Billy Wilder: immortal genius

When The Artist won the Academy Award for best movie, Michel Hazanavicius, the director, wanted to thank three people for this success: Billy Wilder, Billy Wilder, Billy Wilder. He had mentioned him before as well, when he was giving his ritual speech for winning as best director. This guy must really like Billy Wilder, mustn’t he?  The fact is that I don’t see who cannot like this absolute master, writer and director, of comedy in all its forms and declinations. Billy Wilder is definitely my favorite artist of the old Hollywood, and I must say that I struggle to find a heir. Active from the 30s to the 80s, with the peak of his career from the late 40s to the 60s, Wilder considered himself a writer more than a director and, in fact, he was more prolific with the screenplays. My favorites are the ones where he was both writer and director, but in his long career he delivered tons of masterpieces, working with the best of the best, always a guarantee of success for his producers and distributors.

Just so that we are all on the same page, I am talking about movies like Some like it hot, Sunset Boulevard, The apartment, Irma la Douce, The seventh year itch... and tens more. I am talking about a series of outstanding movies, made so by many different elements. Of these elements, the ones that, for me, really make the difference, are the following

• The dynamics between a brilliant screenplay and an intelligently executed direction: this is why I say that the best movies are the ones where Wilder is both the director. The thing is that the eye of the camera opens and closes on the story with the perfect rhythm, playing with music and colors to stress the difference in the intensity of the feeling and the situations, in a perfect crescendo towards the peak and ending of the story.
• The couples. Marilyn and Tony, Jack and Shirley, Jack and Walter, Audrey and Humphrey, William and Gloria and so on and so forth. The people on the screen have an unbelievable chemistry that helps in Wilder’s extremely dynamic and fast paced movies. And they are always supported by a few secondary characters that always add to the hilarity of the situations (like the bar attender in Irma la Douce or Jack Lemmon's pursuer in Some like it hot).
• The plot. Wilder’s touch in all his comedies is evident. Some may say that they are all the same, but that someone is close minded. The thing is that there are some typical elements: the unexpected event that makes the already unbalanced and weird situation crumble (like in Kiss me, stupid or The apartment); the falling for the wrong person and the consequent mess (like in Sabrina) , the change of identity (like Irma la Douce and Some like it hot). Even in the noir movies, like the super famous Sunset Boulevard, some of these elements are present, but they are presented in a darkest way, without losing a touch of “sad” funny that is Wilder’s signature.

Wilder’s most famous movie is probably “Some like it hot”(1959), with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe. It is definitely a great movie, but it is not my favorite. My favorite is one of the most criticized ones: “Sabrina” (1954), with William Holden, Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. Here is why I love it. First things first, Audrey is my dead girl crush: she is just lovely in this movie, perfect for the part. I also like the simplicity of the story: it is a Cinderella story, but the cool thing is that Cinderella falls for the prince’s big brother this time, to her and everyone’s (more or less) surprise. Some of the character building up the corollary add just that touch of ridiculous which makes some scenes hilarious: in the first place, Larabee senior and his pursuit for the Martini green olive. The music and the settings give to everything that sense of lightness that help building the fairytale atmosphere. And, last but not least, the out of comfort zone performance of Humphrey Bogart. One of the main critics I read about this movie is that Bogart is out of place in a comedy role. I say that that is exactly the point and that Wilder’s brilliancy is evident in this movie for the very reason that he made Bogart’s “out-of-placeness” an asset. Yes, he has the same faces as when shooting people in the Maltese Falcon or looking for gold in the Treasure of Sierra Madre. However, that is what makes the whole thing brilliant and different and funny and extraordinary.

If you have never watched a Wilder’s movie, do it now. If you have, do it again. You are going to find how Hazanavicius is not the only one that tries to follow his example, but a myth is not imitable.