RIP Billy Wilder

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I may have missed this from someone else. Otherwise, I wanted to say that I think he's one of the all-time greatest film-makers. I love Double Indemnity and Sunset Blvd and Some Like It Hot and Ace In The Hole and Stalag 17 and The Apartment - that's a brilliance across a arnge of genres and styles that I think has only ever been matched by Howard Hawks. I think Hawks and Wilder are two of the greatest directors ever, and the fact that their movies aren't subtitled and aren't obviously arty and there wasn't too much in the way of auteur mentality in their work shouldn't lead us to underestimate them.

― Martin Skidmore, Saturday, 30 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I agree 100%. I think they were the two best Hollywood filmmakers. I've only recently started to realize Hawks' genius (especially for Rio Bravo and I Was A Male War Bride, which despite the title is actually quite good) and Wilder was simply stunning. I saw Sunset Blvd for the first time yesterday and was impressed by the creepy, almost Lynch-like atmosphere and Swanson's disturbingly sympathetic performance.

Another overlooked one is John Huston, who made about as many great movies as Kubrick but got dismissed as a Hollywood hack by the French and Andrew Sarris so he's never really gotten his due.

― Justyn Dillingham, Saturday, 30 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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