Billy Wilder On Movie-Length

Posted on September 2, 2004 by sheila

Excerpt from Conversations with Wilder:

I don’t like pictures where you can take half an hour out and it’s only better.

This entry was posted in Directors and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Billy Wilder On Movie-Length

  1. DBW says:
    September 2, 2004 at 2:41 pm

    That comment has the accuracy of an Exacto knife. It is a little like buying a CD because you heard a great song, and when you listen to the CD, the rest of it is so horrible that the song you liked originally is ruined by the junk around it.

  2. red says:
    September 2, 2004 at 2:44 pm

    Shirley Maclaine tells a story about Billy Wilder directing a scene in The Apartment.

    She and Jack Lemmon go through the scene.

    Billy Wilder said, “That’s very good. That’s very good. Now do it again, only take 13 and a half seconds out of it.”

    heh heh

    He would hold a stopwatch. He knew the golden rule of comedy: faster is funnier.

    Brilliant. The guy had a brilliant ear for timing.

Comments are closed.