Welcome to Netflix Weekend! Each week I’ll be highlighting three films available to watch on Netflix Instant Watch that (theoretically) will have a coherent theme about them and why they should be watched. This week we’ll be highlighting three classics by legendary filmmaker Billy Wilder: Double Indemnity, Some Like it Hot, and of course, The Apartment. For me, watching each of these films highlights a significant moment in Wilder’s career both stylistically and historically. And while two of them were produced back to back, they still signal a shift in tone and artistic maturity. So why did I pick them?
For starters, let’s talk about Double Indemnity. One of the most influential films of the ’40s, it pretty much laid out the blueprint for the entire film noir genre for years to come. Brooding, witty narration, venetian blinds, murder, and a femme fatale, this movie’s got it all. Not to mention how unbelievably sexy it is. No, I didn’t stutter. This movie’s so hot it would make most porn directors blush. From the moment Barbara Stanwyck steps into frame after “sunbathing”, every scene between her and Fred MacMurray has so much sexual tension that you couldn’t cut through with Wolverine’s adamantium claws. But I digress, the film’s not just significant for its famously censor-protested content, but also for the way it defined a genre. Wilder was always a proponent of writing’s supremacy over directorial flourishes, and to that end, Double Indemnity remains true to his mission statement. The script just drips with little flourishes that add such life to Wilder’s tale of murder and adultery. “Who knew that murder could smell like…. honeysuckle?” MacMurray thinks to himself, recalling the scent Stanwyck gives off every time he sees her. Whether you’ve seen a thousand noirs or none, Double Indemnity is a must-see, if for nothing else than to witness the granddaddy of the genre.
While Wilder’s early career was defined by film noir, his later years turned more towards comedy and farce, which brings us to what I consider the funniest film of all time, Some Like it Hot. It might be a little jarring to hear that and then watch the opening scene of the film, which plays out like a violent gangster film, but that’s what leads us into the furiously funny journey of two jazz musicians (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon) who must go on the run after witnessing a mob hit. Fleeing the state, they disguise themselves as women in an all-female jazz band headed to Florida, and nothing but misadventures await them, spurred on by the pair meeting the bombshell singer and ukulele player of the group (Marilyn Monroe). The pace of this film is so furious and rapid-fire that it’s tough to catch every joke the first time. They happen about every ten seconds, and Wilder never slows things down to make sure you caught the punch line. Once again, Wilder’s writing takes center stage, though Curtis and Lemmon are more than capable of making it their own. Lemmon in particular gives one of the great comedic performances in a role that at once serves as a barrage of laughs, but also as a sharp commentary on sexist double standards and male gaze. If ever a 50-year-old film were ahead of its time, this would be it.
Just one year removed from his huge success with Some Like it Hot, Wilder turned his attention to a romantic drama that maintained his comedic roots, but approached similar subjects in a more somber and mature way. This of course led to his masterpiece, The Apartment. We follow C.C. “Bud” Baxter, a worker in a massive company coerced into loaning his apartment to his philandering co-workers for their adulterous escapades in exchange for a promotion, which ultimately leads to cases of mistaken identities and intentions. Featuring simultaneously heart-breaking and heart-warming performances by Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, the film serves as a sharp satire on gender politics in the workplace, adultery, and many other social issues of the sixties. While Wilder’s writing remains the key to all of it, it’s also one of his most striking directorial efforts. You’d never expect a dramedy to utilize shadows and lighting the way Wilder does, but that gives the film such a rich texture that it’s hard to imagine it being done any other way. If nothing else, it serves as a prototype for the kind of films Woody Allen would go on to make in the 70s. There’s such dramatic weight to everything going on here, even when Wilder and Lemmon play things for laughs, that it’s impossible not to get a little misty-eyed by the film’s incredible conclusion. Was anyone better at final lines than Wilder? No goddamned way.
2 thoughts on “Netflix Weekend: Three Films by Billy Wilder”
Those 3 are some of his best. I just saw The Lost Weekend for my Cannes Marathon. Fucking great movie.
These three are essentials! Great to see them featured. I’m glad Netflix has such a wealth of Wilder films available.
I know it’s a helpful transitional device and not relevant to the overall point (which is WATCH THESE FILMS because they’re amazing), but it’s a bit facile to characterize Wilder’s early career as defined by film noir. Prior to Double Indemnity, he wrote Ninotchka and Midnight for Ernst Lubitsch and Ball of Fire for Howard Hawks, plus his film debut as director was The Major and the Minor, all of which are comedies of varying broadness. Wilder is quite simply one of cinema’s masters at code-switching – he made great films in just about every genre, and they’re all entertaining as crazy.