Journey Down Sunset Boulevard

Journey Down Sunset Boulevard PDF Author: Neil Sinyard
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description

Journey Down Sunset Boulevard

Journey Down Sunset Boulevard PDF Author: Neil Sinyard
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 392

Get Book

Book Description


Close-up on Sunset Boulevard

Close-up on Sunset Boulevard PDF Author: Sam Staggs
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1466830468
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard, a classic film noir and also a damning dissection of the Hollywood dream factory, evokes the glamour and ruin of the stars who subsist on that dream. It's also one long in-joke about the movie industry and those who made it great-and who were, in turn, destroyed by it. One of the most critically admired films of the twentieth century, Sunset Boulevard is also famous as silent star Gloria Swanson's comeback picture. Sam Staggs's Close-Up On Sunset Boulevard tells the story of this extravagant work, from the writing, casting and filming to the disastrous previews that made Paramount consider shelving it. It's about the writing team of Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett-sardonically called "the happiest couple in Hollywood"-and their raucous professional relationship. It's about the art direction and the sets, the costumes, the props, the lights and the cameras, and the personalities who used those tools to create a cinematic work of art. Staggs goes behind the scenes to reveal: William Holden, endlessly attacked by his bitter wife and already drinking too much; Nancy Olson, the cheerful ingenue who had never heard of the great Gloria Swanson; the dark genius Erich von Stroheim; the once famous but long-forgotten "Waxworks"; and of course Swanson herself, who-just like Norma Desmond-had once been "the greatest star of them all." But the story of Sunset Boulevard doesn't end with the movie's success and acclaim at its release in 1950. There's much more, and Staggs layers this stylish book with fascinating detail, following the actors and Wilder into their post-Sunset careers and revealing Gloria Swanson's never-ending struggle to free herself from the clutches of Norma Desmond. Close-Up On Sunset Boulevard also chronicles the making of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical production of Sunset Boulevard and the explosive diva controversies that dogged it. The book ends with a shocking example of Hollywood life imitating Hollywood art. By the last page of this rich narrative, readers will conclude: We are those "wonderful people out there in the dark."

Billy Wilder, American Film Realist

Billy Wilder, American Film Realist PDF Author: Richard Armstrong
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476606536
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
The films of Billy Wilder, from Double Indemnity to Some Like It Hot, are American classics created by a brilliant Austrian in love with his newfound country. This is a re-examination of the key American films of Wilder, often challenging previous readings of his filmmaking style and personality, emphasizing the pop-cultural, film-historical, and sociohistorical content of well known films like Sunset Boulevard and less frequently remembered ones, like The Fortune Cookie. The book interprets Wilder as more than the “cocky little Viennese” or “closet Romantic” stereotypes often attached to him. Here the student will find provocative analysis and the enthusiast will find evocative commentary on one of the most important figures in American film. Photographs add to the text, and a complete filmography and bibliography are also included. Fully indexed.

A Foreign Affair

A Foreign Affair PDF Author: Gerd Gemünden
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 9781845454180
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
With six Academy Awards, Billy Wilder counts as one of the most accomplished filmmakers to work in Hollywood. Yet how American is Billy Wilder, the Jewish emigre from Central Europe? This work projects Wilder as an artist with roots in sensationalist journalism and the world of entertainment as well as with an awareness of literary culture.

On Sunset Boulevard

On Sunset Boulevard PDF Author: Ed Sikov
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1496812670
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 675

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Book Description
On Sunset Boulevard, originally published in 1998, describes the life of acclaimed filmmaker Billy Wilder (1906-2002), director of such classics as Sunset Boulevard, The Lost Weekend, The Seven Year Itch, and Sabrina. This definitive biography takes the reader on a fast-paced journey from Billy Wilder's birth outside of Krakow in 1906 to Vienna, where he grew up, to Berlin, where he moved as a young man while establishing himself as a journalist and screenwriter, and triumphantly to Hollywood, where he became as successful a director as there ever was. Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot, and The Apartment"Wilder's cinematic legacy is unparalleled. Not only did he direct these classics and twenty-one other films, he co-wrote all of his own screenplays. Volatile, cynical, hilarious, and driven, Wilder arrived in Hollywood an all-but-penniless refugee who spoke no English. Ten years later he was calling his own shots, and he stayed on top of the game for the next three decades. Wilder battled with Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, Bing Crosby, and Peter Sellers; kept close friendships with William Holden, Audrey Hepburn, Jack Lemmon, and Walter Matthau; amassed a personal fortune by way of blockbuster films and shrewd investments in art (including Picassos, Klees, and Mir's); and won Oscars--yet Wilder, ever conscious of his thick accent, always felt the sting of being an outsider. On Sunset Boulevard traces the course of a turbulent but fabulous life, both behind the scenes and on the scene, from Viennese cafes and Berlin dance halls in the twenties to the Hollywood soundstages of the forties and the on-location shoots of the fifties and sixties. Crammed with Wilder's own caustic wit, On Sunset Boulevard reels out the story of one of cinema's most brilliant and prolific talents.

