The Wild Years

If you’re reading this and it isn’t June 22^nd yet, stop and continue tomorrow because a 101 years ago today a Hollywood legend (and a personal favorite) came to life, literally. He was born in Poland and started his career as a journalist for a tabloid in Berlin. Any ideas? After the rise of Hitler he fled to America seeing as he was Jewish and this is where his career in showbiz obviously started to take off. Early on he collaborated with some of the greats (Ernst Lubitsch and Greta Garbo) but eventually fell into his own as a gifted screenwriter. “I’m not a born director,” he once said, “I became a director because so many of our scripts had been screwed up.” And by doing this he became one of the pioneers of the now famous writer-director formula. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking film noir, drama or comedy, he was able to do it all. Comedy was especially a genre in which he excelled: Some Like It Hot, Irma La Douce, The Apartment, The Seven Year Itch, Sabrina,… He also worked with the biggest stars in the business: Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Jack Lemmon, Gloria Swanson, Humphrey Bogart, Fred MacMurray, William Holden,… The man in question is the legendary Billy Wilder.

Wilder, a man with equal directing and writing talent, leaves behind a body of work that is filled with wit and sophistication. Most of his pictures are textbook examples of craftsmanship. If anything, Billy Wilder should inspire every aspiring and practicing writer (and even directors) to use brains and heart, and thus to give the movies of the future both a shape and a heartbeat, as he did.

His legacy is a vast one, especially in the history of Hollywood censorship. Amongst other things he was responsible for the expansion of the range of acceptable subject matter. He didn’t only create some of the greatest comedies ever made but he has made various classics in the farthest possible range of genres. Few creators of hilarious comedies as Some like it Hot were equally comfortable with dark and brooding material as Double Indemnity.

Personally Wilder was just as incisive as the dialogue he wrote. He once told an actor “You have Van Gogh’s ear for music”, told Walter Matthau “We’re on the track of something absolutely mediocre” and wooed his wife by telling her, “I’d worship the ground you walk on if only you lived in a better neighbourhood.”

His movies can easily be labeled as original. Wilder never shied away from dark and risky subject matter. He dared to push the limits of the subject matter that was available to screenwriters then. Plot and dialogue were the most important part of this film. He wanted to tell a story about real people in everyday situations no matter who they were. His sharp dialogue became legendary and an inspiration for many generations after him. He mainly used a classical plot build up but filled it with his infamous wit and cynicism. He didn’t sugar-coat things which often led to aggravation. As an outsider in Hollywood he was able to take some distance and take a good look at America which ironically made him a Hollywood great. He was a master at intertwining genres without the audience really noticing. It is sometimes hard to label a Wilder film seeing as he was a master at morphing them all together as is the case real life.

If you want to see a well-written and well-made movie, look no further Billy Wilder is the man!