Agreed. When Howard Hawks was directing Ball of Fire (1941) a screenplay by Billy Wilder. Wilder was one of the first screenwriters from Paramount's Writing Department to directing feature films. Hawks kept Wilder on the set during the filming teaching him film production techniques between takes. Hawks had a couple tricks to making a great movie: No fancy camera angles. Shoot medium height. Limit the close ups. Story is key, but dialogue is golden. Have an ear for great dialogue. Keep the screenwriters on the set for re-writes with the principle actors. Now look at all of Wilder's movies from The Major and the Minor (1942) to Buddy, Buddy (1981). Wilder was a natural when learning from Hawks.
Billy Wilder was once quoted - " they say Wilder is out of touch with these times.Frankly I regard it as a compliment.Who would want to be in touch with these times". That was in 1976,the age of the disaster epics.And if Wilder thought they were churning out trash then,what would he make of today's hollywood?
Unfortunately, Wilder's career at that time was unworthy of his earlier work so the bragging came a bit late. And in 1976, Paddy Chayefsky had just written one of the most searingly witty scripts of all time with his Network.
I wonder if that was part of it. When using a language you’re not native to you are forced to become very deliberate in your wordchoice, even once you’ve attained fluency. I’ve found friends for whom English is #2 tend to use the language in a very rich way.
its like Holland, they had to recover their land from the sea, and when you've done this, you have purpose for every inch you recover. Its the same with learning, you'll learn nothing from someone who just knows, you'll only learn from someone who remembers how hard it was to learn.
Which resulted in making him a student of our language. He worked with dialogue like Robert Frost did with poetry. And of course, within the the tragic view of Jewish comics..
“When I watch Ninotchka, I feel like getting dressed in a tux, waltzing with a perfect posture, chin up, sipping champagne while conversing with the banter. When I watch a modern romantic comedy-I feel like I should rewatch Ninotchka.”
Such wonderful videos! These are videos to be played more than once, once to understand what you're saying, and at least once more to see it demonstrated in the clips. You get much more out of them with multiple viewings.
When Ninotchka asks Leon to play the record and not the radio, she is saying that she wants music that is just for them, as opposed to music that everyone is sharing in common. It is an indication of her transformation from a strict communist, saying that everything should be in common, to the more French way of living, private property, fancy hats, houses, and music just for two lovers. The scene shows that romantic love grows and is made more precious by being private and sheltered from the rest of the world.
Thanks for reminding people of what good romantic-comedy dialogue is supposed to sound like (especially compared to such recent atrocities as Anyone But You). Would love to hear your take on Preston Sturges, with The Palm Beach Story, Hail the Conquering Hero, and The Lady Eve as prime examples. He also wasn't afraid of a little slapstick, to keep the cheap seats happy. ;-)
A channel named correctly. Wisdom in movies and wisdom in wisdom. Boy do we need it now. Hope you get a billion subscribers and you do this work as long as you want to. Thank you.
Have seen Ninotchka dozens of times. Absolutely, one of the best comedies ever. The combination Lubitsch/ Wilder was pure GOLD. Garbo was perfect. And Douglas brilliant. I had the biggest crush on him.💖 Please upload the entire movie on YT. 🙏
I discovered this gem of a movie during high school and had such a crush on Leon. I hope you cover Lubitsch someday as I still quote TO BE OR NOT TO BE.
I've always liked Ninotchka. One memory I have of it is that a film class I was taking in college decided to put on a screening of it and this one guy who claimed to be Russian (he was really American, but his grandparents immigrated or something) made a stink of it being demeaning to his culture. We watched the movie anyway.
Great video, great movie choice. Ninotchka is one of my all time favorites. Along with great writing, delivery is also very important. Inflection, intonation and emphasis on the right syllable plays a big part in communicating the intent of the dialogue. The actors, and especially the character actors, in these older movies were always spot on e.g., HOW are you? vs How are YOU? vs How ARE you? vs how are you.
I've always thought the key to good dialogue was writing different variations of, "M'yeah, see? Mm'yeah." With the help of this video, I now know better. Thanks, Moviewise!
