Billy Wilder

A searching new study by the film historian Joseph McBride. -- Andrew O’Hagan * The New York Review of Books *
A remarkable biographical and critical treatment. -- Carl Rollyson * San Francisco Chronicle *
A trenchant reappraisal of Wilder’s half-century-long career. -- Noah Isenberg * The Nation *
[A] brilliant exegesis of Wilder’s life and work . . . [McBride's] approach works well, illuminating Wilder’s themes and obsessions across the entire span of a lifetime, and therefore across almost the entire twentieth century. -- A. S. Hamrah * Bookforum *
Easily the most insightful, lively, and thought-provoking book on film I’ve come across this year; no one is better than McBride when it comes to exploring and clarifying the complex intersection between cultural, historical, and psychological forces that yields an artist’s work, and his volume on Wilder is as good as anything he’s ever written – which means it’s as good as anything any film critic has ever written. -- Jim Hemphill * Filmmaker Magazine *
Urgent and essential. * Cineaste *
Joseph McBride-penned biography on the legendary Billy Wilder. Need any more words be said? -- Joshua Brunsting * CriterionCast *
What we really appreciate is the organized approach and his entertaining prose, not a given in serious film studies. Billy Wilder comes alive as a remarkable man… Of all of Joseph McBride’s film books, I think this is the one I’ve enjoyed the most . . . it’s a serious contender for film book of 2021. -- Glenn Erickson * CineSavant *
A comprehensive, invaluable critical study of one of the most admired and enduring filmmaker-satirists of the post-World War II era . . . Billy Wilder: Dancing on the Edge shares the complexity and humanity of its subject and his films. It is highly recommended. -- David Walsh * World Socialist Web Site *
This book, like Wilder’s films, excised Wilder’s phantoms of the past and informed us of the versatility of his International filmography. * RealWeegieMidget Reviews *
Joseph McBride is one of the best film critics and historians. His Billy Wilder is a crowning achievement. He casts considerable new light on Wilder’s early life in Vienna and Berlin and reevaluates his artistic status, including his great later work. The cliché of Wilder as cynic and misanthrope is not to McBride’s taste. Instead, he reveals the complexity of the man and the coherence of his eclectic oeuvre. -- Michel Ciment, editor of Positif
Only Joseph McBride could have given us Billy Wilder in such fullness, as he’s done previously with Lubitsch, Ford, and other masters. The breadth of research is staggering, yet it is always placed at the service of McBride’s free ruminative style, unbound by dutiful chronological study—instead, we have a sensibility, and a conversation. By placing the production histories and legacies of collaboration into the widest possible historical frame, McBride reanimates Wilder’s life and art, returning us to the masterpieces to see them with fresh eyes, and hungry to discover the films we’ve missed. -- Jonathan Lethem, author of The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfictions, Etc.
With his walk-on-the-dark-side comedies and refusal to sentimentalize, Wilder’s reputation has only grown with time, and this magisterial critical study does full justice to his complex talent. McBride draws stunning connections between the life and the art, and his discussion of Wilder’s treatment of women is especially fresh and persuasive. Both massive and entertaining, this is a must-read for Wilder fans. -- Molly Haskell, film critic and author
A superb study of Billy Wilder and an ideal companion to McBride’s recent How Did Lubitsch Do It? This book is rich with information about the Viennese/Weimar culture that helped shape Wilder and wonderfully attentive to his artistry. It’s the best critical account of a great filmmaker, showing exactly how he did it. -- James Naremore, author of More Than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts
The most complete and profound study of Billy Wilder to date, one in which the work and the life illuminate each other, and two worlds that seemed separate are joined and complemented with unsuspecting coherence. A book that brings us closer to Wilder, humanizing and explaining him like no other. -- Fernando Trueba, director of Belle Époque
Unquestionably the book of the year. * Damn Fool Idealistic Crusader YouTube channel *
Engaging . . . McBride makes a convincing case that for all his wisecracks and moxie, Wilder was ultimately laughing to keep from crying. -- Matt Hanson * American Purpose *
Joseph McBride has delivered the ultimate critical evaluation of Billy Wilder’s career as a journalist, screenwriter and film director. -- Gillian Kelly * Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television *