Foreign Rights

A cynic, Billy Wilder? It is customary to say so. And uncouth, perhaps even vulgar. His films are heavy, certainly, but in a literal way. He has written some of the funniest comedies in history, emulating Lubitsch, but he is the filmmaker of gravity par excellence. The power of the terrestrial and of weight is at the heart of his films. The moves and discourses, laughter and politics, everything is a matter of weight in Some like it hot, in Sunset Boulevard just like in One, two, three. In truth, Wilder is less of a satirist than a historian. At times he analyses the origins and evolution of American society, at others he describes how Germany was marked by Nazism. From the material to the historical gravity is therefore the trajectory of this book, which offers a unprecedented insight into a work of fundamental importance.