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February 11, 2007
The Billy Wilder Theater
I was fortunate enough to be at the brand new Billy Wilder Theater at the Armand Hammer Museum here in L.A. on Friday night for the kick-off screening of The Apartment, one of my very favorites from one of my very favorite directors.
It's always a treat to see a classic on a big screen. I don't think I had ever seen this one on a screen before. Even better, the presence of co-star Shirley MacLaine and producer Walter Mirisch was a special treat... even better than the hot pink seats and curtain.
MacLaine was very charming and funny in the post-film Q&A. The most interesting conflict between her and her producer was that, as far as she knew, the film started shooting with just 26 pages of script, with Wilder and IAL Diamond writing the rest along the way. After much hypothesis about why this was the case, Mirisch explained, "There was more of the script already written than you knew about." MacLaine almost had a fit, as though she was still that 25 year old on the set, realizing after 48 years that she’d been played by The Master.
As Mirisch explained, Wilder didn’t like “pink pages,” which means revisions. So he and Diamond would rewrite until the last moment, before handing over pages… even though they had started with a completed script. Mirisch offered, almost to placate MacLaine, that sine Wilder shot almost exclusively in sequence, that the new pages kept the talent fresh. But you could hear in the back and forth… it was another brilliant Wilder manipulation.
MacLaine also offered insight like, “Washington never saw the sunlight outside of Fred MacMurray’s wallet,” that Wilder really was “in love” with the work that Jack Lemmon did on his films, and that they shot the film in just 30 days. Also, when she offered that, “I’m pretty straight forward. People think I am quirky, but…” she got a bemused silence out of her interrogator, director Curtis Hansen, who directed MacLaine in In Her Shoes.
Hansen is also a front man for the UCLA Film Archive, which is the programming entity that is running the theater. Great for them. Great for us. Great for Los Angeles.
Posted by poland at February 11, 2007 10:29 PM
Comments
DAMMIT!! I'd have given anything to be there for this. Instead, I say thank you DP for sharing. I didn't even know there was a Billy Wilder Theater! I may have to renew my vows there.
I love Billy Wilder's films more than any others. When I first moved to L.A. I was overwhelmed with the "L.A.-ness" of it all. But I grabbed an L.A. weekly and saw that Neil LaBute was "presenting" ACE IN THE HOLE at the Skirball Center. Like...2 days after I got there, LaBute (who I love except for lately) is showing a Billy Wilder movie that is a total pain in the ass to find. I was in heaven for at least the three hours that night.
After that it was all traffic and endless schmoozing for 2 years. *Sigh*..Fran Kubilik...
Posted by: PetalumaFilms ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/nav-commenters.gif)
at February 11, 2007 11:17 PM
cool. i can't wait to go to that theater.
The Apartment is one of my favorite movies, and even though I've seen it on a medium sized big screen, I wouldn't mind seeing it again and usually do at Christmastime.
Posted by: Lota at February 12, 2007 12:02 AM
I was there as well. Great time and great print. McClaine was rad. Totally honest and happy to be there. At one point, Hanson tried to end the Q/A but McClaine wouldn't have it. "What's your hurry? Got somewhere to be?"...
Besides all the stuff David pointed out (Wilder pushing Lemmon to do take after take to see what he was made of) it was great to McClaine talk about all the different directors she's worked with and how emotional she was after the screning. Not in a crying way, but in that she said she hadn't seen it in over 40 years so she had a rush of memories all come back at once.
Such a great time. Love that movie.
Posted by: L. Dobler at February 12, 2007 12:04 AM
Aww, man. The Apartment is excellent. I'd love to be able to see young Shirley on the big screen.
Posted by: KamikazeCamelV2.0 at February 12, 2007 02:38 AM
I think "quirky" is the euphamism that polite people use to keep from calling MacClaine "fucking nuts."
Posted by: EDouglas at February 12, 2007 04:55 AM
by the time I got to the theater at 6:35 on Friday, the parking lot had a sign up that said sold out. The online tickets had already sold out, but they said that more box office tickets would go on sale an hour before the 7:30 showing. Saturday (which was screening Some Like it Hot), was my roomates birthday, so I couldn't go to that. I don't have a date for the Valentine's day sabrina/Ninotchka screening and I'm not about to go on that day to those movies alone. I've already seen Apartment and Some Like it Hot on film before, so I don't feel too sad, but I would have liked to have seen both properly again. So I guess the next movie on the schedule I absolutely won't miss will be the much more impossible (than Ace in a Hole) to find "Make Way for Tomorrow", not Billy Wilder, but I hear it's really damned good.
Posted by: movielocke at February 12, 2007 09:48 AM
Great movie! Sounds like a fabulous time! Give us some advance notice next time and then you can show up entourage in tow!
Posted by: The Carpetmuncher at February 12, 2007 11:52 AM
"...she got a bemused silence out of her interrogator, director Curtis Hansen, who directed MacLaine in In Her Shoes."
Hate to be picky, but are we to understand that Hansen gave her a silence marked by bewilderment and confusion? Or, as I assume you intended, it was more or less an amused silence?
Bemused and amused do not mean similiar things.
Posted by: RoyBatty at February 12, 2007 02:54 PM
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