Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder (June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an Austrian-born director, screenwriter and producer who is regarded as one of the most excellent filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age. Today he is best known for his comedies, although he also directed dramas and film noirs. Wilder is one of only five people who have won Academy Awards as producer, director, and writer for the same film (The Apartment). Wilder's career began in Germany, where he worked as a writer for comedy films from 1930. After the Nazis seized power in 1933, he emigrated to the United States, where he continued to write screenplays, including Ernst Lubitsch's Ninotchka (1939) and Howard Hawks' Ball of Fire (1941). From the early 1940s, Wilder was allowed to film his own screenplays and thus made a name for himself as a director. Initially, his greatest successes included predominantly dramatic film noirs such as Double Indemnity (1944), The Lost Weekend (1945), Sunset Boulevard (1950) and Ace in the Hole (1951). It was only then that he increasingly turned to comedy, including Stalag 17 (1953), Sabrina (1954) and The Seven Year Itch (1955), although he made a small detour to courtroom drama with Witness for the Prosecution (1957). With Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Apartment (1960) he made his most famous and probably most successful comedy films, the latter even receiving five Oscars. In One, Two, Three (1961), Wilder dealt with the conditions of the time in his former adopted country, Germany, and made the successful romantic comedy Irma la Douce (1963). In the two decades that followed, Wilder made seven more films, which were less well received by critics and audiences, although the German-French drama Fedora (1978) is viewed somewhat more favorably today by predominantly pretentious film experts. Some time later, Wilder was under discussion as director for Schindler's List, which he had wanted as the end of his long career, but ultimately had to turn it down due to his advanced age.
Billy Wilder: Nobody's Perfect
(Self (archive footage))
Portrait of a '60% Perfect Man': Billy Wilder
(Self)
The Legacy of 'Some Like It Hot'
(Self (archive footage))
The Making of 'Some Like It Hot'
(Self (archive footage))
Hollywood's Second World War
(Self (archive footage))
Billy, How Did You Do It?
(Self)
Night Will Fall
(Self (archive footage))
Audrey
(Self - Filmmaker (voice) (archive footage))
Klaus Kinski: I'm not an actor
(Self (archive footage))
Audrey Hepburn: Remembered
(Self)
Fred MacMurray: The Guy Next Door
(Self)
Helmut by June
(Self (archive footage))
Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy
(Self)
Billy Wilder Speaks
(Self - Filmmaker)
Cinema's Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood
(Self (archive footage))
Never Be Boring: Billy Wilder
(Self (archive footage))
Jack Lemmon: America's Everyman
(Self)
And the Oscar Goes To...
(Self (archive footage))
The Exiles
(Self)
Directed by William Wyler
(Self)
Walter Matthau: Diamond in the Rough
(Self)
Shadows of Suspense
(Self (archive footage))
Un film et son époque
(Self (archive footage))
The Oscars
(Self)
The Kennedy Center Honors
(Self)
The American Film Institute Salute to ...
(Self)
Spécial cinéma
(Self)
Deutscher Filmpreis
(Self)
Billy, How Did You Do It?
(Self)
Les Rendez-vous du dimanche
(Self)
Cinépanorama
(Self)
Some Like It Hot
(Director)
Some Like It Hot
(Producer)
The Apartment
(Producer)
The Apartment
(Director)
People on Sunday
(Screenplay)
One, Two, Three
(Director)
Double Indemnity
(Director)
One, Two, Three
(Producer)
The Front Page
(Director)
Double Indemnity
(Screenplay)
The Front Page
(Screenplay)
One, Two, Three
(Screenplay)
Sunset Boulevard
(Director)
Sunset Boulevard
(Screenplay)
Stalag 17
(Producer)
Ninotchka
(Screenplay)
The Fortune Cookie
(Director)
The Fortune Cookie
(Producer)
The Fortune Cookie
(Screenplay)
Irma la Douce
(Screenplay)
Irma la Douce
(Producer)
Irma la Douce
(Director)
Emil and the Detectives
(Screenplay)
Emil and the Detectives
(Screenplay)
Emil and the Detectives
(Screenplay)
The Seven Year Itch
(Screenplay)
The Seven Year Itch
(Producer)
The Seven Year Itch
(Director)
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
(Director)
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
(Producer)
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
(Writer)
Witness for the Prosecution
(Screenplay)
Sabrina
(Director)
Sabrina
(Producer)
Sabrina
(Screenplay)
What Women Dream
(Screenplay)
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife
(Screenplay)
Midnight
(Screenplay)
Ace in the Hole
(Producer)
Ace in the Hole
(Director)
Ace in the Hole
(Writer)
Avanti!
(Director)
Avanti!
(Screenplay)
Avanti!
(Producer)
The Lost Weekend
(Screenplay)
Buddy Buddy
(Director)
Ball of Fire
(Original Story)
Ball of Fire
(Screenplay)
Witness for the Prosecution
(Screenplay)
Witness for the Prosecution
(Director)
Five Graves to Cairo
(Screenplay)
Five Graves to Cairo
(Director)
The Emperor Waltz
(Director)
A Foreign Affair
(Director)
A Foreign Affair
(Screenplay)
The Major and the Minor
(Writer)
The Major and the Minor
(Director)
Love in the Afternoon
(Director)
Love in the Afternoon
(Screenplay)
The Spirit of St. Louis
(Director)
The Spirit of St. Louis
(Screenplay)
Bad Seed
(Director)
Kiss Me, Stupid
(Director)
Hold Back the Dawn
(Writer)
Fedora
(Director)
Fedora
(Writer)
Fedora
(Producer)
The Apartment
(Screenplay)
Double Indemnity
(Screenplay)
Rhythm on the River
(Story)
The Man in Search of His Murderer
(Screenplay)
That Certain Age
(Writer)
The Legacy of 'Some Like It Hot'
(Thanks)
The Making of 'Some Like It Hot'
(Thanks)
A Blonde Dream
(Writer)
Arise, My Love
(Screenplay)
The Emperor Waltz
(Writer)
Buddy Buddy
(Writer)
Adorable
(Writer)
One Exciting Adventure
(Story)
Kiss Me, Stupid
(Screenplay)
Kiss Me, Stupid
(Producer)
Stalag 17
(Writer)
Scampolo, ein Kind der Straße
(Writer)
Stalag 17
(Director)
The Lost Weekend
(Director)
Some Like It Hot
(Screenplay)
What a Life
(Screenplay)
Champagne Waltz
(Story)
The Blue from the Sky
(Screenplay)
The fight with the dragon or: The tragedy of the lodger
(Writer)
The Lottery Lover
(Screenplay)
Princess, At Your Orders!
(Writer)
Sabrina
(Original Film Writer)
Her Grace Commands
(Writer)
Sunset Boulevard
(Original Film Writer)
Where Is This Lady?
(Story)
The Bishop's Wife
(Additional Writing)
Once There Was a Waltz
(Writer)
Bad Seed
(Writer)
First Offence
(Original Story)
Music in the Air
(Screenplay)
A Song Is Born
(Story)
Infidelities
(Story)
The Spirit of St. Louis
(Producer)
Der Teufelsreporter
(Writer)
The Wrong Husband
(Writer)
Love in the Afternoon
(Producer)
Madame Wants No Children
(Screenplay)
The Winner
(Writer)
Death Mills
(Editor)
Death Mills
(Director)
Happy Ever After
(Writer)
La Garçonnière
(Original Story)