity is credited by some as the first true film noir, incorporating elements of the Citizen Kane style with the narrative element The Maltese Falcon (1941).

During the liberation of the concentration camp in 1945, the Department of Psychological Warfare (PWD) of the United States Department of War produced an American propaganda documentary film directed by Billy Wilder. Movies known as Death Mills, or Die Todesmäsählen, are intended for German audiences to educate them about the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime. For the German version, Die TodesmÃÆ'¼hlen , Hanu? Burger is credited as a writer and director, while Wilder oversees editing. Wilder is credited with the English version.

Two years later, Wilder was awarded Best Director and Best Screenplay Academy Awards for the adaptation of Charles R. Jackson's The Lost Weekend (1945), the first major American film to have a serious examination of alcoholism. , another difficult theme under Production Code. In 1950, Wilder co-wrote and directed the dark and cynical Sunset Boulevard, which incorporated William Holden's rising star with Gloria Swanson. Swanson portrays Norma Desmond, a solitary silent movie star, with his imaginary grandeur of old, the dream of returning. Holden plays an aspiring scriptwriter who can not fulfill his needs and be the one he cares for. It was critically acclaimed, and marked the end of Wilder's long writing partnership with Charles Brackett. In 1951, Wilder followed Sunset Boulevard Ace in the Hole (a.k.a. The Big Carnival ), a story of media exploitation of a hooked accident. The idea for the film had been aired by phone to Wilder's secretary by Victor Desny. Desny sued Wilder for violating implied contracts in the California copyright case of Wilder v Desny , finally receiving a $ 14,350 settlement. Despite the critical and commercial failures of the time, his reputation has grown over the years.

In the 1950s, Wilder also directed two adaptations of the Broadway drama, prisoner of war drama Stalag 17 (1953), which produced Oscar's Best Actor for William Holden, and the mystery of Agatha Christie Witness for Prosecution < i> (1957). In the mid-1950s, Wilder was interested in making a movie with one of Hollywood's classic Golden Age comedy films. He first considered, and refused, a project to star Laurel and Hardy. He then held a discussion with Groucho Marx about the new Marx Brothers comedy, while titled "A Day at the U.N." The project was abandoned when Chico Marx died in 1961.

From the mid-1950s onwards, Wilder made the most of comedy. Among the classic Wilders made in this period are the Sevences Itch (1955) and Some Like It Hot (1959), satire like The Apartment (1960), and romantic comedy Sabrina (1954). Wilder's humor is sometimes cynical. In Love in the Afternoon (1957), young and innocent Audrey Hepburn does not want to be young or innocent with playboy Gary Cooper, and pretends to be a married woman in search of entertainment out of wedlock. The film is Wilder's first collaboration with writer-producer I. A. L. Diamond, an association that continues to the end of the careers of both men.

In 1959, United Artists released a Wildcle Prohibition-era joke without a stamp of approval Production Code, retained for indelible sexual comedy films, including a central cross-dressing theme. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis play a musician disguised as a woman to escape from the pursuit of a Chicago gang. Court character Curtis is a singer played by Marilyn Monroe, while Lemmon is drowned by Joe E. Brown - prepares the final joke of the movie in which Lemmon reveals that his character is a man and Brown is blithely answering "Well, nothing is perfect". A box office success, the film was lightly considered during its original release. But his critical reputation grew remarkable; in 2000, the American Film Institute chose him as the best American comedy ever made. In 2012, the Sight and Sound poll of the British Film Institute from film critics in the world rated this movie the 43rd best movie ever made, and the second highest-ranked comedy.

After winning three Academy Awards for the 1960s The Apartment (for Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay), Wilder's career slowed down. The Cold War joke One, Two, Three (1961) featured a festive comic show by James Cagney. It was followed by seemingly inferior films now cult status, such as Irma la Douce and Kiss Me, Stupid . Wilder earned his last Oscar nomination for his script The Fortune Cookie (UK: Meet Whiplash Willie ) (1966). The 1970s film The Private Life Sherlock Holmes was intended as a major roadshow release, but heavily cut off by the studio and has never been completely restored. Then films like Fedora (1978) and Buddy Buddy (1981) failed to impress critics or the public. Afterwards Wilder complains, in vain, that he is discriminated against, because of his age. For whatever reason, the studio would not hire her. The one "consolation" Wilder had in his final years, in addition to his art collection (see "Later Life," below), is a musical version of Andrew Lloyd Webber of Sunset Boulevard.

