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Billy Wilder Memorial Tribute
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The memorial tribute "Billy Wilder: A Celebration of His Life," held at the Academy Theater May 1, felt much like a Billy Wilder movie. Top stars delivered witty dialogue and brought forth lots of laughter — sprinkled throughout with what Wilder himself would have called "honest sentiment."
Billy Wilder, who co-wrote and directed The Apartment, Some Like It Hot, Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity, died on March 27 at the age of 95. On this night at the Academy, there seemed not to be enough superlatives in the English language to do justice to his influence or to the high regard in which his friends held him. Every speaker offered illuminating, insightful, and moving testimony to this great filmmaker's life and career. What emerged was a vivid portrait of an artist, craftsman, raconteur, art collector and first-class party-giver — a man of sharp wit, keen intellect, elegance, imagination and worldliness.
Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., introduced the event with the words, "This is a celebration," and pointed out that the evening represented, for the first time ever, an auspicious joining together of the DGA, WGA and the Academy, "all of whom were a part of Billy's life" and all of whom pooled resources to co-sponsor the tribute.
Kevin Spacey said, "While we refer to his films as masterpieces, to him they were just pictures. He stood for a lack of pretension." To illustrate that point, Spacey then offered, in his best Billy Wilder accent, what the man himself might have said about the evening's proceedings: "I'm very honored, but I'm very relieved I don't have to attend myself."
Wilder "understood that laughter and tears are, at most, just a broken heartbeat away from one another," Larry Gelbart said, who then went on to share some lessons he had learned from Wilder over the years, including: "Remember what worked before; then forget it. Throw away any rules that you don't write yourself. If an audience has the intelligence to buy a ticket to your work, return that intelligence with the very best of your own."
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Director Stanley Donen brought down the house by beginning, "To be like Billy at Billy's memorial was to be seriously funny, to be mordantly witty, a gifted, brilliant, unique, short German Jew. And I was only a short Jew." Donen also recalled a story Wilder's wife, Audrey, had told him years ago, which typified his razor-sharp wit. "She and Billy were having breakfast, and Billy was reading the paper. She said, 'Billy, put the paper down.' He did. She looked him in the eye and said, 'Billy. I love you.' And he said, 'Please — not while I'm eating.'"
Billy Bob Thornton recounted how he met Wilder 20 years ago at a Christmas party at Stanley Donen's house, where Thornton was working as a waiter. Wilder told Thornton that since he was "not ugly enough to be a character actor, and not pretty enough to be a leading man," Thornton should write. "Make your own way, and don't wait for anybody," Wilder told him. "You've got to create — that's the key." The encounter inspired Thornton to write Sling Blade.
Saying he felt "safe and absolutely trusting in [Wilder's] unique presence," Sidney Poitier said, "he had an eye for the truth of the human condition... He symbolized how empowering one's life can become when one's reach constantly exceeds one's grasp."
"Were Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe served better by any other filmmaker?" wondered director Curtis Hanson. He added, "Who but Billy would cover the St. Valentine's Day massacre from the point of view of two musicians who witnessed it and then hid by dressing up as women? That off-center way of looking at things distinguishes each of Billy's movies... We can admire Billy, we can learn from him, but always with the knowledge that we can never see things the way he did, nor do them nearly as well."
Tony Curtis remembered Wilder once asking, "'Tony, I wonder what the pictures of the future are going to be like?' Little did he know he was doing it. They're going to know Billy Wilder movies into perpetuity."
Cameron Crowe, who published his book of interviews Conversations With Wilder three years ago, called Wilder "an inspiration to all writers," and he acknowledged Wilder's collaborators in introducing a montage of Wilder's favorite scenes. Later, Crowe privately added that one of the best pieces of filmmaking advice Wilder had given him was to do enough research on every script so that he could "write from the knowledge of knowing truth. Which he did."
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At a cocktail reception, the reminiscences kept flowing. Paul Mazursky called Wilder "overwhelmingly sharp [and one of] the five directors in the universe I most admire. He was funny as hell." DGA President Martha Coolidge described him as "one of the greats in our business, brilliant and funny."
The most moving part of the evening was the final montage of title cards from each of Wilder's pictures, which ran to the lovely voice of Audrey Wilder singing "Some Things Will Never Change." As the titles of one masterpiece after another flashed onto the huge Academy screen, it seemed as if they would never end. It was an utterly simple yet powerful way of showing at once the scope of Wilder's career, the awe-inspiring legacy he leaves behind, and the loving connection he shared with his wife.
In the end, however, it was Wilder himself who made the most lasting impression at his own memorial tribute. Through still images, recordings, and taped interviews, Billy Wilder was very much alive on this special evening, offering, in his distinctive Austrian accent, the best jokes, advice, and piercing observations:
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- "When I'm making a picture, I never classify it. We get to the preview and if they laugh a lot, I say, 'this is a comedy.'"
- "It is not necessary for a director to know how to write. However, it helps if he knows how to read."
- "No two actors can be treated the same. You have to play 20 different parts. You have to be a sycophant, a sadist, a cook, a philosopher. You have to demean yourself. Sometimes you just have to do it with a whip, and they like you for it. Sometimes you have to beg. But you have to do it."
- "Let the audience add things up, let them do it for you. Don't say, '1 and 1 and 1 and 1 is 4 — do you get it?' Just say, '2 and 2.' It's enough."
–Jeremy Arnold
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