Billy Wilder was one of the best writers of dialogue. As a writer myself, I use him for inspiration in my own writing. Most movies, even movies that I love, have mediocre to average dialogue. They don’t aspire to be anything more. The dialogue is simply there to move the plot along. I think this is partly because writers are afraid of alienating the audience or coming off as too unrealistic. Ironically, by training audiences to see dialogue in this way, they will of course feel uncomfortable when they encounter anything else. I myself believe that language can be beautiful and musical, through which the human condition is revealed. That’s what Shakespeare did in his plays. The dialogue he wrote wasn’t realistic, even for his time. No one spoke in rhyme, but he used heightened dialogue like a composer uses music: to explore themes and emotions that cannot be so easily articulated through naturalism alone. Such poetry touches the soul and makes it feel alive. That is what is lost in modern cinema.
"When I watch a modern romantic comedy, I feel like I should rewatch Ninotchka." Brilliant. Looks like someone learned a thing or three from Billy, dialog-wise.
Couldn't agree more. Back around the start of the 1980s, BBC2 in England ran a mini-season of Billy Wilder films, including a few lesser known ones, every day for a week or so over Christmas: it was possibly the happiest week of my life. And Ninotchka remains my absolute favourite feel-good film.
"Words have meanings" And this is why it would be very difficult for a writer of Billy Wilder's caliber to come along today, when words pretty much mean whatever the person using them wants them to mean. It's never been so difficult for two people speaking the same language to have a intelligible conversation, because even though they're using the same words, they are assigning completely different meanings to them. I don't know when our culture decided that the dictionary definition of words weren't good enough
Excellent video. Thank you. My favourite Lubitsch film is "Trouble in Paradise" and my favourite scene is the opening dinner fist date in the hotel suite, where both partners know the other is lying about who they are, yet they fall in the love anyway. Also, the peace conference joke is one of the funniest ever.
I get all my movie recommendations from this channel now. Sabrina was excellent btw. It was weird to watch a romcom that had a 3rd act that was more nuanced and understated.
There are so many movies with problematic third acts, it's practically a cliche. A movie where everything works smoothly and is there for a reason (a reason that's not just a crazy twist or added because of studio notes and test screenings), can feel strange because it's exceptional.
I would simply add that Cole Porter's brilliant lyrics, and sophisticated melodies, made Vincente Minnelli's SILK STOCKINGS a wonderfully witty musical of this Lubitsch classic, and has some staying power of its own, thanks to another superb cast - and, of course, Stereophonic Sound!
I must have seen Ninotchka 10 times; I love that movie. "Must you flirt?" When the three Russian men met her at the train station with flowers for her, she said, "Don't make an issue of my gender." Wonderful movie!
Thank you for explaining the plot of Ninotchka, i've watched that movie dozens of times and have never been able to understand what was going on, but the witty dialogue is top notch. Billy Wilder always knew how to get a good laugh without overreaching. Great video.
How do you not know what's going on? The movie is a pretty obvious romance, with a woman going from ice-queen to warm lover. Which bit did you not understand?
@Selrisitai that's more of a subplot that comes in midway thru the movie. I got lost at the beginning. Overtime I figured out what was going on but hearing someone explain it was easier to follow.
In Ninotchka, when the Soviet envoys are told the vault is too small for the case holding the Crown Jewels, and the only safe big enough is in the "Royal Suite". Brilliant. *Buljanoff* : I warn you. If it gets out in Moscow that we stay in the Royal Suite, we'll get into terrible trouble. *Iranoff* : Just tell them we had to do it on account of the safe. That's a perfect excuse. There was no other safe big enough! *Buljanoff and Kopalski* : That's right! That's right! *Buljanoff* : Of course we could take out the pieces and distribute them in three or four boxes in the vault, and take a small room. That's an idea, isn't it? *Iranoff* : (ruefully) Yes, that's an idea.... But who said we have to have an idea!? *Buljanoff and Kopalski* : THAT'S RIGHT! THAT'S RIGHT!
Thank you for another marvelous video, planning to watch Ninotchka after this! 👏🙌 Would like to see 100k subscribers for this channel (for start) - then I would regain hope that the 7th art's healing and audience appreciating true movies again 🥰
I still want to see you truly and fully analyze every shot and frame of James Camerons films. Tell me why I'm so obsessed with watching Aliens, T2, Titanic and Avatar. Tell me why those movies never age for me. Tell me why I'm still so thrilled, excited, compelled, intrigued and transported by every great Cameron film. Its not because of likable characters. Its not because of pretty images. There's far more going on
Ironically I'm struggling a bit to understand some of the dialogue. I don't know if it's the original audio, the quality of the copy or something else. 6:54 What does he say after "must you flirt?" ? But it definitely feels great to have good dialogue from time to time ^^
I'd like a Moviewise list of classic romantic films that really stand up and could be enjoyed on a date night. I thought Sabrina was great, Roman Holliday alright. This Ninotchka looks good. What are some things that the ladies can enjoy?
