Go Into The Story

Sign in Subscribe

Conversations With Billy Wilder

Excerpts from the excellent book “Conversations With Wilder,” a series of interviews Cameron Crowe conducted with Billy Wilder.

Scott Myers

04 Oct 2021 • 1 min read

Excerpts from the excellent book “Conversations With Wilder,” a series of interviews Cameron Crowe conducted with Billy Wilder.

Part 1: The Cockroach Anecdote

Part 2: George Cukor’s advice to Jack Lemmon

Part 3: The derivation of “Shut up and deal,” the last line of The Apartment

Part 4: The Lubitsch Touch

Part 5: “To entertain and not to repeat myself and to make as few mistakes as possible”

Part 6: Ninotchka and the hat subplot

Part 7: Great anecdote about the seduction scene in Some Like It Hot

Part 8: His working relationship with writing partner I.A.L. “Izzy” Diamond

Part 9: How the Dr. Dreyfuss character in The Apartment came into existence

Part 10: A broken mirror in The Apartment exemplifies visual storytelling

Part 11: Writing comedy

Part 12: Comedic timing

Part 13: Raymond Chandler, great lines and the importance of structure

Part 14: Story and character

Part 15: Voice-Over Narration

Part 16: Romantic comedies, leading men and small stories

Part 17: Getting it down in the script before directing it

Part 18: Visual poetry

Part 19: How he switched Protagonists in a story concept and came up with The Apartment

Part 20: How he took a good concept from a bad movie and made Some Like It Hot

Part 21: The intentionality behind the frantic pace of One, Two, Three

Part 22: Wilder’s advice on screenwriting

Part 23: The impact of crafting story structure with the audience in mind

Part 24: On the powerful final shot of Ace in the Hole

Part 25: On cross-dressing in Tootsie and Some Like It Hot

Part 26: The alternate ending for Double Indemnity

Part 27: The time Wilder told MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer to “Go fuck yourself”

Part 28: The key to writing exposition — “Make the medicine go down easy”

Comment Archive