Okay, this is priceless. A French documentary dude somehow managed to cajole Billy Wilder into agreeing to an interview. Not just one sitting. In this 2+ minute excerpt, we see Wilder at his Malibu retreat, Wilder at his office with I.A.L. “Izzy” Diamond doing a little schtick for the camera, even get to see the great writer-director flying a kite. Just for the record, here is a complete list of movies that Wilder and Diamond collaborated on:
Love in the Afternoon (1957)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
The Apartment (1960)
One, Two, Three (1961)
Irma la Douce (1963)
Kiss Me Stupid (1964)
The Fortune Cookie (1966)
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
Avanti! (1972)
The Front Page (1974)
Fedora (1978)
Buddy, Buddy (1981)
That’s 12 movies, 7 in a 10-year span, including two absolutely great movies — Some Like It Hot and The Apartment. Incredible. And with this video, you get to catch a rare glimpse of the duo together.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVSTBBxw4_k]
That’s crazy, Billy Wilder flying a box kite. I bet he also built it!
That’s a “standing interview”; maybe he spent so much time sitting that the mere act standing/walking freely had to be some kind of liberation to him.
He also seems to love waving that stick around like he’s some orchestra director.
M.