‘Nobody’s Perfect: Billy Wilder’s Comedies,” an eight-film series running from Friday through next Thursday at the Sag Harbor Cinema, is a celebration of one of the most incisive, irreverent, and enduring writer-directors in Hollywood. One only has to think of “Some Like It Hot” or “Sabrina” or “The Apartment,” all of which received multiple Oscar nominations, to appreciate Wilder’s comedic finesse.
In addition to the above three classics, the series will include such less widely seen films as “Love in the Afternoon” (1957), starring Audrey Hepburn and Gary Cooper; “Kiss Me, Stupid” (1964), with Dean Martin and Kim Novak; “One, Two, Three” (1961), featuring James Cagney in his last starring role; “The Front Page” (1974), starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, and “Avanti!” (1972), which took Lemmon to the Italian island of Ischia.
“Everybody loves ‘Some Like It Hot,’ often considered the greatest of all American film comedies, but many other Wilder comedies were dismissed, misinterpreted, or undervalued,” Foster Hirsch, a film historian and professor, said. “It is time for a fresh reappraisal.” Hirsch will introduce tomorrow’s 7 p.m. screening of “Some Like It Hot” and Saturday’s 4:45 showing of “Love in the Afternoon.”
Wilder was born in 1906 in what is now Poland and raised in Vienna. He started out as a journalist before undertaking a career as a screenwriter in Berlin. The rise of the Nazi Party forced him to flee Europe, and he arrived in Hollywood in 1934. He returned to screenwriting, and in 1939 co-wrote “Ninotchka,” which was nominated for an Academy Award.
His second American film as a director, “Double Indemnity” (1944), was nominated for seven Oscars, including best motion picture, best director, and best screenplay, co-written with Raymond Chandler. That film, as well as such classics as “The Lost Weekend” (1945), “Sunset Boulevard” (1950), and “Stalag 17” (1953), showed he was as adept at drama as comedy.
“Billy Wilder landed in Hollywood during the Golden Age of the studio system,” said Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, Sag Harbor Cinema’s founding artistic director. “Through his long career, he saw that system slowly disintegrate as the U.S. was going from the gritty collective energy of the New Deal into postwar gloom, the Eisenhower era, and the dawn of the sexual revolution. His vision of his adoptive country was far from idealistic, often in stark contrast with the pastel-colored postcard optimism projected by the ‘50s economic boom.”
In “Kiss Me, Stupid,” Martin plays a thinly veiled version of his own persona, according to the cinema, while Novak plays against her own polished image with a vulnerable performance as a prostitute. “Some Like It Hot” needs no introduction, having received six Academy Award nominations, including best director, best actor (Lemmon), and best screenplay. Overlooked for awards were its other stars, Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis.
Cooper plays an American playboy and Hepburn the sheltered daughter of a French private investigator (Maurice Chevalier) in “Love in the Afternoon,” which the cinema cited for its European sophistication and romantic intrigue. “One, Two, Three” was filmed in Berlin just before the construction of the Berlin Wall. A satire of Cold War politics and American capitalism (Cagney works for the Coca-Cola company), it features the star’s fast-talking performance that matches the film’s rapid-fire dialogue.
Adapted from the play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, “The Front Page” is a critique of tabloid journalism, with Lemmon cast as a reporter, Matthau as his editor, and Susan Sarandon as Lemmon’s intended. In “Avanti!,” when Lemmon travels to Ischia to claim the body of his millionaire father, revelations unfold, including more about his father’s death.
A blend of corporate satire and a deeply human love story, “The Apartment” stars Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine and won five Oscars, including best picture, best director, and best story and screenplay. Lemmon and MacLaine were both nominated by the Academy.
Hepburn plays Sabrina, a chauffeur’s daughter, and William Holden is David, a playboy, in “Sabrina.” Their budding romance is threatened by David’s older brother (Humphrey Bogart), who is relying on David to marry an heiress in order for a crucial merger to happen.
Each film will be shown twice during the week. While tickets are available individually, a pass priced at $55 for nonmembers and $30 for members allows the passholder to attend each film once.
