Billy Wilder

Fernando Trueba, director of Belle Époque:
The most complete and profound study of Billy Wilder to date, one in which the work and the life illuminate each other, and two worlds that seemed separate are joined and complemented with unsuspecting coherence. A book that brings us closer to Wilder, humanizing and explaining him like no other.

James Naremore, author of More Than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts:
A superb study of Billy Wilder and an ideal companion to McBride’s recent How Did Lubitsch Do It? This book is rich with information about the Viennese/Weimar culture that helped shape Wilder and wonderfully attentive to his artistry. It’s the best critical account of a great filmmaker, showing exactly how he did it.

Molly Haskell, film critic and author:
With his walk-on-the-dark-side comedies and refusal to sentimentalize, Wilder’s reputation has only grown with time, and this magisterial critical study does full justice to his complex talent. McBride draws stunning connections between the life and the art, and his discussion of Wilder’s treatment of women is especially fresh and persuasive. Both massive and entertaining, this is a must-read for Wilder fans.

Jonathan Lethem, author of The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfictions, Etc.:
Only Joseph McBride could have given us Billy Wilder in such fullness, as he’s done previously with Lubitsch, Ford, and other masters. The breadth of research is staggering, yet it is always placed at the service of McBride’s free ruminative style, unbound by dutiful chronological study—instead, we have a sensibility, and a conversation. By placing the production histories and legacies of collaboration into the widest possible historical frame, McBride reanimates Wilder’s life and art, returning us to the masterpieces to see them with fresh eyes, and hungry to discover the films we’ve missed.