The following anecdote reminds me of one of Hamlet’s pieces of advice to the players: “whose end, both at the fist and now, was and is to hold as ’twere the mirror up to nature”. Hold the mirror up to nature.
Excerpt from Conversations with Wilder
I just always think, [in terms of his own films] “Do I like it?” And if I like it, maybe other people will come and like it too. Maybe it’s gonna get some good reviews, maybe they’re gonna come. But I never … I never go with the wave, you know. Now it’s catastrophes, right? They have floods, they have cars, they have buses. Bah. It’s just absolutely — just no dialogue. And some are pretty good. Like, for instance, this thing Die Hard. It was a good picture. I liked that. But I just think, a picture has to have something new. It has to have something that they don’t see every day, but recognize as the truth …
Make it true, make it seem true. And don’t have something, even in a farce like Some Like it Hot that isn’t true.
