What Would Billy Wilder Do?

0:00 In the annals of filmmaking, we have great writers...

0:04 great directors...

0:05 And then there are the great writer/directors No offense to the present,

0:09 but directors tend to be boring.

0:11 But Billy Wilder, because apparently he was a lot of fun.

0:15 Billy Wilder, it wasn’t like he kind of figured stuff out as he was going along.

0:19 No, this is like one of the greats.

0:21 Would you welcome, please, then Mr.

0:24 Billy Wilder.

0:25 From 1942 to 1981, Billy Wilder co-wrote and directed 25 feature films

0:30 and he is now considered one of the giants of the classical Hollywood era.

0:33 The Apartment, Billy Wilder& IAL Diamond.

0:36 And that's why I say when you got the audience by the throat, don't let it go.

0:39 Just squeeze more and harder and get them in the gut

0:42 and stamp on them because they are such bastards.

0:46 But how did he gain this reputation?

0:48 What did he do as a writer?

0:50 And what did he do as a director?

0:52 In other words...

0:56 When we talk about Billy Wilder, it's first and foremost as a writer.

1:00 But interestingly, all of his scripts were co-written.

1:03 Because to him, the process was fundamentally collaborative.

1:06 –Why do we have to put anything?

1:07 Just put three dots after it.

1:08 –Actors can't read dots.

1:10 And one of the stellar qualities of these screenplays is their clarity.

1:14 At every moment, we the audience know...

1:16 What do these characters want?

1:19 What do they say?

1:20 –Another gin vermouth, please.

1:22 What actions do they take?

1:25 And what happens as a result?

1:27 –Alright, let's have it.

1:29 –Of course.

1:30 –Somebody call a cop.

1:32 They have the added benefit of being very funny.

1:40 (Spike Lee) For me, one of the great things I learned...

1:41 ...from studying his films was that, that no

1:44 matter how dark the subject matter is, that you can still put humor in.

1:48 We can hear this most clearly in the dialogue.

1:51 The characters do not mean what they say and they do not say what they mean.

1:55 –Don't you sometimes hate yourself?

1:57 –Constantly.

1:57 Actually, there's a term for that The use

1:59 of words expressing something other than their literal intention.

2:04 Now that is irony.

2:07 Specifically, verbal irony.

2:09 In Wilder's films, the characters often hide their true feelings.

2:12 And this is great because it gives the actors something to play with...

2:15 If I ever run into any you bums on a street corner...

2:18 just let's pretend we never met before.

2:20 ...and the audience something to pick up on.

2:24 However, according to Wilder, writing the dialogue was the easy part.

2:28 For every 500 great dialogue writers, there are five great constructionists.

2:35 That's the toughest job in the world.

2:37 When constructing scenes, the writers liked to use dramatic irony.

2:41 That's when the audience knows more information...

2:44 –They need a couple of girls in sax and bass.

2:46 ...than the characters.

2:48 –It just so happens he is looking for a bass and a sax.

2:53 The purpose of dramatic irony is to create suspense for us.

2:56 We want to see if these characters find out...

2:59 –Look Sig, we want to talk to you.

3:00 –What is it?

3:01 –It’s about the Florida job?

3:02 –The Florida job?!?!

3:03 how they find out...

3:04 –You've got to be under 25.

3:06 –We could pass for that.

3:06 –You’ve got to be blond.

3:07 –We could dye our hair.

3:08 –And you got to be girls.

3:09 –We could...

3:10 –No, we couldn't.

3:11 ...and what happens as a result.

3:17 Which brings us to the third aspect of Billy Wilder's writing.

3:20 (Spike Lee) I've always liked films where people

3:22 have to make these moral or ethical choices.

3:25 What am I going to do?

3:27 –Yes I killed him.

3:29 I killed him for money...

3:31 ...and for a woman.

3:32 (Spike Lee) And then not only that, but when you see...

3:35 ...the ramifications of that choice.

3:37 Especially when it’s the wrong choice.

3:40 –I didn't get the money and...

3:42 I didn't get the woman.

3:43 This is situational irony.

3:46 It's when a character makes choices that lead to an unexpected...

3:49 ...and yet, inevitable conclusion.

3:52 For example, Norma Desmond is an actress

3:54 who desperately wants to be back on camera.

3:56 –I just want to work again.

3:58 You don't know what it means to know that you want me.

4:00 And she deludes herself into thinking Hollywood wants her back.

4:03 –The audience left 20 years ago, now face it.

4:05 –That's a lie!

4:06 They still want me!

4:07 But when someone shatters that illusion In the end,

4:13 Norma finally gets her wish...

4:14 –Lights –Cameras –Action ...as the news cameras film her arrest.

4:21 –I just want to tell you all how happy I am...

4:23 ...to be back in the studio making a picture again.

4:26 You don't know how much I've missed all of you.

4:29 What made Wilder's scripts great was how they were

4:31 able to weave all these types of ironies together,

4:34 while maintaining a strong emotional core.

4:37 –Happens all the time.

4:39 Wife and kids go away to the country,

4:40 and the boss has a fling with the secretary,

4:43 or the manicurist or the elevator girl.

4:45 It is a kind of a mixture.

4:47 Writing a movie is a mixture of architecture.

4:50 –The boss goes back to the wife and the girl...

