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76-618: Charles William Brackett (November 26, 1892 – March 9, 1969) was an American screenwriter and film producer. He collaborated with Billy Wilder on sixteen films. Brackett was born in Saratoga Springs, New York , the son of Mary Emma Corliss and New York State Senator, lawyer, and banker Edgar Truman Brackett . The family's roots traced back to the arrival of Richard Brackett in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629. His mother's uncle, George Henry Corliss , built

152-541: A roundhouse was built in the 1880s. Until 1964, the town was called Sucha. The adjective Beskidzka, added in that year, refers to the Beskidy Mountains . In the late Middle Ages , the area of Sucha Beskidzka belonged to Duchy of Oświęcim . In the early years of the 15th century, Prince Jan III of Oświęcim initiated a program of settlement of the sparsely populated forested areas in the Beskids . In 1405,

228-618: A tourist centre for the Beskidy Mountains (part of the Carpathians ). Here several tourist trails begin, which lead into the mountains. First trail was marked in 1906. In the town there are fine examples of old architecture: a Renaissance castle (16th century), named Little Wawel after the royal palace in Kraków (now it serves as a hotel with a restaurant), a church with a cloister (17th century) and an old wooden inn , called Rzym (literally meaning " Rome "; 18th century). In

304-508: A tragic heroine in film melodramas ), and was popularly and critically acclaimed. With the byline "Garbo Laughs!", it also took Garbo's career in a new direction. The film marked Wilder's first Academy Award nomination, which he shared with co-writer Charles Brackett (although their collaboration on Bluebeard's Eighth Wife and Midnight had been well received). Wilder co-wrote many of his films with Brackett from 1938 to 1950. Brackett described their collaboration process: "The thing to do

380-541: A "rambunctious kid"; inspired by Buffalo Bill's Wild West Shows , which she saw while living briefly in New York, she nicknamed him "Billie", which he changed to "Billy" upon moving to America. Wilder's elder brother, W. Lee Wilder , was also a filmmaker. His parents had a successful cake shop in Sucha's train station that flourished into a chain of railroad cafes. Eugenia and Max Wilder did not persuade their son to join

456-406: A central cross-dressing theme. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis played musicians disguised as women to escape pursuit by a Chicago gang. Curtis's character courts a singer (Monroe), while Lemmon is wooed by Joe E. Brown  – setting up the film's final joke in which Lemmon reveals that his character is a man and Brown blandly replies "Well, nobody's perfect". A box office success, the film

532-526: A man named Strzala was allowed to found a settlement, which later took on the name Sucha. Most likely, the Strzala family remained owners of the settlement until the late 15th century, when Sucha was transferred into the hands of the Słupski family. In 1554, Stanisław Słupski sold the village to an Italian-born goldsmith from Kraków , Gaspare Castiglione, who changed his name to Kasper Suski. Castiglione initiated

608-509: A northwards connection with Kraków was added in 1884, after which Sucha became an important rail junction. In 1896 Austrian authorities finally granted town charter to Sucha. In 1895 – 1907, a new church was built, and in 1910, new building of Bank Spółdzielczy. In the Second Polish Republic , Sucha belonged to Kraków Voivodeship , and was part of Żywiec County (later the town was transferred to Wadowice County). In 1922–1939,

684-538: A reclusive silent film actress ( Gloria Swanson ), who dreams of a comeback with delusions of her greatness from a bygone era. She accompanies an aspiring screenwriter ( William Holden ), who becomes her gigolo partner. This critically acclaimed film was the final film Wilder collaborated with Brackett. The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards; together Wilder and Brackett won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay . In 1951, Wilder directed Ace in

760-678: A record until 1997 when Woody Allen received a 13th nomination for Deconstructing Harry . In 2017, Vulture.com named Wilder the greatest screenwriter of all time. He directed fourteen actors in Oscar-nominated performances. Wilder's epitaph, a paraphrase of the last line of Some Like It Hot , is "I'm a writer but then nobody's perfect." Wilder received twenty-one nominations at the Academy Awards , winning six. In total, he received twelve nominations for his screenwriting, eight for his direction, and one for producing. He won both

836-467: A residence. Furthermore, Sucha was a center of early industry, with glass works, watermill, brewery, and iron works. Due to several royal privileges, Sucha emerged as a local trade center; the village prospered under Anna Konstancja Wielopolska, who owned it in 1693 – 1726. The area of Sucha was one of centers of the Bar Confederation , and in 1772 (see Partitions of Poland ), the village, with