Won't argue with your assessment of this film's quality. But if you wanna analyze films for the wit & intelligence of dialogue, you should've started with Letter To Three Wives(1949) and All About Eve(1950), both written(& directed) by Joseph L Mankiewicz, who won a best screenplay Oscar for both....🎭🙏🎼
@@Tigerfire75 Look at his masterworks: Throne of Blood, Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Harakiri, Ikiru, Samurai Rebellion. Not to mention his "lesser films" like Hidden Fortress.
Perhaps a bit too much analysis. Ninotchka is an ageless comedy but at least as much because of Ernst Lubitsch's direction and the extraordinary presence of Garbo as the script, on which Wilder had two collaborators.
Wilder & Brackett and, later with Izzy Diamond, were great teams. Alone Wilder could not write, unlike Bergman, who wrote after he stopped directing. This smart and literate dialogue will never come back because audiences are not literate and neither are producers or directors. They speak demotically, which is to say, without either art, nor artifice.
It really made me sad when you compared Ninotchka to modern romantic comedies. Where Billy Wilder respected his audience, saw them as intelligent people who can recall a fact from earlier to make a comeback for a joke, who had wide vocabulary to appreciate a clever play on words, contemporary screenwriter sees their audience as imbeciles who need to have the jokes explained to them and have patience of a five year old child who can't stand a slower, serious scene and need to be bombarded with quick, primitive exchanges
Don't need to be so cynical. All you have to do is to look at Bojack Horseman if you want a modern example of a work that makes full use of the power of words. It even has one episode that's just an episode-length soliloquy and another that's entirely silent and tells its story through visuals. For other non-filmic modern masterworks, there's also the video game Disco Elysium which is a 1 million word long maximalist masterpiece which uses every single literary technique possible. Even Succession came out recently, which Moviewise analyzed before. These three are examples of contemporary works that display enormous literary craft and received huge critical acclaim when they came out. Classical Hollywood had its fair share of cliched dreck that nobody remembers nowadays. You have the entire history of human creation at your fingertips, and you can access media from countries all over the world. If you can't find any gems or 'intellectual' works, that speaks more about your lack of resourcefulness than it does the current state of art.
@@harryaudessis3869- Indeed, in 1956 Theodore Sturgeon observed that "90% of everything is crud". The vast majority of one art form is, practically by definition, mediocre. When we revisit the past we remember the very good, the very very bad (because it is fun to badmouth it) and ignore everything in between. This happens to me as I try to recall the anime that I feasted upon in the '80s as it does to the responsible of buying rights for a "movie classics" channel, hence the reason why we seldom see the crap that shared space with good works before we were around.
I would suggest that you analyse the writing of the fan series "The Stories of Sodor" by Victor Tansig, specifically the 4th and 5th seasons. But i believe this request is too immature for your standards, so i won't insist.
Never heard of this movie. I'm sure it's great, but I'm Russian and for me this romantic line feels the same as if main character fell in love with Magda Goebbels. She was a part of Civil war, she is obviously a part of Stalin's terror. No way to drink cocktails and flirt with her. Same story would be rather fun in 70s with some rigid Soviet secretary. But in 30s she's totally a butcher.
When I think of dialog that flows in perfect meter like music, I think of "Trouble in Paradise" (1932, directed by Ernst Lubitsch; screenplay by Samson Raphaelson, adaptation by Grover Jones from the play by Laszlo Aladar) -- in which "confessions" are also seductions -- or accusations that start off on the wrong foot: LILY: "I have a confession to make to you. Baron, you are a crook. You robbed the gentleman in 253, 5, 7 and 9. May I have the salt?" [...] GASTON: "Countess, believe me, before you left this room, I would have told you everything. And let me say this, with love in my heart: Countess, you are a thief. The wallet of the gentleman in 253, 5, 7 and 9 is in your possession. I knew it very well when you took it out of my pocket. In fact, you tickled me. But your embrace was so sweet..." - LATER - MME. COLET: "Monsieur La Valle, I have a confession to make to you. You like me. In fact, you’re crazy about me. Otherwise, you wouldn’t think about my reputation. Isn’t that so? But, incidentally, I don’t like you. I don’t like you at all. And I wouldn’t hesitate one instant to ruin your reputation…[snaps her fingers] like that!"
