billy wilder
- Thread starter samurai
- Start date
I do remember this one, I used it just the other day:
I have 10 commandments. The first nine are "Thou shalt entertain." The tenth is "Thou shalt retain the right to the final cut."
And this, too.
"Shoot a few films out of focus. I want to win some foreign film awards."
That's all I got.
I have 10 commandments. The first nine are "Thou shalt entertain." The tenth is "Thou shalt retain the right to the final cut."
And this, too.
"Shoot a few films out of focus. I want to win some foreign film awards."
That's all I got.
Wildeer...
Billy Wilder's 10 Commandments:
1. The audience is fickle.
2. Grab ‘em by the throat and never let ‘em go.
3. Develop a clean line of action for your leading character.
4. Know where you’re going.
5. The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.
6. If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.
7. A tip from Lubitsch: Let the audience add up two plus two. They’ll love you forever.
8. In doing voice-overs, be careful not to describe what the audience already sees. Add to what they’re seeing.
9. The event that occurs at the second act curtain triggers the end of the movie.
10. The third act must build, build, build in tempo and action until the last event, and then—that’s it. Don’t hang around.
Although Billy Wilder was a writer-director for the cinema, he was notorious for favoring his text over the image, a quality that differed him from many filmmakers.
The script's structure is so precise that it even includes fade-outs, like the falling of a theatrical curtain, at the end of each act. Nary a single setup is not paid off, and most often in a multi-layered way.
filmy
samurai said:Hi,
Here's something that I would love others to share their views upon:
Billy Wilder once said that all a movie needed was three scenes (of quality) to save the whole thing.
That was a long time ago, but the thing is, does that still hold true?
Take care.
Billy Wilder's 10 Commandments:
1. The audience is fickle.
2. Grab ‘em by the throat and never let ‘em go.
3. Develop a clean line of action for your leading character.
4. Know where you’re going.
5. The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.
6. If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.
7. A tip from Lubitsch: Let the audience add up two plus two. They’ll love you forever.
8. In doing voice-overs, be careful not to describe what the audience already sees. Add to what they’re seeing.
9. The event that occurs at the second act curtain triggers the end of the movie.
10. The third act must build, build, build in tempo and action until the last event, and then—that’s it. Don’t hang around.
Although Billy Wilder was a writer-director for the cinema, he was notorious for favoring his text over the image, a quality that differed him from many filmmakers.
The script's structure is so precise that it even includes fade-outs, like the falling of a theatrical curtain, at the end of each act. Nary a single setup is not paid off, and most often in a multi-layered way.
filmy
An interesting take on his career.Sylvie said:
In the early 1930's (when he was writing) there wasn't much of a "studio standard" yet. And not only were many directors not from America, but most of the Studio owners weren't from America either.
By the early 1940's he was a director who embraced the standard, using star power in "The Major and the Minor", "Double Indemnity" and "The Lost Weekend" to tell interesting stories and standard structure and marketing for "Five Graves to Cairo". Even his first big hit, "Sunset Blvd." follows the standards of the studio while using a hackneyed plot device from the Gold Medal paperbacks - to great effect.
He always thought of himself as a craftsman, not as the artist or auteur that others saw him.
I think he was right about a movie only needing three quality scenes to save the whole thing. Many very popular, successful films have only that.
Hey there, Directorik. My feeling was that very good films do have the three high quality scenes. I also felt that the rule may still be applicable for todays films, so thanks for the thoughts.
I was tempted today to buy a film on dvd today called "land of the free," only because it cost less than a gallon of milk. It had "The Shat" in it...It felt like enough for me, but, I wondered..."Will this film have three high quality scenes"? It doesn't seem THAT hard a piece of work to deliver does it? Three scenes?? Well, it seems like it! I went for the milk.
Can even a half decent b-movie possess just two high quality scenes??
Well, just for the memories alone, I did get a chuck norris film. He did do one or two that were good. This wasn't one of them. It wasn't as good as I remembered, and if you want to see a director with no knowledge of delivering a "comedy" with uncomical actors with zero grasp of comic timing, see "firewalker."
I was tempted today to buy a film on dvd today called "land of the free," only because it cost less than a gallon of milk. It had "The Shat" in it...It felt like enough for me, but, I wondered..."Will this film have three high quality scenes"? It doesn't seem THAT hard a piece of work to deliver does it? Three scenes?? Well, it seems like it! I went for the milk.
Can even a half decent b-movie possess just two high quality scenes??
Well, just for the memories alone, I did get a chuck norris film. He did do one or two that were good. This wasn't one of them. It wasn't as good as I remembered, and if you want to see a director with no knowledge of delivering a "comedy" with uncomical actors with zero grasp of comic timing, see "firewalker."
indietalk said:One of the best!
Sunset Boulevard and The Lost Weekend are my favorites.
Maybe that's why he said:
"They get all excited about the sort of stuff I could get shooting through a piece of kleenex."
Sunset Boulevard is one of my faves of all time too, for so many reasons. One of those films you fall in love with as you are watching it, begging it not to betray you with some terrible ending, but that is one of Wilder's strong suits. Just think about the ending of SB. In fact, think about the 10 commandments as they relate. All are true.
But his comment that you quoted, ""They get all excited about the sort of stuff I could get shooting through a piece of kleenex." must have been tounge in cheek, like "making with the golf sticks", because he accomplished some rather beautiful work in his films.
As for SB following studio standards, true it did, but it certainly dug at Hollywood. Just the nature of the story depicts Hollywood in such a negative light, it must have ruffled more than a few feathers in its time.
The "good scenes" quote that began the thread is similar to
this definition of a good movie:
"A good movie is three good scenes and no bad scenes."
-- Howard Hawks
Here's a great article about reshoots that improved Hawks's "The Big Sleep,"
by following that rule, adding a good scene, deleting some bad ones.
It's one of the rare examples of "good" studio interference.
this definition of a good movie:
"A good movie is three good scenes and no bad scenes."
-- Howard Hawks
Here's a great article about reshoots that improved Hawks's "The Big Sleep,"
by following that rule, adding a good scene, deleting some bad ones.
It's one of the rare examples of "good" studio interference.
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