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912-766: A screenwriter and producer. His script for Titanic (1953) won him another Academy Award. He received an Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 1958. Brackett died on March 9, 1969. His diaries covering his screenwriting and social life from 1932 to 1949 were edited by Anthony Slide into Slide's book It's the Pictures That Got Small: Charles Brackett on Billy Wilder and Hollywood's Golden Age . Brackett married Elizabeth Barrows Fletcher in 1919. They had two daughters, Alexandra Corliss Brackett and Elizabeth Fletcher Brackett. His wife died in 1948, and in 1953, Charles married Lillian Fletcher, her sister. They had no children. Brackett

988-665: A town in Austria-Hungary at the time of his birth. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Classic Hollywood cinema . He received seven Academy Awards (among 21 nominations), a BAFTA Award , the Cannes Film Festival 's Palme d'Or and two Golden Globe Awards . Wilder became a screenwriter while living in Berlin. The rise of

1064-474: A vote by show of hands. Only John Huston and Wilder opposed. Huston said, "I am sure it was one of the bravest things that Billy, as a naturalized German, had ever done. There were 150 to 200 directors at this meeting, and here Billy and I sat alone with our hands raised in protest against the loyalty oath." Wilder was not affected by the Hollywood blacklist. Of the blacklisted ' Hollywood Ten ' he said, "Of

1140-529: Is Wilder's casting of Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity and The Apartment . MacMurray had become Hollywood's highest-paid actor portraying a decent, thoughtful character in light comedies, melodramas, and musicals; Wilder cast him as a womanizing schemer. Humphrey Bogart shed his tough-guy image to give one of his warmest performances in Sabrina . James Cagney , not usually known for comedy,

1216-490: Is a fast-paced, high-pitched, hard-hitting, lighthearted farce crammed with topical gags and spiced with satirical overtones. Story is so furiously quick-witted that some of its wit gets snarled and smothered in overlap." It was followed by the romantic comedy Irma la Douce (1963) starring Lemmon and MacLaine. The film was the fifth highest-grossing film of the year. Wilder received a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for his screenplay. Wilder then wrote and directed

1292-1005: The AFI Life Achievement Award in 1986, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1990, the National Medal of Arts in 1993 and the BAFTA Fellowship Award in 1995. He also received the Directors Guild of America 's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement and the Producers Guild of America 's Lifetime Achievement Award. Seven of his films are preserved in the United States National Film Registry of

1368-594: The Academy Award for Best Director and the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for both The Lost Weekend (1945) and The Apartment (1960). The former was awarded the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film at the Cannes Film Festival , and the latter also won him the BAFTA Award for Best Film . Wilder garnered eight Directors Guild of America Award nominations, with the sole win for his work on The Apartment . He received seven nominations at

1444-807: The Centennial Engine that powered the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. A 1915 graduate of Williams College , he earned his law degree from Harvard University . He joined the Allied Expeditionary Force during World War I , and was awarded the French Medal of Honor. He was a frequent contributor to the Saturday Evening Post , Collier's , and Vanity Fair , and a drama critic for The New Yorker . He wrote five novels: The Counsel of

1520-737: The Golden Globe Awards , winning Best Director for The Lost Weekend and Sunset Boulevard (1950). He won seven Writers Guild of America Awards including two Laurel Awards for Screenwriting Achievement . He garnered a number of lifetime achievement awards including the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award , the BAFTA Fellowship , the David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures , and

1596-517: The Holocaust . He praised Steven Spielberg's adaptation, Schindler's List . To those who denied the Holocaust , Wilder wrote in a German newspaper, "If the concentration camps and the gas chambers were all imaginary, then please tell me—where is my mother?" Wilder's directorial choices reflected his belief in the primacy of writing. He avoided, especially in the second half of his career,

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1672-434: The Holocaust . For decades it was assumed that it happened at Auschwitz Concentration Camp , but while researching Polish and Israeli archives, his Austrian biographer Andreas Hutter discovered in 2011 that they were murdered in different locations: his mother, Eugenia "Gitla" Siedlisker, in 1943 at Plaszow ; his stepfather, Bernard "Berl" Siedlisker, in 1942 at Belzec ; and his grandmother, Balbina Baldinger, died in 1943 in

