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List Price: $24.95 | | Label: Kino Video
Salesrank: 56123
Released: October 17, 2006 |
| Our Price: $15.41 |
| Used Price: $16.67 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Was Billy Wilder Hollywood's greatest raconteur? There are many who answer in the affirmative, and Wilder was renowned for being one of the wittiest men of his era. Many of his choice anecdotes are on display in Billy Wilder Speaks, a freewheeling session originally filmed for German television. Volker Schlondorff, an accomplished filmmaker himself, sat down with Wilder in the latter's Hollywood office for a series of (seemingly offhand) interviews, during which the two pros switch from English to German with fluid ease. Wilder tells of the famous actors he worked with and befriended, such as Marlene Dietrich, William Holden, and Jack Lemmon, and he touches on the enigma that was Marilyn Monroe, with whom he worked in The Seven Year Itch and Some Like It Hot. The stories will be familiar to longtime Wilder fans, although Schlondorff does well in drawing Wilder out about his experiences for the U.S. military during and after World War II, when Wilder was involved in obtaining footage of the concentration camps. He also tells a scathing story about his bitter reaction when a studio executive suggested changing the nationality of a villainous character in Stalag 17 from German to Polish, in order to make the film more palatable in the profitable market of early-1950s Germany.
The documentary itself is 71 minutes, but there's another 70 minutes of footage, with Schlondorff introducing various clips. Oddly enough, the effect of all this is lightweight rather than substantive; this is more like an after-dinner chat than an in-depth seminar. Newcomers to Wilder's personality will probably enjoy it, while Wilder fans may be disappointed. An extensive collection of trailers for Wilder movies is included. --Robert Horton
Billy Wilder Speaks Reviews:
An informal conversation turns into a great interview 
2009-07-10 - The maker of this documentary and director Billy Wilder originally intended what was filmed here to just be a dry run of what would be the later actual interview portion of a documentary on Wilder's career. The two sit down in Wilder's crowded office and Wilder just starts talking about the various aspects of his long career. The one stipulation that Wilder made was that this footage not be released in his lifetime. Wilder and the interviewer go back and forth between German and English - depending upon what language best expresses the points they wish to make - with helpful subtitles for those of us who speak English when either speaks German.
Wilder says some things that don't surprise me - for example that Jack Lemmon was the definition of a professional. Wilder would not have used him so much and Lemmon would not have been such a great performer had that not been the case. However, Wilder's insights into Marilyn Monroe were new to me. He said while making "Some Like it Hot" that sometimes they would spend all day trying to get one take in which Marilyn had just one line, to the point where he wanted to pin the line to the wall so she could just read it. Other days she would come in and have pages of dialogue memorized. He also had some interesting things to say about making films on the Holocaust immediately after the war and the impact they had on German audiences at the time.
At any rate, this dry run turned out to be so good that it became the actual interview. I highly recommend it to people who are interested in Billy Wilder's career, since it is almost entirely Billy Wilder talking about the projects he worked on, his philosophies of filmmaking, and the people with which he worked. It's a fascinating documentary.
An amazing subject, but the wrong interviewer. 
2009-06-28 - Billy Wilder Speaks (Volker Schlöndorff and Gisela Grischow, 2006)
How can you possibly pass up a documentary about Billy Wilder, especially when he's telling stories? The man spent fifty years working in the German and American film industries, with the most powerful people in film. This could have been ten times as long and I doubt Wilder would have scratched the tip of the reservoir of anecdotes he's stored up. (Of course, as Wilder died in 2002, there is no more for him to say.) But man, if you're going to make a documentary of this stature, shouldn't you find yourself a documentary filmmaker? I weep to imagine what Errol Morris would have done with this footage. Volker Schlöndorff, best known in this country for the butchery job that was the film adaptation of The Tin Drum, spent two weeks talking with Wilder. And that's the key here; the director was talking. I prefer the Morris style, where the "interviewer" just sits there and let the subject hang him- or herself. With Wilder, who knows what stories would have come out? While we get some great material (Wilder's Marilyn Monroe anecdote? Classic!), there could have been so much more. And now we'll never know. ** ½
Billy, we miss you.
2008-09-07 - There was/is no greater film director than Billy Wilder. This DVD appears to be a cut down version of a three part TV documentary interview. Still, it is a "must have" for any film fan or anyone interested in cinema. Billy Wilder was simply the best.Bloody Ham
My husband just loved it.
2008-08-06 - My husband is studying German and Billy Wilder goes from English to German during the interview.
I also found it to be very entertaining.
Rare interview with raw filmaking
2008-05-19 - It's a priviledge to watch a master speak. The option to keep the filming simple as closeups with movie clips is a little too simple. Also the decision to provide Enlgish subtitles only to the german spoken segments is confusing.