Agreed. When Howard Hawks was directing Ball of Fire (1941) a screenplay by Billy Wilder. Wilder was one of the first screenwriters from Paramount's Writing Department to directing feature films. Hawks kept Wilder on the set during the filming teaching him film production techniques between takes. Hawks had a couple tricks to making a great movie: No fancy camera angles. Shoot medium height. Limit the close ups. Story is key, but dialogue is golden. Have an ear for great dialogue. Keep the screenwriters on the set for re-writes with the principle actors. Now look at all of Wilder's movies from The Major and the Minor (1942) to Buddy, Buddy (1981). Wilder was a natural when learning from Hawks.
Wow. I'm assuming you're credited as a screenwriter yourself. "worth their weight in ,... dialogue gold".
Billy Wilder was once quoted - " they say Wilder is out of touch with these times.Frankly I regard it as a compliment.Who would want to be in touch with these times".
That was in 1976,the age of the disaster epics.And if Wilder thought they were churning out trash then,what would he make of today's hollywood?
Unfortunately, Wilder's career at that time was unworthy of his earlier work so the bragging came a bit late. And in 1976, Paddy Chayefsky had just written one of the most searingly witty scripts of all time with his Network.
@@thomasmayk well,yes,there are always outliers.
Network is a truly great film,but let's face it,those films were few and far between in this era.
It's incredible that he could write so well when English wasn't even his first language.
I wonder if that was part of it. When using a language you’re not native to you are forced to become very deliberate in your wordchoice, even once you’ve attained fluency. I’ve found friends for whom English is #2 tend to use the language in a very rich way.
Not the first case, though. Joseph Conrad and Vladimir Nabokov come to mind.
its like Holland, they had to recover their land from the sea, and when you've done this, you have purpose for every inch you recover. Its the same with learning, you'll learn nothing from someone who just knows, you'll only learn from someone who remembers how hard it was to learn.
@@nevilleattkins586 "You have purpose for every inch you recover..." Well composed.
Which resulted in making him a student of our language. He worked with dialogue like Robert Frost did with poetry. And of course, within the the tragic view of Jewish comics..
Thanks = I don't Patreon, Wiseman, but you can't deny, your good taste doesn't go unrewarded.
Thank you very much! And I’m always aware of your longtime support ;)
35 seconds in and already you get the LIKE. Ninotchka is a treasure of a movie.
I love how much you love movies -- and how well you talk about them.
This 15 minute video is better than 90% of the today's full length films.
One of the great films from the great year of 1939. Ninotchka is first class, and I'm glad to finally see it being talked about.
Billy Wilder is an absolute genius! My favorite writer/director
Thank you for highlighting the genius of Billy Wilder & company!
“When I watch Ninotchka, I feel like getting dressed in a tux, waltzing with a perfect posture, chin up, sipping champagne while conversing with the banter.
When I watch a modern romantic comedy-I feel like I should rewatch Ninotchka.”
Thanks.. One of my favorite films of all time.
One of my absolute favorites.
Such wonderful videos! These are videos to be played more than once, once to understand what you're saying, and at least once more to see it demonstrated in the clips. You get much more out of them with multiple viewings.
When Ninotchka asks Leon to play the record and not the radio, she is saying that she wants music that is just for them, as opposed to music that everyone is sharing in common. It is an indication of her transformation from a strict communist, saying that everything should be in common, to the more French way of living, private property, fancy hats, houses, and music just for two lovers. The scene shows that romantic love grows and is made more precious by being private and sheltered from the rest of the world.
Thanks for reminding people of what good romantic-comedy dialogue is supposed to sound like (especially compared to such recent atrocities as Anyone But You). Would love to hear your take on Preston Sturges, with The Palm Beach Story, Hail the Conquering Hero, and The Lady Eve as prime examples. He also wasn't afraid of a little slapstick, to keep the cheap seats happy. ;-)
A channel named correctly. Wisdom in movies and wisdom in wisdom. Boy do we need it now. Hope you get a billion subscribers and you do this work as long as you want to. Thank you.