1748-704: The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). He co-created the Committee for the First Amendment , of 500 Hollywood personalities and stars to "support those professionals called upon to testify before the HUAC who had classified themselves as hostile with regard to the interrogations and the interrogators". Some anti-Communists wanted those in the cinema industry to take oaths of allegiance. The Screen Directors Guild had

1824-820: The Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". Samuel Wilder ( Yiddish : שמואל װילדער Shmuel Vilder ) was born on June 22, 1906, to a Jewish family in Sucha , a small town in Galicia, present-day Poland, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire . Years later in Hollywood, he would describe it as being "Half an hour from Vienna. By telegraph." His parents were Eugenia ( née Dittler), from Zakopane , and Max Wilder, from Stanislawczyk ; they met in Kraków where Billy spent his early years. His mother described him as

1900-594: The Marx Brothers , he leads the list of films on the American Film Institute 's AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs and he earned the top spot on it with Some Like It Hot . Also on the list are The Apartment and The Seven Year Itch , which he directed, and Ball of Fire and Ninotchka , which he co-wrote. The AFI listed Double Indemnity , Sunset Boulevard , Some Like It Hot and The Apartment on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies . Wilder

1976-549: The Nazi Party and antisemitism in Germany saw him move to Paris. He then moved to Hollywood in 1934, and had a major hit when he, Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch wrote the screenplay for the Academy Award -nominated film Ninotchka (1939). Wilder established his directorial reputation and received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director with the film noir Double Indemnity (1944), based on

2052-687: The Palme d'Or , and four Academy Awards including for Best Picture . Wilder earned the Oscars for Best Director and Best Screenplay and Milland won Best Actor . The film remained to be one of the three films, winning both the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d' Or, alongside Marty and Parasite . In 1950, Wilder co-wrote and directed the cynical noir comedy film Sunset Boulevard . It follows

2128-406: The film noir Double Indemnity , starring Fred MacMurray , Barbara Stanwyck and Edward G. Robinson , was a major hit. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director, Screenplay and Actress; Wilder co-wrote it with Raymond Chandler . The film not only set conventions for the noir genre (such as "venetian blind" lighting and voice-over narration), but is a landmark in

2204-666: The 1930 film People on Sunday . Eschewing the German Expressionist styles of F. W. Murnau and Fritz Lang , People on Sunday was considered as a groundbreaking example of the Neue Sachlichkeit or New Objectivity movement in German cinema. Furthermore, this genre of Strassenfilm ("street film") paved way to the birth of Italian neorealism and the French New Wave . He wrote the screenplay for

2280-906: The 1931 film adaptation of a novel by Erich Kästner , Emil and the Detectives , also screenplays for the comedy The Man in Search of His Murderer (1931), the operetta Her Grace Commands (1931) and the comedy A Blonde Dream (1932), all of them produced in the Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam near Berlin. In 1932 Wilder collaborated with the writer and journalist Felix Salten on the screenplay for "Scampolo". After Adolf Hitler's rise to power , Wilder went to Paris, where he made his directorial debut film Mauvaise Graine (1934). He relocated to Hollywood prior to its release. Wilder's mother, grandmother and stepfather were all victims of

2356-415: The 43rd best movie ever made, and the second-highest-ranking comedy. In 1960, Wilder directed the comedy romance film The Apartment . It follows an insurance clerk (Lemmon), who allows his coworkers to use his apartment to conduct extramarital affairs until he meets an elevator woman ( Shirley MacLaine ). The film was a critical success with The New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther , who called

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2432-507: The Best Actor Academy Award, romantic comedy Sabrina , for which Audrey Hepburn was nominated for Best Actress, and romantic comedy The Seven Year Itch , which features the iconic image of Marilyn Monroe standing on a subway grate as her white dress is blown upwards by a passing train. Wilder was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for the first two films and shared a nomination for Best Screenplay for

2508-523: The Egyptian queen wrapped à la Christo , or splattered à la Jackson Pollock , or sporting a Campbell's soup can in homage to Andy Warhol . Wilder married Judith Coppicus on December 22, 1936. The couple had twins, Victoria and Vincent (born 1939), but Vincent died shortly after birth. They divorced in 1946. Wilder met Audrey Young while filming The Lost Weekend . They were married on June 30, 1949. Wilder died of pneumonia on March 27, 2002. He

