• Home
  • Issues
  • Podcast
  • About
  • Films
  • Contributors
  • Submissions
  • Subscribe
Latest
  • Latest
  • Oldest
  • Random
  • A to Z

Issue 87: Billy Wilder

September 2020

Double Indemnity | art by Tony Stella

Honeysuckle Murder: (A Memorandum on) Death in Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (and the Futility of Writing About It)

Travis Woods·
Issue 87: Billy Wilder
A crackerjack pulp thriller that alternately smirked and shocked its way into defining both a expanding cinematic genre and a director’s burgeoning career with its gallows vantage, Double Indemnity also maybe lets slip the secret of life as it nuzzles up against (and makes a joke, seduction, and parable out of) death itself.
Read More
Christl Ehlers in People on Sunday | Criterion

And Thus You Spend Your Fleeting Days

Veronica Fitzpatrick·
Issue 87: Billy Wilder
It may be that with its real locations, non-professional performers, and documentary-style cinematography of the city surrounds, People on Sunday presages aspects of both Italian neorealism and the French New Wave. but it’s also a film about presaging.
Read More

Billy Wilder and the 1930s Romantic Comedy

Elise Moore·
Issue 87: Billy Wilder
Wilder's early work in romantic comedy—Bluebeards Eighth Wife, Midnight, Ball of Fire, and The Major and the Minor—makes it easier to spot the element of enchantment that lingers in his tonally complex mature comedies
Read More
Jack Lemmon as C.C. Baxter in THE APARTMENT

Unhappy Accidents: Insurance and the Business of Living in Double Indemnity and The Apartment

Susannah Gruder·
Issue 87: Billy Wilder
Wilder makes a huge jump in genre between these films—from an existential noir to an off-beat romantic comedy—but the two share a kinship; both can be read as cautionary tales for what happens when you mix business with pleasure. 
Read More
Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot

Some Like

Fran Hoepfner·
Issue 87: Billy Wilder
I'm not here to ask whether or not Some Like It Hot holds up. Of course it holds up! For crying out loud, what a bad question.
Read More
Sunset Boulevard | art by Tony Stella

Out There in the Dark

Ethan Warren·
Issue 87: Billy Wilder
Three seemingly dissimilar works are united by three seemingly diffuse concepts that all lead back to the same place: the unique capacity of film to evoke some of the mind’s most indescribable sensations.
Read More
The original theatrical release poster for Billy Wilder's A FOREIGN AFFAIR | Paramount Pictures

Ruins and Redemption: Two Takes on Postwar Berlin

Lisa Lieberman·
Issue 87: Billy Wilder
Controversial when they were released, both Wilder’s A Foreign Affair and Rossellini’s Germany, Year Zero are now considered masterpieces of postwar cinema.
Read More
Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in The Fortune Cookie (1966)

Wilder & Lemmon Pull Off One More Scam

Jason Toon·
Issue 87: Billy Wilder
If The Fortune Cookie isn't as powerful as Billy Wilder's earlier masterpieces, it's not as far off as its relative obscurity would imply.
Read More
Kirk Douglas in ACE IN THE HOLE | art by Tony Stella

You Can Have Me for Nothing: Escaping the Cynicism of Ace in the Hole

Elizabeth Cantwell·
Issue 87: Billy Wilder
We are all slowly suffocating on the dust of this country, on the oxygen-less air of American exceptionalism. No one is coming to drill us out.
Read More

The Sense of an Ending: Billy Wilder’s Parting Shots as Auteurist Stamp

Marshall Shaffer·
Issue 87: Billy Wilder
If one considers the chief tension of Billy Wilder’s work as the push and pull between cynicism and romanticism, the closing moments of a Wilder film complicate the notion that one can ever fully vanquish the other.
Read More
© Bright Wall/Dark Room, LLC 2023.
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Letterboxd
  • Contributor Login
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  • DMCA
  • Home
  • Issues
  • Podcast
  • About
  • Films
  • Contributors
  • Submissions
  • Subscribe
  • Home
  • Issues
  • Podcast
  • About
  • Films
  • Contributors
  • Submissions
  • Subscribe
Start typing to see results or hit ESC to close
See all results

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in .

Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

Cookie Policy

This website uses Pico to reflect your current subscription status, as well as keep you logged in. Leaving this enabled will mean that you don't need to log in each time you access this website to unlock articles.

This website cookies from Jetpack, a site statistics platform provided by Wordpress. It lets us track traffic to different pages on the site, as well as other anonymous user data like geolocation, browsing habits and referral keywords. Leaving this enabled allows us to improve our website and tailor it to your preferences.