BFI Southbank Stages 'Almost Perfect' Billy Wilder Retrospective — SkimNews
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- Billy Wilder was born Samuel Wilder in 1906 in Austria-Hungary and died in California at the start of the 21st century, with his gravestone reading 'I'm a writer but then nobody's perfect' — his most famous line
- The BFI Southbank is hosting 'Almost Perfect,' a comprehensive retrospective of Wilder's work running from 19 October through the end of the year
- Wilder directed Double Indemnity, Some Like It Hot, Sunset Boulevard, and The Apartment — films routinely ranked among cinema's greatest across noir, comedy, show-business drama, and romantic drama
- Wilder fled Berlin to France when Hitler came to power and reached Hollywood in 1934, narrowly avoiding deportation when a US consular official told him to 'write some good ones' — advice he carried for life
- Wilder wrote Double Indemnity while his family perished in Nazi camps thousands of miles away; an unused alternative ending has Walter executed in a gas chamber, preserved in the Paramount vaults
- Wilder's later work such as Fedora inspired Jonathan Coe's 2020 novel Mr Wilder & Me, now being adapted by Christopher Hampton with Stephen Frears set to direct, though raising funds has proved difficult
Why it matters: The BFI retrospective gives UK audiences a rare chance to reassess Wilder's range across noir, comedy, and satire in a single season, while the unproduced Mr Wilder & Me adaptation signals ongoing Hollywood interest in a filmmaker whose final works felt out of step with the New Hollywood he openly disdained as 'kids with beards.'
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