2584-956: The Hole (1951), Stalag 17 (1953) and Sabrina (1954). Wilder directed and co-wrote three films in 1957: The Spirit of St. Louis , Love in the Afternoon and Witness for the Prosecution . During this period, Wilder also directed Marilyn Monroe in two films, The Seven Year Itch (1955) and Some Like It Hot (1959). In 1960, Wilder co-wrote, directed and produced the critically acclaimed film The Apartment . It won Wilder Academy Awards for Best Picture , Best Director and Best Original Screenplay . Other notable films Wilder directed include One, Two, Three (1961), Irma la Douce (1963), Kiss Me, Stupid (1964), The Fortune Cookie (1966) and Avanti! (1972). Wilder received various honors for his distinguished career including

2660-494: The Hole (a.k.a. The Big Carnival ) starring Kirk Douglas in a tale of media exploitation of a caving accident. The idea had been pitched over the phone to Wilder's secretary by Victor Desny . Desny sued Wilder for breach of an implied contract in the California copyright case Wilder v Desny , ultimately receiving a settlement of $ 14,350. Although a critical and commercial failure at the time, its reputation has grown over

2736-705: The Honorary Golden Bear from the Berlin International Film Festival . Sucha Beskidzka Sucha Beskidzka lies in a basin, between the hills of the Beskids (Beskid Makowski and Beskid Maly), on the Skawa river. In 2002, Sucha had the area of 27,46 km ., with forests occupying 44%. The town is a rail junction, located along two lines – the 97th from Skawina to Żywiec , and the 98th from Sucha Beskidzka to Chabowka . The rail station PKP Sucha Beskidzka, together with

2812-747: The Prosecution , Elsa Lanchester in Witness for the Prosecution , Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot and The Apartment , Jack Kruschen in The Apartment , Shirley MacLaine in The Apartment and Irma la Douce and Walter Matthau in The Fortune Cookie . Wilder mentored Lemmon, and was the first director to pair him and Matthau in The Fortune Cookie . Wilder and Lemmon worked on seven films. Wilder opposed

2888-495: The Prosecution , featuring Tyrone Power , Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton . Wilder received an Academy Award nomination for Best Director for the last film. In 1959, Wilder reunited with Monroe in the United Artists released Prohibition-era farce film Some Like It Hot . It was released, however, without a Production Code seal of approval, which was withheld due to the film's unabashed sexual comedy, including

2964-893: The Ungodly (1920), Week-End (1925), That Last Infirmity (1926), American Colony (1929), and Entirely Surrounded (1934). Brackett was a president of the Screen Writers Guild (1938–1939) and for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (1949–1955). He either wrote and/or produced over forty films, including To Each His Own , Ninotchka , The Major and the Minor , The Mating Season (1951), Niagara , The King and I , Ten North Frederick , The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker and Blue Denim . Beginning in August 1936, Brackett worked with Billy Wilder, writing

3040-723: The battle against Hollywood censorship. Based on James M. Cain 's novel, it featured two love triangles and a murder plotted for insurance money. While the book was popular with the reading public, it had been considered unfilmable under the Hays Code because adultery was central to the plot. In 1945, the Psychological Warfare Department of the United States Department of War produced an American documentary film directed by Wilder. The film known as Death Mills , or Die Todesmühlen ,

3116-737: The castle belonged to the Tarnowski family . In 1939, population of the town was 6,200. On September 3, 1939 (see Invasion of Poland ), Sucha was captured by the Wehrmacht . In late 1939, the town was annexed by the Third Reich , and was located near the border with the General Government . Jews, of whom there were about 500 in the town, were immediately put to work as forced laborers. Many Poles were dispossessed of their homes to make room for ethnic Germans who arrived in town from

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3192-439: The characters seriously, or at least as seriously as the material allowed, and got a lot of the laughs by playing scenes straight." For Stalag 17 , Wilder squeezed an Oscar-winning performance out of a reluctant William Holden (Holden had wanted to make his character more likable; Wilder refused). At a casting meeting, Wilder reportedly said, "I'm tired of clichéd typecasting—the same people in every film." An example of this