Some Like It Wilder

Some Like It Wilder PDF Author: Gene D. Phillips
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813173671
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 493

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Book Description
One of the most accomplished writers and directors of classic Hollywood, Billy Wilder (1906–2002) directed numerous acclaimed films, including Sunset Boulevard (1950), Sabrina (1954), The Seven Year Itch (1955), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), and Some Like It Hot (1959). Featuring Gene D. Phillips's unique, in-depth critical approach, Some Like It Wilder: The Life and Controversial Films of Billy Wilder provides a groundbreaking overview of a filmmaking icon. Wilder began his career as a screenwriter in Berlin but, because of his Jewish heritage, sought refuge in America when Germany came under Nazi control. Making fast connections in Hollywood, Wilder immediately made the jump from screenwriter to director. His classic films Five Graves to Cairo (1943), Double Indemnity (1945), and The Lost Weekend (1945) earned Academy Awards for best picture, director, and screenplay. During the 1960s, Wilder continued to direct and produce controversial comedies, including Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) and The Apartment (1960), which won Oscars for best picture and director. This definitive biography reveals that Wilder was, and remains, one of the most influential directors in filmmaking.

The Golden Age

The Golden Age PDF Author: Chris Murray
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443816477
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 165

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Book Description
This volume investigates the diverse applications and conceptions of the term ‘The Golden Age’. The phrase resonates with the theme of nostalgia, which is popularly understood as a wistful longing for the past, but which also denotes homesickness and the unrecoverability of the past. While the term ‘Golden Age’ typically conjures up idealised visions of the past and gestures forward to utopian visions of future golden ages, the idea of nostalgia is suggestive of a discontented present. The Golden Age and nostalgia are therefore related ideas, but are also partly in conflict with one another, as many nostalgic sentiments are not idealised, and may indeed be dark, ironic or self-aware. There are, of course, many other ways to characterise the relationship between the Golden Age and nostalgia, and the tension between the two can produce myths and romantic idylls, or, in religious terms, images of pre-lapsarian innocence, or dogmas relating to values associated with childhood. The Golden Age is also often used to refer to specific, respected periods of cultural production in all kinds of literature and visual media. Indeed, nearly every period, genre, nation, and cultural form has some kind of mythic, often illusory, Golden Age against which it is defined, and in which nostalgia often plays a part. This collection interrogates the notion of the Golden Age and its connection to feelings of nostalgia from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives, with a strong focus on the relationship between word and image. It will interest scholars working on the subject of the Golden Age/nostalgia, particularly in English literature, film studies, comics studies, history, and the fine arts.

Billy Wilder, Movie-Maker

Billy Wilder, Movie-Maker PDF Author: Karen McNally
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786485205
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
Billy Wilder’s work remains a masterful combination of incisive social commentary, skilled writing and directing, and unashamed entertainment value. One of Hollywood’s foremost émigré filmmakers, Wilder holds a key position in film history via films that represent a complex reflection of his European roots and American cultural influences. This wide-ranging collection of essays by an international group of scholars examines the significance of Wilder’s filmmaking from a variety of original perspectives. Engaging with issues of genre, industry, representation and national culture, the volume provides fresh insights into Wilder’s films and opens up his work to further exploration.

Billy Wilder

Billy Wilder PDF Author: Joseph McBride
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231554117
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 414

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Book Description
The director and cowriter of some of the world's most iconic films—including Double Indemnity, Sunset Blvd., Some Like It Hot, and The Apartment—Billy Wilder earned acclaim as American cinema's greatest social satirist. Though an influential fixture in Hollywood, Wilder always saw himself as an outsider. His worldview was shaped by his background in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and work as a journalist in Berlin during Hitler's rise to power, and his perspective as a Jewish refugee from Nazism lent his films a sense of the peril that could engulf any society. In this critical study, Joseph McBride offers new ways to understand Wilder's work, stretching from his days as a reporter and screenwriter in Europe to his distinguished as well as forgotten films as a Hollywood writer and his celebrated work as a writer-director. In contrast to the widespread view of Wilder as a hardened cynic, McBride reveals him to be a disappointed romantic. Wilder's experiences as an exile led him to mask his sensitivity beneath a veneer of wisecracking that made him a celebrated caustic wit. Amid the satirical barbs and exposure of social hypocrisies, Wilder’s films are marked by intense compassion and a profound understanding of the human condition. Mixing biographical insight with in-depth analysis of films from throughout Wilder's career as a screenwriter and director of comedy and drama, and drawing on McBride's interviews with the director and his collaborators, this book casts new light on the full range of Wilder's rich, complex, and distinctive vision.

Teaching Sound Film

Teaching Sound Film PDF Author: R. J. Cardullo
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9463007261
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 460

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Book Description
Teaching Sound Film: A Reader is a film analysis-and-criticism textbook that contains 35 essays on 35 geographically diverse, historically significant sound films. The countries represented here are France, Italy, England, Belgium, Russia, India, China, Cuba, Germany, Japan, Russia, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Brazil, Taiwan, Austria, Afghanistan, South Korea, Finland, Burkina Faso, Mexico, Iran, Israel, Colombia, and the United States. The directors represented include Jean Renoir, Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Federico Fellini, Woody Allen, Aki Kaurismäki, Ken Loach, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Abbas Kiarostami, Michael Haneke, and Hong Sang-soo. Written with university students (and possibly also advanced high school students) in mind, the essays in Teaching Sound Film: A Reader cover some of the central films treated—and central issues raised—in today’s cinema courses and provide students with practical models to help them improve their own writing and analytical skills. These essays are clear and readable—that is, sophisticated and meaty yet not overly technical or jargon-heavy. This makes them perfect introductions to their respective films as well as important contributions to the field of film studies in general. Moreover, this book’s scholarly apparatus features credits, images, bibliographies for all films discussed, filmographies for all the directors, a list of topics for writing and discussion, a glossary of film terms, and an appendix containing three essays, respectively, on film acting, avant-garde cinema, and theater vs. film.