YOOOO finally someone talking about this banger.
Ive seen this film so many times, every few months is due for a rewatch. Its my favourite film of 1939, a year with so many great films ❤
Have seen Ninotchka dozens of times. Absolutely, one of the best comedies ever. The combination Lubitsch/ Wilder was pure GOLD. Garbo was perfect. And Douglas brilliant. I had the biggest crush on him.💖 Please upload the entire movie on YT. 🙏
I discovered this gem of a movie during high school and had such a crush on Leon.
I hope you cover Lubitsch someday as I still quote TO BE OR NOT TO BE.
I've always liked Ninotchka. One memory I have of it is that a film class I was taking in college decided to put on a screening of it and this one guy who claimed to be Russian (he was really American, but his grandparents immigrated or something) made a stink of it being demeaning to his culture. We watched the movie anyway.
I swear this guy DOES NOT miss. HOW?!
Nah big whiff on that furiosa video
@@FencingMessiah agree to disagree
the best cinema channel on TH-cam without a doubt. his Jeanne Dielman takes are a miss though
cuz he fuckin loves it
Great video, great movie choice. Ninotchka is one of my all time favorites. Along with great writing, delivery is also very important. Inflection, intonation and emphasis on the right syllable plays a big part in communicating the intent of the dialogue. The actors, and especially the character actors, in these older movies were always spot on e.g., HOW are you? vs How are YOU? vs How ARE you? vs how are you.
I can't believe that this film has eluded me. I must buy it & watch it then watch it again
It's absolutely perfect
Brilliant, as always. Bravo! Please keep them coming.
I've always thought the key to good dialogue was writing different variations of, "M'yeah, see? Mm'yeah."
With the help of this video, I now know better.
Thanks, Moviewise!
Billy Wilder was one of the best writers of dialogue. As a writer myself, I use him for inspiration in my own writing. Most movies, even movies that I love, have mediocre to average dialogue. They don’t aspire to be anything more. The dialogue is simply there to move the plot along. I think this is partly because writers are afraid of alienating the audience or coming off as too unrealistic. Ironically, by training audiences to see dialogue in this way, they will of course feel uncomfortable when they encounter anything else. I myself believe that language can be beautiful and musical, through which the human condition is revealed. That’s what Shakespeare did in his plays. The dialogue he wrote wasn’t realistic, even for his time. No one spoke in rhyme, but he used heightened dialogue like a composer uses music: to explore themes and emotions that cannot be so easily articulated through naturalism alone. Such poetry touches the soul and makes it feel alive. That is what is lost in modern cinema.
"In itself" is beautiful and clear enough without "and of" watering it down.
"When I watch a modern romantic comedy, I feel like I should rewatch Ninotchka."
Brilliant.
Looks like someone learned a thing or three from Billy, dialog-wise.
Sig Ruman had real comic chops. Hearing his lines here brought back to me how much of a great job he did in Stalag 17.
A perfectly made film that never ages and never fails to be witty, charming, and romantic.
Awwww this is the sweetest movie .... I've loved it for so long everyone should see it Melvyn Douglass is nice
Couldn't agree more. Back around the start of the 1980s, BBC2 in England ran a mini-season of Billy Wilder films, including a few lesser known ones, every day for a week or so over Christmas: it was possibly the happiest week of my life. And Ninotchka remains my absolute favourite feel-good film.
"Words have meanings"
And this is why it would be very difficult for a writer of Billy Wilder's caliber to come along today, when words pretty much mean whatever the person using them wants them to mean. It's never been so difficult for two people speaking the same language to have a intelligible conversation, because even though they're using the same words, they are assigning completely different meanings to them. I don't know when our culture decided that the dictionary definition of words weren't good enough
Good ending -- wit in the analysis as well as the analyzed. :-)
I never knew Wilder was a writer of Ninotchka. No wonder it's so good. It's been many years since I've seen though.
Currently watching Ninotchka and really like it so far
Excellent video. Thank you. My favourite Lubitsch film is "Trouble in Paradise" and my favourite scene is the opening dinner fist date in the hotel suite, where both partners know the other is lying about who they are, yet they fall in the love anyway. Also, the peace conference joke is one of the funniest ever.
I never realized Wilder wrote Some like it hot - I absolutely love that movieeee
I get all my movie recommendations from this channel now. Sabrina was excellent btw. It was weird to watch a romcom that had a 3rd act that was more nuanced and understated.