3268-666: The construction of the Sucha Castle. In the early 17th century Sucha belonged to the Komorowski family. The village remained in private hands until 1939, as the so-called "Sucha State" ( panstwo suskie ). Among its owners were the Wielopolski family, the Branicki family , and the Tarnowski family . In the 1610s, Piotr Komorowski funded here a parish church, and vastly expanded the castle of Kasper Suski, turning it into

3344-407: The day after and told him: "Fernando, it's God." French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius thanked Billy Wilder in the 2012 Best Picture Oscar acceptance speech for The Artist : "I would like to thank the following three people, I would like to thank Billy Wilder, I would like to thank Billy Wilder, and I would like to thank Billy Wilder." Wilder's 12 Academy Award nominations for screenwriting were

3420-444: The early '90s, Wilder had amassed many plastic-artistic constructions, many of which were made in collaboration with artist Bruce Houston. In 1993, art dealer Louis Stern , a longtime friend, helped organize an exhibition of Wilder's work at his Beverly Hills gallery. The exhibition was titled Billy Wilder's Marché aux Puces and the Variations on the Theme of Queen Nefertete segment was notably popular. This series featured busts of

3496-405: The east. In June 1942, more than 200 Jews were rounded up and sent to Auschwitz , where most of them were murdered. The remaining 300 Jews were forced into a ghetto in an old brewery. Many worked as forced laborers to improve flood control along the Skawa River. In May 1943, about half the remaining Jews were sent to Auschwitz where most were murdered. The rest were sent to labor camps. After

3572-460: The exuberant cinematography of Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles because, in Wilder's opinion, shots that called attention to themselves would distract the audience from the story. Wilder's films have tight plotting and memorable dialogue. Despite his conservative directorial style, his subject matter often pushed the boundaries of mainstream entertainment. Once a subject was chosen, he would begin to visualize in terms of specific artists. His belief

3648-425: The family business. Max moved to Kraków to manage a hotel before moving to Vienna and dying when Billy was 22 years old. After the family moved to Vienna, Wilder became a journalist instead of attending the University of Vienna . In 1926, jazz band leader Paul Whiteman was on tour in Vienna where he was interviewed by Wilder. Whiteman liked young Wilder enough that he took him with the band to Berlin , where Wilder

3724-426: The film "gleeful, tender, and even sentimental" and Wilder's direction "ingenious". The film received ten Academy Awards nominations and won five awards, including three for Wilder: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. Wilder directed the Cold War political farce film One, Two, Three (1961), starring James Cagney , which won critical praise with Variety writing, "Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three

3800-455: The film "pitifully unfunny". Wilder gained his final Academy Award nomination and a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for the screenplay of The Fortune Cookie . It was the first film pairing Jack Lemmon with Walter Matthau . (The film was titled Meet Whiplash Willie in the United Kingdom.) In 1970, he directed The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes , which was intended as a major roadshow theatrical release , but to Wilder's dismay

3876-505: The film classics The Lost Weekend and Sunset Boulevard , both of which won Academy Awards for their respective screenplays. Brackett described their collaboration process as follows: "The thing to do was suggest an idea, have it torn apart and despised. In a few days it would be apt to turn up, slightly changed, as Wilder's idea. Once I got adjusted to that way of working, our lives were simpler." His partnership with Wilder ended in 1950 and Brackett went to work at 20th Century-Fox as

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3952-508: The ghetto in Nowy Targ . After arriving in Hollywood in 1934, Wilder continued working as a screenwriter. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1939, having spent time in Mexico waiting for the government after his six-month card expired in 1934, an episode reflected in his 1941 Hold Back the Dawn . Wilder's first significant success was Ninotchka , a collaboration with fellow German immigrant Ernst Lubitsch . The romantic comedy starred Greta Garbo (generally known as

4028-479: The lexicon of moviegoing" and that Some Like It Hot is a "national treasure." Roger Ebert asked, "Of all the great directors of Hollywood's golden age, has anybody made more films that are as fresh and entertaining to this day as Billy Wilder's?...And who else can field three contenders among the greatest closing lines of all time?", citing the closing lines of Sunset Boulevard , Some Like it Hot , and The Apartment . Ron Shelton recalls encountering Wilder: I

4104-401: The mid-80s, "It's a sickness. I don't know how to stop myself. Call it bulimia if you want – or curiosity or passion. I have some Impressionists , some Picassos from every period, some mobiles by Calder . I also collect tiny Japanese trees, glass paperweights, and Chinese vases. Name an object and I collect it." Wilder's artistic ambitions led him to create a series of works of his own. By

