Criterion Channel Wrap Up: Five By Billy Wilder

By Christopher James

Having a Criterion Channel subscription often feels like opening Christmas presents each month. Their monthly programming always provides subscribers with curated series from some of the greatest classic artists both domestically and in world cinema. This month, the Criterion Channel decided to honor the legendary director Billy Wilder with a sampling of five of his movies. The legendary Austrian director won six competitive Oscars over his decades-long career, plus an additional Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1988. 

Although—or perhaps because—he was born in Austria, writer, director, and Hollywood legend Billy Wilder saw America more clearly than most, probing its absurdities and hypocrisies with a witty yet lacerating eye. This sampler of five of his finest—including the Tinseltown tragedy Sunset Blvd., scathing media satire Ace in the Hole, and gripping POW drama Stalag 17—showcases the pitch-perfect blend of human understanding and barbed cynicism that defines Wilder worldview.

For this piece, I revisited two of my all-time favorites, re-experienced one I didn't remember well, and discovered two new (to me) gems. Let’s take a look at the films the Criterion Channel chose to highlight...

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Showbiz History: The Lion King, Keanu as James Dean, and NPH's Undies

six random things that happened on this day in showbiz history (June 15th)...

1960 Billy Wilder's five-time Oscar winner The Apartment had its world premiere on this day in New York City. I just watched it again recently. Shirley Maclaine and Jack Lemmon are perfect in it, don'cha think?

1967 Another premiere, this one for the WW II action drama The Dirty Dozen, an antecedent of a kind to Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds.

1991 Paula Abdul's "Rush Rush" hits #1 (it'll stay there for six weeks). Keanu Reeves does a James Dean thing in the Rebel Without a Cause (1955) themed video. Paula does Natalie of course but no Sal Mineo counterpart? Fail!

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Today's 5: Batman Begins, Dick Tracy, Lara Croft...

Happy Thursday!

Five mood-boosting ways to celebrate this day (June 15th) in movie history

2005 Batman Begins opens, taking Christopher Nolan from critical darling to mainstream sensation, particularly for the fanboys. It also reignites the Batman franchise which we'll never be free of. In short: it's a good movie but it basically doomed us to countless retellings of origin stories we already sat through and reboot culture. Thomas and Martha Wayne have now died so many times... (sigh) 

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On this day: Liz's first Oscar, Daffy's debut, and Juliet from the house of Capulet

On this day in history as it relates to showbiz...

1865 Mary Surratt arrested as a conspirator in the assassination of President Lincoln. Robin Wright played her in the movie The Conspirator

1912 Opera singer/actress Martha Eggerth (For Me and My Gal) born in Budapest. She died just a few years ago

1918 Great actor / star William Holden (Picnic, Sunset Blvd, Sabrina, Network)  born in Illinois...

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Happy New Year: "The Apartment" (1960)

by Chris Feil

The week between Christmas and New Year’s can be a disorienting time - an inescapable amount of parties, reflections on the closing year, and hope for the one to come. For the more somber sort, it’s the feeling of being alone in a series of crowded rooms you can’t escape. New Year’s Eve is simply the worst holiday - like “Auld Lang Syne” it proposes joy and companionship, but always comes up feeling solemn.

Such is the emotional terrain of Billy Wilder’s classic romance The Apartment, a very best Best Picture winner. In its indifferent, wintery New York City, it’s easy to feel isolated and cast aside when everyone else goes on about their lives - but the very thing that sets you apart is what will make you feel less alone when you see it reflected in another person. The film is all the more romantic for being a love story for the melancholy, its soaring hope all the more hard won and transformative.

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