Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilderwas an Austrian-born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist and journalist, whose career spanned more than fifty years and sixty films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age. With The Apartment, Wilder became the first person to win Academy Awards as producer, director and screenwriter for the same film...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth22 June 1906
CountryUnited States of America
I'm delighted with it, because it used to be that films were the lowest form of art. Now we've got something to look down on.
I hate that word. It's return--a return to the millions of people who've never forgiven me for deserting the screen.
You know, that stuff about pink elephants, that's the bunk. It's little animals. Little tiny turkeys in straw hats. Midget monkeys coming through the keyholes.
The ultimate trick is to convince, persuade. Every single person out there is an idiot, but collectively they're a genius.
I am big. It's the pictures that got small.
I would rather sleep in a bathroom than in another hotel.
Develop a clean line of action for your leading character
I've met a lot of hardboiled eggs in my time, but you're twenty minutes.
Now, what is it which makes a scene interesting? If you see a man coming through a doorway, it means nothing. If you see him coming through a window - that is at once interesting.
Ever notice how these European trains always smell of eau de cologne and hard boiled eggs?
It was a hot afternoon and I can still remember the smell of honeysuckle all along the street. How can I have known that murder can sometimes smell like honeysuckle?
I had one life. And what did I do? Wasted it in some palooka preliminaries in Spain, just before Hitler and Chamberlain warm up for the main event.
I don't go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons.
Money makes even bastards legitimate.