4180-450: The name " Franco ". Wilder received the American Film Institute (AFI) Life Achievement Award in 1986. He received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1988, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1990 and the National Medal of Arts in 1993. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame . Wilder became well known for owning one of the finest and most extensive art collections in Hollywood, mainly collecting modern art. As he described it in

4256-447: The novel by James M. Cain with a screenplay by Wilder and Raymond Chandler . Wilder won the Best Director and Best Screenplay Academy Awards for The Lost Weekend (1945), which also won the Academy Award for Best Picture . In the 1950s, Wilder directed and co-wrote a string of critically acclaimed films, including the Hollywood drama Sunset Boulevard (1950), for which he won his second screenplay Academy Award; Ace in

4332-406: The population of 3,000, became part of Austrian-Hungarian province of Galicia . In the 1840s, Sucha was purchased by the Branicki family, Korczak coat of arms , which opened a large library together with a museum in the Sucha Castle. The village already had ironworks, which operated until the 1880s. In the same period, Sucha received a rail station, along the Galician Transversal Railway . Here,

4408-743: The second. He was interested in doing a film with one of the classic slapstick comedy acts of the Hollywood Golden Age. He first considered, and rejected, a project to star Laurel and Hardy . He held discussions with Groucho Marx concerning a new Marx Brothers comedy, tentatively titled A Day at the U.N . The project was abandoned after Chico Marx died in 1961. In 1957, three films Wilder directed were released: biopic The Spirit of St. Louis , starring James Stewart as Charles Lindbergh , romantic comedy Love In The Afternoon —Wilder's first screenplay with I. A. L. Diamond , who would become his regular partner—featuring Gary Cooper , Maurice Chevalier and Audrey Hepburn, and courtroom drama Witness for

4484-411: The sex comedy film Kiss Me, Stupid starring Dean Martin , Kim Novak , and Ray Walston , who was a last minute replacement for ailing Peter Sellers . The film was criticized by some critics for vulgarity, with Bosley Crowther blaming the film for giving American movies the reputation of "deliberate and degenerate corruptors of public taste and morals". A. H. Weiler of the New York Times called

4560-400: The ten, two had talent, and the rest were just unfriendly." In general, Wilder disliked formula and genre films. Wilder reveled in poking fun at those who took politics too seriously. In Ball of Fire , his burlesque queen 'Sugarpuss' points at her sore throat and complains "Pink? It's as red as the Daily Worker and just as sore." Later, she gives the overbearing and unsmiling housemaid

4636-423: The war, the government of People's Republic of Poland again attached Sucha to Kraków Voivodeship. New districts with blocks of flats were built, new factories were opened. In 1956, for the first time in history, Sucha became the seat of a county, and in 1975, the town became part of Bielsko-Biała Voivodeship . In 1983, the new hospital was completed. Since the beginning of the 20th century Sucha Beskidzka has been

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4712-411: The years. The following year, Wilder announced plans to direct and produce a film version of the Sophocles tragedy Oedipus Rex , adapted for the screen by Walter Reisch . They planned to shoot the film on location in Greece in Technicolor , but it never went into production. Subsequently, Wilder directed three adaptations of Broadway plays, war drama Stalag 17 , for which William Holden won

4788-424: Was a Republican who voted for Alf Landon in 1936 and supported Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election . ("*" indicates collaboration with Wilder) Billy Wilder Billy Wilder ( / ˈ w aɪ l d ər / ; German: [ˈvɪldɐ] ; born Samuel Wilder ; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an American filmmaker and screenwriter. He was born in Sucha Beskidzka , Poland,

4864-435: Was a significant financial success with low budget. His final films, Fedora and Buddy Buddy , failed to impress critics or the public, although Fedora has since been re-evaluated and is now considered favorably. Wilder had hoped to make Thomas Keneally 's Schindler's Ark as his final film, saying "I wanted to do it as a kind of memorial to my mother and my grandmother and my stepfather," who had all been murdered in

