Excerpt from Conversations with Wilder
I always tell myself that I will do a picture that is interesting character-wise, not just something atmospheric. The atmosphere, that I photograph. But I am careful to find an original set if I can, an original erection of that set, so that I know where I’m going to put the camera already. I write with the camera, but not too much. The picture succeeds because of the story, the characters, and the actors. I’m not looking for an original camera move that doesn’t go with the story …
[William] Holden was very good. Physically, he was first-class. He was wonderful, for instance, in a picture like Sabrina. He had that scene where he sees Sabrina downstairs on some steps leading into the garden. By this time he knows it’s Sabrina; he’d given her a ride to his own home. Now he sees her down below, in that wonderful white dress that was sort of glowing in the dark. And he says, “Sabrina!” and he jumps over the five steps, over the railing.
Now I, like an idiot, I said, “That’s very good, Bill, but could you drop a little slower.” And he tried, but he could not do it, because he’s got the weight of his own body. But he always had the joke with me: “I know, I know … you want it exactly like this, but a little slower.”