4:56 They don’t make these shrimp like they used to.

4:59 ...and forgive me, the pompous word, poetry.

5:02 But that's what Billy Wilder did as a writer.

5:04 What did he do as a director?

5:07 I was once asked, is it necessary for a director to know how to write?

5:12 It is not necessary for a director to know how to write.

5:17 However...

5:17 ...it helps if he knows how to read.

5:20 Directing is an act of interpretation.

5:23 And Wilder had a credo.

5:24 If the script was simple, you could direct it however stylishly you wanted.

5:28 But if the screenplay was complex, then you should direct it simply.

5:32 I despise doing fancy schmancy shots.

5:35 I cannot stand it.

5:37 Boy, I'm going to shoot through the fireplace with the flames in the foreground.

5:41 I don't do that because I think that...

5:42 ...this is from the point of view of Santa Claus.

5:44 Even though he was famous for his dialogue,

5:47 Billy Wilder insisted that his films should work as images first.

5:50 And the story should be told, according to Billy Wilder...

5:54 ...in the classical shots of the silent movies.

5:57 You use a wide shot when you need it.

5:59 You use a close up when you need it.

6:02 Second, he put the camera where the subtext was,

6:05 which allowed the audience to follow the emotions of the scene...

6:08 –Oh it’s you, Sabrina.

6:09 –Hello, David.

6:10 –I thought I heard somebody.

6:13 and not just the literal meaning.

6:15 Consider another sequence from Double Indemnity.

6:17 Walter and Phyllis are conspiring to kill her husband.

6:20 But in order to do that...

6:21 –I knew he wouldn't buy, but all I wanted –was his signature on an application.

6:25 –So I had to get him to sign without his knowing what he was signing.

6:28 Wilder could have cut to a close up

6:30 of the signature because of its importance to the plot.

6:33 –Where do I sign?

6:33 –The bottom line.

6:34 But instead, he put the camera here.

6:37 Because to him, the real story was

6:39 what the signature meant to these two characters.

6:43 Third, Billy Wilder used as few camera setups as possible.

6:47 Here's a short scene from Sabrina.

6:49 –Dear Father or Cher Papa, as we say over here.

6:53 Isn't my French...

6:54 This scene is about all the minor characters keeping tabs on her love life.

6:58 And Wilder shoots it in a single unbroken take so

7:01 that we can see the actors playing off each other.

7:03 –I almost flunked my hollandaise.

7:05 It kept separating on me.

7:07 –Too much vinegar.

7:09 Did she mention David?

7:11 Now, here's the same scene in the 1995 remake.

7:14 –She's fine.

7:16 She hasn't adjusted completely, but...

7:18 –She's miserable., I knew it.

7:20 –I told you not to send her.

7:21 –Mr.

7:22 Tom...

7:22 There's a cut on almost every line of dialogue.

7:25 Even though the scene is the same length

7:27 and has the same number of characters, it has one,

7:30 two, three, four, five, six, seven different camera setups,

7:34 and it doesn't need most of them.

7:36 I try to accomplish as much as possible with one setup.

7:40 I design the shot in such a way that I can eat up two,

7:43 three, four pages of dialogue, but not just a static camera.

7:47 No it has movement in it.

7:49 –I don't think of David very much anymore.

7:52 –That's good.

7:53 –Except at night –That's bad.

7:55 I love to shoot elegantly and I pride myself that...

7:58 it's not kind of whacked together by a dilettante.

8:01 And last, Billy Wilder trusted the audience to put two and two together.

8:05 This is something he learned from his favorite director, Ernst Lubitsch.

8:09 Here's a classic Lubitsch setup...

8:11 –What's that?

8:12 –It's a hat, comrade.

8:14 A woman's hat.

8:15 –How can such a civilization survive, which permits their women to...

8:18 ...put things like that on their heads?

8:19 ...and this is the payoff.

8:30 Lubitsch never gives the audience a second close up of the hat.

8:34 He trusts that they'll understand what it means without him underlining it.

8:38 Now, here's Wilder's version of the same idea.

8:41 –Oh I have a present for you.

8:43 How do you make sure that they understand what you want to tell them?

8:48 Here's $100.

8:48 You go and buy yourself something huh?

8:51 How do you direct their eyes to that thing?

8:54 How do you make them remember?

8:57 –There's nothing here but a $100 bill.

8:59 –That's right.

9:00 Will you see that Mr.

9:02 Sheldrake gets it?

9:03 The subtler you are, the more elegantly you do it...

9:05 ...the better a director you are.

9:07 So what did Billy Wilder do?

9:09 –I mean, this is England.

9:10 You don't get arrested or convicted for something you haven't done.

9:13 –We try not to make a habit of it.

9:16 He wrote complex scripts,

9:17 woven together with layers of irony and witty dialogue,

9:20 and then found a way to translate those ideas into simple and elegant images.

9:25 He understood how the jobs of writer and director complement each other.

9:29 And through all of his biggest successes...

9:31 Once you get them into a mood of...

9:34 Hey, this is funny.

9:35 and hardest flops...

9:36 And there are other times you just work very hard,

9:38 you sweat under the arms, and Christ, you wish you were dead.

9:41 he was always able to find the humor of it all.

9:44 It's not a profession for a dignified human being.