Tag Archives: Billy Wilder

Talking 1953 movies with Jason Bailey and Mike Hull: A Very Good Year podcast

My pal Jason Bailey and his pal Mike Hull host a fascinating podcast called A Very Good Year, which they describe as: “Each week we invite a guest (filmmakers and actors, critics and historians, comedians and musicians) who loves movies, … Continue reading

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June 2023 Viewing Diary

Succession (2018-2023) I finally watched, having somehow resisted the DEAFENING buzz over the last couple of years. I like Jeremy Strong, liked his small moment in Zero Dark Thirty, he totally stood out in The Big Short (directed by one … Continue reading

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“You don’t want to see ‘plots’. You want to see stories develop.” — Billy Wilder

Billy and Audrey Wilder It’s his birthday today. I love him for his humor, his cynical pessimistic view of human beings – which, honestly, just feels realistic, his versatility with material (noirs, melodramas, war movies, comedies). Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17, … Continue reading

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“I’m not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful.” – Happy Birthday, Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe: People had a habit of looking at me as if I were some kind of mirror instead of a person. They didn’t see me, they saw their own lewd thoughts, then they white-masked themselves by calling me the … Continue reading

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“I don’t really know why, but danger has always been an important thing in my life – to see how far I could lean without falling, how fast I could go without cracking up.” — William Holden

It’s his birthday today. In a career of famous roles in famous films, I think his best – and perhaps most characterstic and essence-driven – of his roles is Sgt. J.J. Sefton in Stalag 17. Sefton has not just a … Continue reading

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2021 Books Read

I lived at three addresses this year. I moved twice. In the middle of a pandemic. It’s been a year of upheaval, transition, as well as endurance. For most of this year, the majority of my stuff was in storage. … Continue reading

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Podcast: The Last Thing I Saw: Focus on Billy Wilder

It was so much fun appearing on Nicolas Rapold’s “The Last Thing I Saw” to discuss Billy Wilder. The other guests were Farran Smith Nehme (a good friend of mine), and Steven Mears. The inspiration to discuss Billy Wilder was … Continue reading

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July 2021 Viewing Diary

Sally, Mary and Irene (1925; d. Edmund Goulding) For some reason, I forgot to include this gem in my June viewing diary. Considered lost forever, it is one of Joan Crawford’s earliest films – and one where she is actually … Continue reading

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Mirrors #8

Tom Ewell, in Seven Year Itch, checking himself out. Casually at first and then … it turns. Mirror moments. I always notice them.

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Mirrors #6

I continue to trip over examples in film of men looking at themselves in the mirror. I get so excited! I wrote a whole lengthy essay about it for Oscilloscope Laboratories – and people who have been reading me for … Continue reading

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