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1 oeuvres 30 utilisateurs 2 critiques

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Comprend les noms: Kevin Lyman

Œuvres de Kevin Lally

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Date de naissance
20th Century
Sexe
male

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Lally, Kevin. Wilder Times: The Life of Billy Wilder. Holt, 1996.
Wilder Times is probably the standard biography of film writer/director Billy Wilder. Wilder did not authorize the book, but neither did he get in its way. Lally, onetime editor of Film Journal, wrote it at just the right time. By the mid-1990s, Wilder was as retired as he would ever get, and many of the people he had worked with were still alive and available for interviews. Lally was even able to gather some new information about Wilder’s work as a journalist and film writer in prewar Europe. His treatment of Wilder’s work is admiring but not uncritical. He offers clear summaries of Wilder’s films and their critical receptions, and he is quite willing to explain some of their weaknesses as well as strengths. Unless you are somehow allergic to films in black and white, you have probably seen some Wilder films, whether you knew it or not. Wilder was one of the first screenwriters who was able to protect his words by directing his films with final-cut approval. Actors like Marilyn Monroe and Peter Sellers chafed under his insistence that they read lines as Wilder had written them. But he was able to get special performances from actors such as Gloria Swanson (Sunset Boulevard), Marlene Dietrich (Ninotchka), Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart (Sabrina), and Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine (The Apartment). Wilder has always reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock in that he was a careful craftsman, who always knew what he was looking for and who saw story structure as the key to moviemaking. He was not a lonely auteur but a man who worked well with several coauthors, most notably I. A. L. Diamond. In films like Ninotchka and Some Like It Hot one can see the influence of the silent and early talky comedies. Wilder loved disguise and misdirection. He liked broad comedy, but always wanted the gags to have a serious edge to them that revealed character. Lally’s analysis reveals how he made it happen. 5 stars.… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
Tom-e | 1 autre critique | Mar 30, 2022 |
I thought this was a better view of the director than On Sunset Boulevard. It's not that the other book is not a good read, but this one was published a few years before the other, and OSB just repeats many of the anecdotes related in Wilder Times. In fact, the stories are fleshed out in more detail in some cases. But where this book is better is in the insights gained regarding Wilder's intent in how he approached his individual films. And this book is more concise, being 200 pages shorter.
½
 
Signalé
nog | 1 autre critique | Jun 2, 2015 |

Statistiques

Œuvres
1
Membres
30
Popularité
#449,942
Évaluation
3.9
Critiques
2
ISBN
4
Langues
1