THE BILLY WILDER BLOGATHON is here!

“I’ve had directors who were marvelous at breaking scenes down and handling people. But when you would string all the pearls together, they wouldn’t make a beautiful necklace. But Billy is the kind of picture-maker who can make a beautiful string of pearls. He makes the kind of movies that are classics and last forever.” – Jack Lemmon

Today we celebrate what would have been Billy Wilder’s 108th birthday in simple form, but with lots of class.

 

“I just made pictures I would’ve liked to see.”

and here they are:

 

By A Shroud of Thoughts – Sabrina

By Joel’s Classic Film Passion – Ocean’s 11

By Cindy Bruchman – Double Indemnity

By Spoilers – Billy Wilder Speaks

By No Nonsense with Nuwan Sen – Love in the Afternoon

By Pre-Code.com – Fedora

By Once Upon a Screen – The Major and the Minor

By Critica Retro – Irma La Deuce

By ClassicBecky’s Brain Food – The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

By Twenty Four Frames – Ball of Fire

By Wide Screen World – Sunset Boulevard

By Shadows and Satin – Ace in the Hole

By 30 Years On – The Lost Weekend

By Stars and Letters – Jane Wyman letter to Billy Wilder

By Make Mine Criterion! – Kiss Me, Stupid

By Screenkicker! – The Apartment

By Barry Bradford – Avanti!

By Girls Do Film – Ninotchka

By Outspoken & Freckled – Stalag 17

By Thrilling Days of Yesteryear – Five Graves to Cairo

By [This] Girl Friday – Midnight

By The Vintage Cameo – Witness for the Prosecution

By The Movie Rat – Emil and the Detectives (’31 and ’35)

By Tales of the Easily Distracted – One, Two, Three

By Random Pictures – Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife

By Cinema Dilettante – A Foreign Affair

By LA Explorer – Rhythm on the River

By Mildred’s Fatburgers – The Fortune Cookie

By Vienna’s Classic Hollywood – Nancy Olson in Sunset Boulevard

♦♥♣♠

Five Billy Wilder films are listed on the American Film Institute’s (AFI) list of 100 Funniest Movies of all time:Some Like It Hot (1959) is listed at #1, The Apartment (1960) at #20, The Seven Year Itch (1955) at #51, Ninotchka (1939) at #52 and Ball of Fire (1941) at #92. Four Wilder films are on the AFI list of 100 Greatest Movies of all time: Sunset Blvd. (1950) at #16, Some Like It Hot (1959) at #22, Double Indemnity (1944) at #29 and The Apartment (1960) at #80. And perhaps most astonishing – when one considers his mere 27 films – is the fact that Wilder directed fourteen different actors in Oscar-nominated performances.

I’m proud to be hosting this event with girl gone Wilder, Kellee @Irishjayhawk66 of Outspoken & Freckled.  Follow us on our blogs or via Twitter (Aurora) @CitizenScreen) for the day-long Billy Wilder celebration.  And to the fabulous bloggers who submitted the posts listed above a heartfelt THANK YOU!  You’re terrific!

Aurora