Editing Billy Wilder (section)

==Directorial style==
Wilder's directorial choices reflected his belief in the primacy of writing. He avoided, especially in the second half of his career, the exuberant cinematography of [[Alfred Hitchcock]] and [[Orson Welles]] because, in Wilder's opinion, shots that called attention to themselves would distract the audience from the story. Wilder's films have tight plotting and memorable dialogue. Despite his conservative directorial style, his subject matter often pushed the boundaries of mainstream entertainment. Once a subject was chosen, he would begin to visualize in terms of specific artists. His belief was that no matter how talented the actor, none were without limitations and the result would be better if you bent the script to their personality rather than force a performance beyond their limitations.<ref>"One Head Is Better than Two," in [[Films and Filming]] (London), February 1957.</ref> Wilder was skilled at working with actors, coaxing [[silent film|silent era]] legends [[Gloria Swanson]] and [[Erich von Stroheim]] out of retirement for roles in ''[[Sunset Boulevard (film)|Sunset Boulevard]]''. Regarding Wilder's more comedic films, [[Roger Ebert]] wrote: "he took the characters seriously, or at least as seriously as the material allowed, and got a lot of the laughs by playing scenes straight."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/trial-and-error-1997 | title=Trial and Error movie review & film summary (1997) &#124; Roger Ebert }}</ref>

For ''[[Stalag 17]]'', Wilder squeezed an Oscar-winning performance out of a reluctant [[William Holden]] (Holden had wanted to make his character more likable; Wilder refused). At a casting meeting, Wilder reportedly said, "I'm tired of clichéd typecasting—the same people in every film."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Philips |first=Gene D. |title=Some Like It Wilder: The Life and Controversial Films of Billy Wilder |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8131-2570-1 |pages=251 |language=English}}</ref> An example of this is Wilder's casting of [[Fred MacMurray]] in ''[[Double Indemnity]]'' and ''[[The Apartment]]''. MacMurray had become Hollywood's highest-paid actor portraying a decent, thoughtful character in light comedies, melodramas, and musicals; Wilder cast him as a womanizing schemer. [[Humphrey Bogart]] shed his tough-guy image to give one of his warmest performances in ''[[Sabrina (1954 film)|Sabrina]]''. [[James Cagney]], not usually known for comedy, was memorable in a high-octane comic role for Wilder's ''[[One, Two, Three]]''. Wilder coaxed a very effective performance out of Monroe in ''[[Some Like It Hot]]''.

In total, he directed fourteen different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: [[Barbara Stanwyck]] in ''Double Indemnity'', [[Ray Milland]] in ''[[The Lost Weekend (film)|The Lost Weekend]]'', William Holden in ''Sunset Boulevard'' and ''Stalag 17'', Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim and [[Nancy Olson]] in ''Sunset Boulevard'', [[Robert Strauss (actor)|Robert Strauss]] in ''Stalag 17'', [[Audrey Hepburn]] in ''Sabrina'', [[Charles Laughton]] in ''[[Witness for the Prosecution (1957 film)|Witness for the Prosecution]]'', [[Elsa Lanchester]] in ''Witness for the Prosecution'', [[Jack Lemmon]] in ''Some Like It Hot'' and ''The Apartment'', [[Jack Kruschen]] in ''The Apartment'', [[Shirley MacLaine]] in ''The Apartment'' and ''[[Irma la Douce]]'' and [[Walter Matthau]] in ''[[The Fortune Cookie]]''. Wilder mentored Lemmon, and was the first director to pair him and Matthau in ''The Fortune Cookie''. Wilder and Lemmon worked on seven films.<ref>Philips (2010), [https://books.google.es/books?redir_esc=y&hl=es&id=5uohNoRFkwIC&q=lemmon+seven#v=onepage&q&f=false p. 230].</ref>