Very well executed

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Billy Wilder was a genius when it came to writing and directing films. There's no doubt about that and listening to him reminisce makes this documentary worth seeing--particularly for film buffs like myself. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to him talking with Volker Schlöndorff ("The Tin Drum"). However, from a technical point of view, the film really sucks as well. Let me explain. There are a could serious problems which could have and should have been dealt with--especially since the film was made by a director about a director. The conversation often lacks a systematic focus. Often, the chronology of what they are talking about is all mixed up and you'd think there'd be some sense of cohesion to the conversation in the film. There isn't...and it is odd. The total effect is like overhearing a couple guys talking but only catching a bit here and there.

Maybe I'm crazy -- entirely possible -- but this seems to me to be identical to "Billy Wilder, wie haben Sie's gemacht?" which is another documentary containing the same interview. I'm not saying it's not edited differently or whatever - I don't know the material that well - but the interview with Wilder seemed the same. He speaks a great deal in German and tells some wonderful stories about Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, Audrey Hepburn, the making of Sunset Boulevard and Sabrina, and the films he made about the concentration camps after the war that were shown in Germany.Wilder was a marvelous raconteur speaking in English or German, and his explanation of why he used "Isn't it Romantic" in so many Paramount films is hilarious, as are his stories of the first showing of Sunset Boulevard and trying to get Monroe to say It's me, Sugar," instead of "Sugar, it's me" in "Some Like it Hot." The stories are unforgettable, which is why I know I already heard them in "Billy Wilder, wie haben Sie's gemacht?" Well worth seeing if you're a fan of Wilder or just a film buff. He was a true genius and a lively personality.

I guess every director, like every human being, has quirks. Ford chewed on a hankie. Hawks spoke in a drawl so slow that it sounded at times like an old-fashioned vinyl 78 record being played at 45 rpm. Hitchcock always wore a dark suit on the set and in his earlier years made sure that the point of one of his collars curled upward.Billy Wilder's criterial attribute was body motion. He's never still. He never WAS still. The guy was in his mid-80s during these half dozen interviews with Schlondorff and he's constantly gesturing, twisting his head around, blinking, scratching his back, fiddling with some object like a pair of eyeglasses. When he was working he stalked around waving a walking stick, a very animated gnome.I'm not sure that anyone who is already familiar with his work will find out much new in these talks. There is the story of Marilyn Monroe unable to remember her single line -- "Where's that bourbon?" -- and Wilder having the line printed in large letters and taped to the walls and furniture. After some sixty takes of the scene, Wilder drew her aside and asked why there was a problem. Monroe: "What problem?" Wilder had other, less spectacular difficulties, with other performers but he holds no grudges and gives them credit for their various virtues. He's not mean about anyone he's worked with. As he tells Schlondorff, his philosophy is that you're not married to someone you happen to be working with. The arrangement lasts only a few months.He's great on anecdotes but seems to have told them so often that he's no longer excited or amused by them. At any rate, he doesn't laugh at them any more. And he tells them in a rushed tempo, sometimes in English, sometimes in German, and sometimes in a macaronic mixture of both, in a voice so studded with hesitations and stuttering that it's sometimes a little difficult to follow him in either language. "So -- so -- I told da -- da -- da sound man to crank up da -- da -- volume -- ent -- ent -- denn zwar lacherlich." He's not especially articulate. His metaphors are grounded in everyday experience. To Wilder, a successful movie should sweep the audience up, hold them in a choke around the neck, and never let them be reminded that they're just watching a movie. God forbid he should ever come up with a hoity-toity expression like "the suspension of disbelief" or "the epoche of the common man." It's an interesting documentary about a fascinating man who suffered a great deal of grief in Europe and who managed to sublimate his bitterness in art.

It's tempting to rate this 10 out of 10 just because one of the two people speaking is Billy Wilder but alas, the other one is Volker Schlondorff so I find myself paraphrasing the well-documented definition of golf as a good walk ruined; substitute talk for walk and you'll see where I'm coming from. For reasons best known to himself Schlondorff, who, like Wilder, is fluent in English, conducts about 40 per cent of the interview in German and lacks the courtesy to provide subtitles thus alienating a good proportion of viewers at a stroke. Wilder, of course, is always good value as a raconteur with right-on-the-money views on film-making, Hollywood, 'guys with beards' and so on. Most Wilder buffs have, of course, heard it all before but you can't have too much of a good thing.