Customer Reviews

On Sunset Boulevard: The Life And Times Of Billy Wilder

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I decided to read this, because I just read the New York Times Rewview of Ed Sikov's new book about Peter Sellers.
The part of the book I enjoyed the most was from the beginning to World War II. The later in his life it got, the denser and more academic it became. Mr. Sikov teaches film and it got more like a textbook.
The end of the book, I have to agree with the reviewer from Vienna. It was more a book for film students. The beginning in Europe was a great look through a certain person into another time. Make Billy Wilder fictional and you have a great historical fiction piece.

This is a very good biography of Billy Wilder. It revealed a lot about him and his career I didn't know. I disagreed with Sikov on his evaluations of a few films (I like "Love in the Afternoon" much better than he, but Sikov really seems to hate Gary Cooper) but we agreed on a lot. (Heck, we even liked the same scenes in "Fedora.")

I gave the book five stars, but I have a few reservations. My problems came when Sikov went beyond Wilder's career -- or didn't. His descriptions of politics in Interwar Europe struck me as okay, but superficial. Okay, this book will be nobody's first choice to learn about such matters, but a little more polish here would have helped. Then, toward the end of the book, Sikov keeps mentioning that Wilder was out of step with Hollywood. However, there is really nothing about what the rest of Hollywood was doing, namely how Wilder stacked up against Mel Brooks or Woody Allen in this era. I would have liked to have seen that issue addressed.

However, as a "life" of Wilder and not a study of his "times", this is a great book. Fans of Wilder's films will greatly enjoy it.

This bio of Billy Wilder is a totally fascinating one, filled with both world and cinematic history. Billy Wilder, a Polish Jew, proves to be a man of unique intuition and fast thinking as he rises from the ranks of stringer journalist to screenwriter in pre-World War II Europe, escapes the Nazis, gets a U.S. resident visa and, without speaking English, is hired to write for the movies. The author beautifully captures the ambiance of pre-war Europe and a Hollywood filled with emigres. Ultimately, the book left me sad, as Wilder ages, his friends die one by one, and he is unable to keep up with the times in terms of the types of properties to which he's attracted, how Hollywood works, and what the public wants. However, there is no denying his fantastic track record, his six Oscars, and the amazing legacy of brilliance he left behind. The rollercoaster ride of Wilder's life is well chronicled in this very satisfying, thought-provoking book.

Last week marked the passing of a true Hollywood heavyweight, a man who excelled as a writer, director, and producer, who left his mark in just about every film genre, except the Western - the one and only Billy Wilder.

Wilder's death at the age of 95 will no doubt bring renewed interest in his long and varied career. It is an irony that would have brought a wry smile to Wilder, and undoubtedly one of his biting remarks. Nevertheless, if you are looking for a comprehensive study of the life and art of Billy Wilder, you should look no further than Ed Sikov's brilliant "On Sunset Boulevard."

Sure, if you're looking for an extended interview with Billy Wilder himself, there's that other book ... but like the more famous, or rather infamous Hitchcock/Truffaut sessions that inspired it ... it can only be one sided.

Ed Sikov doesn't merely tell you to take Billy Wilder at his word. He conducted original interviews with scores of Wilder's colleagues and friends, dug through production archives, scripts, notes, and film footage to assemble not only a fascinating study of a filmmaking genius, but the conclusive portrait of the man behind that genius.

Sikov's analyses of Wilder's films are fresh and exciting, and his prose leaps off the page. You know instantly that Sikov knows his stuff, and that it's a subject close to his heart.

This is a good biography, and essential reading for any Billy Wilder enthusiast. It provides as much detailed information as any reader could hope for. However, as much as detail is the book's strength, it is also a weakness. In researching Wilder's life, Sikov naturally found many conflicting versions specific incidents. And rather than choosing the versions that seemed most valid in order to string together the most logical, readable, entertaining narrative of the subject's life (which is, after all, the biographer's role), Sikov chose instead to give the reader all versions, explaining every contradiction. The result is that the book reads more like a very long, very well researched graduate thesis than a proper biography. This is frustrating, as it tends to slow down the book. Wilder, as a master storyteller, would have hated this kind of academic posturing, but students and professors should get a lot from the book.

I attended one of Mr Sikov's lectures in a New York City bookstore where The Lost Weekend(1946) was screened. I was impressed by his knowledge of Billy Wilder, although the lecture was oriented into another way. I am a fan of Wilder's movies myself, and this is a rich book written by someone really prepared for it.

Billy Wilder is one of my favorite directors, but his films almost don't compare to his colorful life, and the author has captured Wilder's character in all its Technicolor glory. Wilder is a great storyteller on the screen, but he's been equally adept at spinning yarns about his life. Sikov separates fact from fiction in an entertaining read that does nothing to diminish Wilder's stature and puts the director's legendary wit out there for all to enjoy.

This bio is very well-written and reads like a novel, as other reviews agree, and I would add that it is even better than most novels. Often one wonders whether a story in the book has really occurred and that helps to develop the fiction aspect of the book. At first I thought that a bio with more than 600 pages would be boring, but it turned out to be very engaging and informative about the golden age of Hollywood and one of the smartest and sophisticated directors ever. Although this bio has so much infomation, the author has such a fluid writing style and such a story-telling ability that makes it very interesting and entertaining. While reading this book my attention span never sagged and it made me keep reading for a longer period at a time. English being my third language, I really appreciated Mr. Sikov's wide range of vocabulary and slang that seemed to fit perfectly into his varied style of sentence construction.

I agree with Mr. Sikov that screenplay writing is a vital part of a consumate and well rounded director, which other celebrated directors, such as Hitchcock, Ford, and Spielberg lacked. For this reason I consider that the two best directors of all times are Billy Wilder and Akira Kurosawa, who besides being great visual and cinematic artists, they had more input and control of their movies by also writing the scripts. Billy Wilder's use of cynicism, sarcasm and curse words in his movies, when allowed, and in his life never came across as vulgar and lewd, but rather as an effective and witty punch line or criticism about the human condition.

Sikov chronicles the life of Billy Wilder quite well. I especially like his chapter per film approach. There is an awful lot of behind the scenes stuff from even the more obscure movies. I couldn't believe how much was written about the Emporer Waltz and Fedora. If you like Wilder, give it a read.

Let`s be very careful here: this is less a biography than a very well researched filmography. The title gives promise of "Life and times of..." but is thin on life and thin on time. But, frankly, if the title is inapropriate, this long filmography and analysis is worth it. Maybe I`ll try Zolotow for a real biography...