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Title: Conversations with Wilder by Cameron Crowe ISBN: 0-375-70967-3 Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Pub. Date: 04 September, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.52 (23 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Wilder for the ages....
Comment: Billy Wilder has given us some of the greatest films ever made, and there has been remarkably little attempt (or success) in achieving an insight into what drives him, how he works, what he loves and what he regrets. Give thanks, then, that Cameron Crowe has stood up for all us Wilder fans and given us this book which only a fan could write and which everyone can learn from.
To be clear, this book is not like the Hitchcock/Truffaut book of interviews it is oft compared to. In that book, Truffaut went through each and every film with Hitch. That book is as much about how the movies were made as about the man who made them. "Conversations With Wilder" is just that. It's transcribed interviews and conversations, where the topic can run from the last line of "The Apartment" to how Wilder escaped from Nazi-era Germany.
Fans of classic movies should not be without this book. Even if you've never seen a Wilder film in your life (and if you haven't, then you're missing out on the movies which shaped modern filmmaking), this book is filled with on-set pictures, stories about stars ranging the gamut from William Holden to Claudette Colbert, and, best of all, interplay between the old guard and the new guard. Crowe handles the conversations deftly, and keeps them from dropping down to the level of a sycophantic fan.
Simply, this is one of the best portraits of a director ever put to paper. And if you've never seen classics like 'The Apartment' or 'Some Like It Hot' or 'Ace in the Hole,' after reading this you won't be able to stop yourself from clearing the shelves of Billy Wilder films. Celebrate genius, buy this book.
Rating: 5
Summary: Crowe gets to the heart of Wilder
Comment: Cameron Crowe, a filmmaker in his own right (Jerry McGwire, Say Anything), interviews the legendary Billy Wilder. It's obvious pretty early on that Crowe is a student of Wilder's work. He knows about the most obscure movies and remembers the anecdotes he's read from the many Wilder biographies. Wilder answers everything with humor and grace. His memory is exceptional as he recalls details such as Bogart spitting when he talked in SABRINA, Joe DiMaggio's reaction to the SEVEN YEAR ITCH, and the disasterous 1st preview of SUNSET BOULEVARD (The audience laughed at the original beginning). Besides the interview Crowe also recounts his efforts to convince Wilder to take a small but important role in JERRY MCGWIRE. Wilder feigned interest, but ultimately declined the offer. I also liked that Crowe got Wilder's take on Marylin Monroe's "suicide." Later though, you wonder if that opinion had more to do with his love of John F. Kennedy than his own independent analysis. Either way, you leave the book wishing that Wilder had been making pictures these past 20 years.
Rating: 5
Summary: Part of the bible
Comment: In the tradition of Hitchcock/Truffaut, a young master of the craft interviews an old one. One difference from the earlier book, Wilder's productive career was over, so covered entirely if not exhaustively by this book. After a slow start, a little too much of how Crow got to do this, the book jumps into an anecdotal, charming and literate discussion of Wilder's movies, Wilder's career and Hollywood movie-making. If you have any interest at all in these areas, this is a must read book.
If you are interested in screenwriting this isn't a must read book, this is part of the bible.
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Title: HITCHCOCK (REVISED EDITION) by Helen G. Scott, Francois Truffaut ISBN: 0671604295 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 September, 1985 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder: A Personal Biography by Charlotte Chandler ISBN: 0743217098 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 22 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: On Sunset Boulevard : The Life and Times of Billy Wilder by Ed Sikov, Ed Sikov ISBN: 0786885033 Publisher: Hyperion Pub. Date: 17 November, 1999 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Billy Wilder: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers (Paperbacks)) by Robert Horton, Billy Wilder ISBN: 1578064449 Publisher: University Press of Mississippi Pub. Date: 01 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Sunset Boulevard by Billy Wilder ISBN: 0520218558 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1999 List Price(USD): $11.70 |
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