Billy Wilder

by Glenn Hopp

This biography of director Billy Wilder (""Sunset Boulevard, Some Like it Hot"") contains movie posters, a bibliography and a complete filmography.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Biography, Media Tie In

192 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2001

Reviews

[Suvi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Material for Bachelor's thesis

Turned out to be useful for my research for about two sentences. But hey, it's Billy Wilder so didn't mind reading the whole thing, would have borrowed this from the library at some point anyway. Besides, I got an idea for my Master's thesis so not a waste of time in that sense either.

Hopp understandably spends more time in the more well known (and better) films, but it would have been great to have at least some insight on the others too, especially Avanti!. It's still worth the read for even the fantastic photos alone.

[Ulf Kastner · Rating 4 out of 5]

The production stills outweigh the writing by about 3:1, yet I found it to be a good read for a coffee table paperback. As someone who adores Wilder's writing and directing accomplishments I burned through this book in the matter of a plane trip from New York back home, all the while giving myself plenty of time to study the photographs. Now I have a short list of Wilder films to check out at my local video rental, including such critical and apparent box office misses as `Kiss Me, Stupid' (1964) starring Dean Martin, Kim Novak and Ray Walston.

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than the one in the same series about Truffaut.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brief word about Billy Wilder's life and then a rundown and rating of his work.
Good to be reminded about films not seen for a very long time.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Provides a nice overview of Wilder's films along with plenty of photographs.