Billy Wilder on writing with his partner I.A.L. Diamond [Video]
One of the most absolute wonders of a site online for movie lovers is this one: Cinephilia and Beyond. I have promoted the site before and have cause to do so again because its host @LaFamiliaFilm has unearthed an absolute gem of a video clip featuring my favorite filmmaker Billy Wilder.
In this short clip, Wilder gives an address in which he talks about his longtime writing partner I.A.L. “Izzy” Diamond. Look at this list of movies they created together: Love in the Afternoon (1957), Some Like It Hot (1959), The Apartment (1960), One, Two, Three (1961), Irma la Douce (1962), Kiss Me Stupid (1964), The Fortune Cookie (1966), and The Front Page (1974). In his speech, Wilder describes how he and Izzy worked as writers, putting in “bankers hours”. He also talks about how neither of them thought much of the final line in Some Like It Hot, which is according to the AFI the 48th most quoatable line in movie history. The most touching moment comes toward the end of Wilder’s speech when he says this:
“He didn’t tell for four years that he had that fatal disease. It was only in the last six weeks that he confided in me. Well, it’s lonely now in that office of ours. I look at that empty chair and I miss him so much. On his birthday maybe, I should put the red rose there, like DiMaggio for Marilyn.”
In those few seconds, we see in this famously cantankerous man a genuine sense of loss and appreciation for the unique partnership he and Diamond had.
That’s worth the watch in and of itself, but there’s more. In the last 5 minutes of the video, Wilder directs two actors doing a short play Diamond had written in his school days about two screenwriters. Those actors? None other than Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon.
Watch this wonderful bit of cinema history:
If you been following the “Poetics” series on Sundays, you’ll remember that this week the focus was on word choice. The sketch written by Diamond speaks quite comically to this obsession good writers have: Getting just the right word.
Thanks, @LaFamiliaFilm! And to all in the Go Into The Story community, I encourage you to visit Cinephilia and Beyond. While there, why not subscribe or give the site a generous donation. The least we can do for the treasure trove emerging there.
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