4940-474: Was able to make more connections in entertainment. Before achieving success as a writer, he was a taxi dancer in Berlin. After writing crime and sports stories as a stringer for local newspapers, he was eventually offered a regular job at a Berlin tabloid . Developing an interest in film, he began working as a screenwriter. From 1929 to 1933 he produced twelve German films. He collaborated with several other novices ( Fred Zinnemann and Robert Siodmak ) on

5016-530: Was buried at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary . A French newspaper, Le Monde , titled the front-page obituary: "Billy Wilder is dead. Nobody is perfect", a reference to the last line of Some Like It Hot . "Don't be boring". — Billy Wilder Wilder holds a significant place in the history of Hollywood censorship for expanding the range of acceptable subject matter. He directed two of film noir 's definitive films, Double Indemnity and Sunset Boulevard . Along with Woody Allen and

5092-411: Was heavily cut by the studio. He directed the comedy film Avanti! , which follows a businessman (Lemmon) attempting to retrieve the body of his deceased father from Italy. Wilder received two Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Director and Best Screenplay , and a Writers Guild of America Award nomination. Wilder directed The Front Page based on the Broadway play of the same name. It

5168-604: Was in a restaurant about six months after Bull Durham came out. And a man came over and said "Somebody would like to see you." And I looked over and it was Billy Wilder. And I went over and he said, "Great fuckin' picture, kid!" And I thought that was as good a review as you could have." When Belle Époque won the 1993 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Spanish filmmaker Fernando Trueba said in his acceptance speech: "I would like to believe in God in order to thank him. But I just believe in Billy Wilder... so thank you, Mr. Wilder." According to Trueba, Wilder called him

5244-413: Was intended for German audiences to educate them about the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime. For the German version, Die Todesmühlen , Hanuš Burger is credited as the writer and director, while Wilder supervised the editing. Wilder is credited with the English-language version. Two years later, Wilder adapted from Charles R. Jackson 's novel The Lost Weekend into a film of the same name . It

5320-420: Was lightly regarded by film critics during its original release, although it did receive six Academy Award nominations, including for Best Director and Best Screenplay. But its critical reputation grew prodigiously; in 2000, the American Film Institute selected it as the best American comedy ever made. In 2012, the British Film Institute decennial Sight and Sound poll of the world's film critics rated it as

5396-551: Was memorable in a high-octane comic role for Wilder's One, Two, Three . Wilder coaxed a very effective performance out of Monroe in Some Like It Hot . In total, he directed fourteen different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity , Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend , William Holden in Sunset Boulevard and Stalag 17 , Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim and Nancy Olson in Sunset Boulevard , Robert Strauss in Stalag 17 , Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina , Charles Laughton in Witness for

5472-419: Was ranked 6th in director's poll on Sight & Sound 's 2002 list of The Greatest Directors of All Time . In 1996, Entertainment Weekly ranked Wilder at No. 24 in its "50 Greatest Directors" list. Wilder was ranked at No. 19 on Empire 's "Top 40 Greatest Directors of All-Time" list in 2005. In 2007, Total Film magazine ranked Wilder at No. 13 on its "100 Greatest Film Directors Ever" list. Wilder

5548-465: Was suggest an idea, have it torn apart and despised. In a few days it would be apt to turn up, slightly changed, as Wilder's idea. Once I got adjusted to that way of working, our lives were simpler." "Wilder followed Ninotchka with a series of box office hits in 1942, including Hold Back the Dawn , Ball of Fire , and his directorial debut film The Major and the Minor . His third film as director,

5624-507: Was that no matter how talented the actor, none were without limitations and the result would be better if you bent the script to their personality rather than force a performance beyond their limitations. Wilder was skilled at working with actors, coaxing silent era legends Gloria Swanson and Erich von Stroheim out of retirement for roles in Sunset Boulevard . Regarding Wilder's more comedic films, Roger Ebert wrote: "he took

5700-520: Was the first major American film with a serious examination of alcoholism, another difficult theme under the Production Code . It follows an alcoholic writer ( Ray Milland ) opposing the protestations of his girlfriend ( Jane Wyman ). The film earned critical acclaim after it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and competed in the main competition, where it received the Festival's top prize,

5776-420: Was voted at No. 4 on the "Greatest Directors of 20th Century" poll conducted by Japanese film magazine Kinema Junpo . Seven of his films are preserved in the United States National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". Anthony Lane writes that Double Indemnity , The Seven Year Itch , Sunset Boulevard and The Apartment are "part of

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