A WALK ON THE WILDER SIDE – 3 sublime titles from Maestro writer/director Billy Wilder, each £7
THE LOST WEEKEND, 29 Aug; SUNSET BOULEVARD, 9 Sept; DOUBLE INDEMNITY, 23 Sept
Part of the Scala Beyond Festival – www.scalabeyond.com
Think: Double Indemnity, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Irma la Douce, The Apartment, Some Like It Hot, The Seven Year Itch, Sabrina, Stalag 17, Ace in the Hole, Sunset Boulevard, The Lost Weekend, Double Indemnity, Ball of Fire, Ninotchka. And that’s just a few favourites of ours… We rest our case!
“It shrinks my liver, doesn’t it, Nat? It pickles my kidneys, yes. But what does it do to my mind? It tosses the sandbags overboard so the balloon can soar. Suddenly, I’m above the ordinary. I’m competent, supremely competent. I’m walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls. I’m one of the great ones.” Wilder said he made this film in part to “explain Raymond Chandler to himself”, after they worked together on Double Indemnity. Chandler was a recovering alcoholic at the time, and the stress and tumultuous relationship with Wilder during the collaboration caused him to go back to drinking.
Billy Wilder discusses his life and films in interviews filmed by Volker Schlondorff over two weeks in 1988 – Billy Wilder Speaks, a veritable film-making master class!
