Patrick Charsky
12/05/2018
Did you ever wonder how Marilyn Monroe became a star? Or how about William Holden? Or Audrey Hepburn? It was Billy Wilder who gave them their first big breaks. Their first chances at becoming stars in Hollywood. From films like The Seven Year Itch to Sunset Boulevard Wilder was a star maker with an insider’s view of how films got made. How films made stars out of nobodies. Wilder became a big time writer-director in a time when writers didn’t become directors. He was an exception to a rule in a Hollywood dominated by the studio system.
Conversations Wtih Wilder by Cameron Crowe is the tell all Hollywood history that reveals the secrets and inside dish of Billy Wilder’s decades long career in Hollywood. The book shows Wilder’s opinions about everyone he ever worked with. From William Holden and Marilyn Monroe to Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, he knew them well enough to show their flaws. He was the king maker in a town of pawns.
The book is great. I couldn’t put it down for more than a few days. It is a testament of Hollywood history. The films that Wilder made are talked about extensively. As are the actors in his motion pictures. He was behind so many big hits, it’s impossbile to ignore his contributions to the art of motion pictures. The book turned me on to several films I wasn’t aware of before I read the book. The Seven Year Itch, The Lost Weekend, and The Apartment are a few of the films that I caught on to because of this book.
The book is a conversation between Cameron Crowe and Billy Wilder. It takes place over several months. Most of the conversations are recorded at Wilder’s office in Beverly Hills. Crowe and Wilder go back and forth about his illustrious career in motion pictures. Wilder gives all the dish about the stars he worked with as well as how his writing process worked and how he managed to succeed as a director in Hollywood at a time when writers didn’t become directors. The book is entertaining and engrossing. So much detail about the stars and process of filmmaking. It is invaluable to the history of Hollywood in the decades which Wilder worked.
The book has few flaws. A little bit too much into nostalgia about how great things were, but otherwise an entertaining and interesting book about a filmmaker’s career that spanned decades and influenced countless filmmakers. The end is especially important. Wilder recommended that Crowe end with his death as the end of the book. Crowe demurred and included a scene with Wilder doing exercise instead. It was very funny. Very expository about Wilder.
The book is a must read for anyone interested in Hollywood History of the immediate post-war period. Wilder really became popular in the post-war years with his big hits like Lost Weeekend, Sunset Boulevard, and The Seven Year Itch. He faded from popularity, but his life and legend will live on. He was a corporation man who made many films that were just as good as any of his contemporaries. A great book of Hollywood history. It combines anecdote with history to reveal a time in Hollywood that is past but somehow still lives on.
What comes through by reading the book is how great a filmmaker Billy Wilder was. In today’s filmmaking World it seems that everyone is aspiring to be a writer-director. In Wilder’s time it was unheard of that anyone would become a writer-director. He was the first to really accomplish that feat. With his many hits he cannot be denied a place in film history alongside the best of them all. Orson Welles, Howard Hawkes, John Ford were all great in their eras, but Wilder was just as good if not better. He worked in his genres to bring big hits for big stars, but he never gained much from his films. Still he will not be forgotten. Sunset Boulevard lives on as one of the greatest films ever made about Hollywood. And Wilder’s star will shine bright for decades to come.
The book is great. I couldn’t put it down for more than a few days. It is a testament of Hollywood history. The films that Wilder made are talked about extensively. As are the actors in his motion pictures. He was behind so many big hits, it’s impossbile to ignore his contributions to the art of motion pictures. The book turned me on to several films I wasn’t aware of before I read the book. The Seven Year Itch, The Lost Weekend, and The Apartment are a few of the films that I caught on to because of this book.
The book is a conversation between Cameron Crowe and Billy Wilder. It takes place over several months. Most of the conversations are recorded at Wilder’s office in Beverly Hills. Crowe and Wilder go back and forth about his illustrious career in motion pictures. Wilder gives all the dish about the stars he worked with as well as how his writing process worked and how he managed to succeed as a director in Hollywood at a time when writers didn’t become directors. The book is entertaining and engrossing. So much detail about the stars and process of filmmaking. It is invaluable to the history of Hollywood in the decades which Wilder worked.
The book has few flaws. A little bit too much into nostalgia about how great things were, but otherwise an entertaining and interesting book about a filmmaker’s career that spanned decades and influenced countless filmmakers. The end is especially important. Wilder recommended that Crowe end with his death as the end of the book. Crowe demurred and included a scene with Wilder doing exercise instead. It was very funny. Very expository about Wilder.
The book is a must read for anyone interested in Hollywood History of the immediate post-war period. Wilder really became popular in the post-war years with his big hits like Lost Weeekend, Sunset Boulevard, and The Seven Year Itch. He faded from popularity, but his life and legend will live on. He was a corporation man who made many films that were just as good as any of his contemporaries. A great book of Hollywood history. It combines anecdote with history to reveal a time in Hollywood that is past but somehow still lives on.
What comes through by reading the book is how great a filmmaker Billy Wilder was. In today’s filmmaking World it seems that everyone is aspiring to be a writer-director. In Wilder’s time it was unheard of that anyone would become a writer-director. He was the first to really accomplish that feat. With his many hits he cannot be denied a place in film history alongside the best of them all. Orson Welles, Howard Hawkes, John Ford were all great in their eras, but Wilder was just as good if not better. He worked in his genres to bring big hits for big stars, but he never gained much from his films. Still he will not be forgotten. Sunset Boulevard lives on as one of the greatest films ever made about Hollywood. And Wilder’s star will shine bright for decades to come.
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