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- “I have a fan base that’s super, super loyal.” — Lance Kerwin
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- Happy Birthday, Ralph Macchio, or: How one episode of Eight is Enough saved my life
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- From the archives (March 16, 2005): Silhouette, Parts 1 and 2
- “If the thing is there, why, there it is.” Happy Birthday, Walker Evans
- “I’ve had the kind of fame which I felt was just the right amount.” — Lois Smith
- Nov 12-15: AFI Silver Classic Film Weekend
- From the archives (February 29, 2008): Patrick Stewart as Macbeth
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- sheila on Off Campus, episode 3: Two truths. Hence, ergo, therefore.
- ReadingandWatching on Off Campus, episode 5: You actually can choose your family
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- ReadingandWatching on Off Campus, episode 5: You actually can choose your family
- ReadingandWatching on Off Campus, episode 5: You actually can choose your family
- sheila on Off Campus, episode 5: You actually can choose your family
- sheila on Off Campus, episode 5: You actually can choose your family
- sheila on Off Campus, episode 5: You actually can choose your family
- sheila on Off Campus, episode 5: You actually can choose your family
- ReadingandWatching on Off Campus, episode 5: You actually can choose your family
- ReadingandWatching on Off Campus, episode 5: You actually can choose your family
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- sheila on “If the thing is there, why, there it is.” Happy Birthday, Walker Evans
- sheila on Off Campus, episode 5: You actually can choose your family
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- ReadingandWatching on “If the thing is there, why, there it is.” Happy Birthday, Walker Evans
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Tag Archives: Conversations with Wilder
Billy Wilder In a Restaurant
Excerpt from Conversations with Wilder: Across the restaurant, a man waves insistently at Wilder. Cameron Crowe: Is that a friend of yours? Billy Wilder: No. I don’t have friends that have shirts like that.
Billy Wilder on The Best Film He Has Ever Seen
Excerpt from Conversations with Wilder: “Which is the best picture I have ever seen? My answer always is Battleship Potemkin by Eisenstein.”
Posted in Directors
Tagged Billy Wilder, Conversations with Wilder, Sergei Eisenstein
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Billy Wilder on Previews
Excerpt from Conversations with Wilder: I’ll tell you my best story, which has something to do with previews. We were previewing Ninotchka, and Lubitsch took the writers along too, in Long Beach. And they are outside in the lobby there, … Continue reading
Billy Wilder on Symbolism
Excerpt from Conversations with Wilder: If you do a picture like George Stevens — he did that very famous picture A Place in the Sun. Now, there is a district attorney in that picture who limps. I talked to somebody … Continue reading
Posted in Directors
Tagged A Place in the Sun, Billy Wilder, Conversations with Wilder, George Stevens
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Billy Wilder on Lubitsch
Excerpt from Conversations with Wilder: [Lubitsch] realized that if you say two and two, the audience does not have to be told it’s four. The audience will find it themselves; let the audience find the joke. There was always an … Continue reading
Billy Wilder on Cary Grant
Excerpt from Conversations with Wilder: I had Cary Grant in mind for 4 of my pictures. He was a friend of mine, and I liked him enormously, and he liked me. But he was apprehensive, he did not want to … Continue reading
Posted in Directors
Tagged Billy Wilder, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Conversations with Wilder, Gary Cooper
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Billy Wilder: On Jack Lemmon
Excerpt from Conversations with Wilder: [Lemmon’s] first day on a sound stage, with George Cukor directing, he’s all revved up. He rattles down half a page of dialogue, rararaaumphrara, and then there’s “Cut” and he looks at Cukor. Cukor comes … Continue reading
Posted in Directors
Tagged Billy Wilder, Conversations with Wilder, George Cukor, Jack Lemmon
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Conversations with Wilder, Cameron Crowe
A great interview with him about film noir. One of my favorite books, at least in the realm of the art of film-making, is Cameron Crowe’s wonderful book Conversations with Wilder. Wilder was always famously honest, if even a little … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Directors
Tagged Billy Wilder, Conversations with Wilder, Double Indemnity, Fred MacMurray
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Recommended Reading: Theatre/Film
(See my Recommended Fiction here, and my Recommended Non-Fiction here. These are not static lists. I already want to go into these two and add stuff, take stuff away. But so be it.) Theatre/film a huge genre, obviously, and there … Continue reading

