Billy Wilder on Assignment

Dispatches from Weimar Berlin and Interwar Vienna

Billy Wilder on Assignment
Billy Wilder, Shelley Frisch, Noah Isenberg
RRP:
NZ$ 39.99
Our Price:
NZ$ 32.79
Paperback
h216 x 140mm - 224pg
25 Oct 2022 US
International import eta 7-19 days
9780691241838
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9780691194943 US Hardback $39.35

Acclaimed film director Billy Wilder' s early writings-brilliantly translated into English for the first timeBefore Billy Wilder became the screenwriter and director of iconic films like Sunset Boulevard and Some Like It Hot, he worked as a freelance reporter, first in Vienna and then in Weimar Berlin. Billy Wilder on Assignment brings together
"Long before he became the celebrated filmmaker of ' Sunset Boulevard,' ' Some Like It Hot' and ' The Apartment,' a young Billy Wilder worked briefly as a dancer for hire in the ballroom of a fashionable Berlin hotel. As he described the endeavor . . . for a German newspaper in 1927, ' This is no easy way to earn your daily bread, nor is it the kind that sentimental, softhearted types can stomach. But others can live from it. ' Wilder' s observations on his experience - from one of his many delightfully acerbic pieces of journalism anthologized in Billy Wilder on Assignment: Dispatches From Weimar Berlin and Interwar Vienna . . . get to the heart of our enduring obsessions with show business and the performing arts"---Dave Itzkoff, New York Times "[An] adept translation. . . . Foreshadowing abounds in [Billy Wilder on Assignment] . . . but the book' s main appeal is independent of what came after. The brightest moments here let you watch a little more of the human comedy through Billy Wilder' s eyes. "---Jeremy McCarter, Wall Street Journal "[Billy Wilder on Assignment is] a revelation, a trove of snappy pieces that give the reader tantalizing glimpses of the mature film satirist who would win six Oscars for his work. "---Marc Weingarten, Washington Post "Readers who come to Billy Wilder on Assignment to find the seeds of the films for which he is famous-nearly all of them, one assumes-will not be disappointed. -Ryan Ruby, Bookforum" "Billy Wilder on Assignment is full of glorious turns of phrase, entertaining narratives, and quirky characters. Shelley Frisch [is a] . . . superb translator. . . . Thumbing through Wilder' s essays from the 1920s will make you feel as if you are enjoying yourself at a German coffeehouse, catching up on popular culture, and planning your next weekend adventure in the Weimar Republic. Isenberg and Frisch have done a great service for film historians and fans of classic Hollywood. "---Chris Yogerst, Los Angeles Review of Books "Billy Wilder on Assignment [is] a delightful and illuminating collection of Wilder' s tyro reporting. -Sam Wasson, AirMail" "A must-read for film buffs and history aficionados alike. -Tobias Carroll, Inside Hook" "[Billy Wilder on Assignment is] an irresistible collection of articles, profiles, and reviews from Wilder' s salad-und-bratwurst days in Berlin, where he worked as a roving journalist, critic, and scene-maker between 1926 and 1930. . . Isenberg is an expert guide to the Berlin-to-Hollywood axis, and Frisch is veteran translator. - Thomas Doherty, Tablet Magazine" "Billy Wilder on Assignment is, as my colleague, TIME Magazine film critic Stephanie Zacharek kvelled to me in an email, ' the little book you didn' t know you needed. ' "---Jordan Hoffman, Times of Israel "This new volume takes in the most significant staging posts of Wilder' s early career. "---Gavin Plumley, Literary Review
Billy Wilder (1906-2002) wrote and directed Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot, and The Apartment, among other films. Over the course of his career, he won seven Academy Awards. Noah Isenberg is the George Christian Centennial Professor and Chair of the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin. His many books include We' ll Always Have "Casablanca" and Weimar Cinema. Twitter @NoahIsenberg Instagram @noah. isenberg1967 Shelley Frisch is the award-winning translator of Dietrich & Riefenstahl and the three-volume Kafka (Princeton), among other books. Twitter @shelfrisch

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