Style of director

The choice of director Wilder reflects his belief in the virtue of writing. He avoided, especially in the second half of his career, the cynical cinematography of Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles because, in Wilder's opinion, eye-catching shots would distract the audience from the story. Wilder's drawings have tight plots and easy-to-remember dialogues. Despite its conservative leadership style, the subject often pushes the boundaries of mainstream entertainment. Once the subject is selected, it will begin to visualize in terms of a particular artist. The belief is that no matter how talented the actor is, nothing is unlimited and the end result will be better if you bend the script to their personality rather than impose a performance beyond their limitations. Wilder is skilled at working with actors, persuading silent-era legends Gloria Swanson and Erich von Stroheim out of retirement for a role at Sunset Boulevard .

For Stalag 17 , Wilder extorted the performance of the reluctant William Holden Oscar winner (Holden wanted to make his character preferred, Wilder refused). Wilder sometimes throws against types for major parts like Fred MacMurray on Double Indemnity and The Apartment . MacMurray has become the highest paid actor in Hollywood who plays a decent and wise character in light, melodrama and musical comedies; Wilder threw her as a female swindler. Humphrey Bogart released his hard image to give one of his hottest performances at Sabrina . James Cagney, usually unknown to comedy, is very impressive in the role of high-octane comic for Wilder One, Two, Three. Wilder coaxed the highly effective performance of Marilyn Monroe on Some Like It Hot .

In total, he directed fourteen different actors in the Oscar nomination show: Barbara Stanwyck at Double Indemnity, Ray Milland at The Lost Weekend, William Holden at Sunset Boulevard and Stalag 17 , Gloria Swanson at Sunset Boulevard , Erich von Stroheim at Sunset i , Robert Strauss at Stalag 17 , Audrey Hepburn at Sabrina , Charles Laughton at Witness for Prosecution , Elsa Lanchester at The Jack Lemmon, in the Some Like It Hot and The Apartment , Jack Kruschen at The Apartment , Shirley MacLaine at The Apartment i> and Irma la Douce and Walter Matthau at The Fortune Cookie . Milland, Holden and Matthau won the Oscars for their appearance in the Wilder film. Wilder guided Jack Lemmon and became the first director to pair with Walter Matthau, in The Fortune Cookie (1966). Wilder deeply respects Lemmon, calling him the hardest actor he has ever met. Lemmon starred in seven Wilder films.

Wilder's work has to face some critical challenges. Though he is admired by many critics and film audiences, he has yet to win the approval of renowned critic David Thomson, author of A Biography Film Dictionary, and other works. Thomson summed up his attitude toward Wilder by saying, "I remain skeptical." Thomson stressed that, although Wilder created some brilliant films, he also directed some of the poor, especially at the end of his career. Thomson noted that critic Andrew Sarris did not approve of Wilder for a long time but then changed his attitude much later.

Some people say that Wilder's films often do not have a clear political tone or sympathy, which is not unintentional. He is less interested in current political modes than in human nature and the problems facing ordinary people. He is unaffected by the Hollywood blacklist, and has little sympathy for those who are there. From the black list 'Hollywood Ten' Wilder said, "Out of ten, two have talent, and the rest just are not friendly." In general, Wilder is very fond of formula and genre films.

Others say that his films derive their parody from world politics around him, capitalists and Communists, and that Wilder opposes the UnUnited Committee of Action (HUAC). He co-created the "Committee for the First Amendment", from 500 Hollywood figures and stars to "support professionals called to testify before the HUAC who have classified themselves as enemies of interrogation and interrogators". Some anti-Communists want those in the cinema industry to take an oath of allegiance. The Screen Director Guild has a voice by raising a hand. Only John Huston and Wilder are opposed. Huston said, "I'm sure it's one of the bravest things Billy, as a naturalized German, ever done.There are 150 to 200 directors at this meeting, and here Billy and I sit alone with our hands raised in protest against the oath of allegiance. "

Wilder rejoices in making fun of those who are too serious about politics. In the Ball of Fire, her queen Sugarpuss pointed to her sore throat and complained "Pink? Red like Daily Worker and twice as much as pain." Later, he gave the arrogant and displeased housekeeper the name "Franco". Wilder is sometimes confused with director William Wyler; the confusion is understandable, since both are German-speaking Jews of the same background and name. However, their output as a director is quite different: Wyler prefers to direct the epics and heavy drama, while Wilder is best known for comedy and drama type noir movies.

