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.