Next life

Wilder was recognized with the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1986. In 1988, Wilder was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Award. In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Wilder became famous for having one of the finest and most comprehensive art collections in Hollywood, mainly collecting modern art. As he explained in the mid-80s, "It's a disease, I do not know how to stop myself, just call it bulimia if you want - or curiosity or passion.I have some Impressionists, some Picasso from every period, some phones by More calmly, I also collect small Japanese trees, glass paperweights and Chinese vases.Seplace an object and I collect. "Wilder's artistic ambitions made him create a series of his own. In the early 90s, Wilder had collected a variety of artistic-plastic constructions, many of which were made in collaboration with Bruce Houston artists. In 1993, art dealer Louis Stern, an old friend, helped organize the Wilder exhibition in his Beverly Hills gallery. The exhibition, titled Marchike Billy Parda aux Puces and the Variation Theme Nefertete segment is an unqualified audience. The series features a statue of Egyptian queen wrapped in Christo, or slanders Jackson Pollock, or Campbell's soup can pay homage to Andy Warhol.

Maps Billy Wilder

Personal life

Wilder married Judith Coppicus on December 22, 1936. The couple had twins, Victoria and Vincent (born 1939), but Vincent died shortly after birth. They divorced in 1946. Wilder met Audrey Young at Paramount Pictures on the set of The Lost Weekend in 1945, and he became his second wife on 30 June 1949.

src: i.ytimg.com

Death

Wilder died in 2002 of pneumonia at the age of 95 after struggling with health problems, including cancer, at his home in Beverly Hills, California. He was buried at the Cemetery of Westwood Village Memorial Park in Westwood, Los Angeles near Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Marilyn Monroe's tomb is located in the same cemetery. Wilder died on the same day as two other comedy legends: Milton Berle and Dudley Moore. The next day, the French newspaper Le Monde was titled the first page obituary, "Billy Wilder died. Nothing is perfect." - to quote the last sentence in Some Like It Hot .

Legacy

Wilder holds a significant place in Hollywood censorship history to extend acceptable reach of material. He is responsible for the two most up-to-date movies of Noir on Double Indemnity and Sunset Boulevard . Together with Woody Allen and Marx Brothers, he leads the list of films on the list of 100 American American films of funny films with five films written and holds the honor of holding the top spot with Some Like it Hot . Also on the list are the The Apartment and The Seven Year Itch he directed, and Ball of Fire and Ninotchka he wrote together. The American Film Institute has ranked four Wilder films among their top 100 American films in the 20th century: Sunset Boulevard (No. 12), Some Like It Hot (no. 14), Double Indemnity (38) and The Apartment (No. 93). For the tenth anniversary edition of their list, AFI moved Sunset Boulevard to No. 16, Some Like it Hot to No. 22, Double Indemnity to No. 29 and The Apartment to No. 80.

Spanish filmmaker Fernando Trueba said in his acceptance speech for the 1993 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film: "I want to trust God to thank him, but I just believe in Billy Wilder... so, thank you Mr. More wild." According to Trueba, Wilder called him the day after and told him: "Fernando, this is God." French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius also thanked Billy Wilder in his Best Picture Oscar 2012 speech for The Artist by saying "I want to thank the following three people, I want to thank Billy Wilder, I want to thank Billy Wilder, and I want to thank Billy Wilder. "Wilder's 12 Academy Award nominations for screenwriting were a record until 1997 when Woody Allen received the 13th nomination for Deconstructing Harry .

src: prettycleverfilms.com

Movieography

src: i.ytimg.com

Awards

Wilder received twenty-one Academy Award nominations; eight for Best Director, twelve to write, and one as a producer of the Best Picture. With eight nominations for Academy Award for Best Director, Wilder is, along with Martin Scorsese, second most nominated director in Academy Awards history, behind William Wyler, and the second most nominated second screenwriter behind Woody Allen.

Source of the article : Wikipedia