There are so many movies with problematic third acts, it's practically a cliche. A movie where everything works smoothly and is there for a reason (a reason that's not just a crazy twist or added because of studio notes and test screenings), can feel strange because it's exceptional.
Love your last line!
Keep these great videos coming, Moviewise!
Cheers, dahling!
".... and Lubitsch, naturally, for his... touch."
- Wit.
I would simply add that Cole Porter's brilliant lyrics, and sophisticated melodies, made Vincente Minnelli's SILK STOCKINGS a wonderfully witty musical of this Lubitsch classic, and has some staying power of its own, thanks to another superb cast - and, of course, Stereophonic Sound!
thank you for sharing
I must have seen Ninotchka 10 times; I love that movie. "Must you flirt?" When the three Russian men met her at the train station with flowers for her, she said, "Don't make an issue of my gender." Wonderful movie!
Thank you for explaining the plot of Ninotchka, i've watched that movie dozens of times and have never been able to understand what was going on, but the witty dialogue is top notch.
Billy Wilder always knew how to get a good laugh without overreaching. Great video.
How do you not know what's going on? The movie is a pretty obvious romance, with a woman going from ice-queen to warm lover.
Which bit did you not understand?
@Selrisitai that's more of a subplot that comes in midway thru the movie. I got lost at the beginning. Overtime I figured out what was going on but hearing someone explain it was easier to follow.
In Ninotchka, when the Soviet envoys are told the vault is too small for the case holding the Crown Jewels, and the only safe big enough is in the "Royal Suite". Brilliant.
*Buljanoff* : I warn you. If it gets out in Moscow that we stay in the Royal Suite, we'll get into terrible trouble.
*Iranoff* : Just tell them we had to do it on account of the safe. That's a perfect excuse. There was no other safe big enough!
*Buljanoff and Kopalski* : That's right! That's right!
*Buljanoff* : Of course we could take out the pieces and distribute them in three or four boxes in the vault, and take a small room. That's an idea, isn't it?
*Iranoff* : (ruefully) Yes, that's an idea.... But who said we have to have an idea!?
*Buljanoff and Kopalski* : THAT'S RIGHT! THAT'S RIGHT!
My Ophthalmologist sister… 😂 nice funny touch. Great humor in your videos
Whats great about callback humor is, it rewards the viewer for paying attention
One of the few Wilder films to have eluded me. I must find it.
That recut of two unrelated scenes from It's A Wonderful Life into something dirty... 🏆
I’m crazy about that video!
th-cam.com/video/LRf_RN7Dkww/w-d-xo.htmlsi=QHYgxeUIeaZc8ryz
Great stuff as per
In double indemnity he wrote with Raymond Chandler, another master of snappy dialogue.
It’s a shame they hated each other lol
"Words have meanings" I laughed until I cried... or was it the other way around.
Thank you for another marvelous video, planning to watch Ninotchka after this! 👏🙌 Would like to see 100k subscribers for this channel (for start) - then I would regain hope that the 7th art's healing and audience appreciating true movies again 🥰
Great stuff.
I also feel like I should re-watch Ninotchka
Make a video on why "the knack... and how to get it" is the greatest edited movie in action movie history
Ace in the Hole referenced! 🎉
He did always work with a co-writer. And I speak as a 100% Wilder devotee.
I still want to see you truly and fully analyze every shot and frame of James Camerons films. Tell me why I'm so obsessed with watching Aliens, T2, Titanic and Avatar. Tell me why those movies never age for me. Tell me why I'm still so thrilled, excited, compelled, intrigued and transported by every great Cameron film. Its not because of likable characters. Its not because of pretty images. There's far more going on
is there really no modern movie with such brilliancy?
I came to ask the same question. I’d like our esteemed host to advise us.
For me, There's Still Tomorrow (Italy) reminded me of such writing
‘Re-watch Ni-notch’ wasn’t wasted on us 🙂
Whew, I thought it was going to be difficult.
I'll bet you like the movie with James Cagney too, "One ,Two, Three" . He is the Coca-Cola distributer in Germany so good
Yes.
Ironically I'm struggling a bit to understand some of the dialogue. I don't know if it's the original audio, the quality of the copy or something else.
6:54 What does he say after "must you flirt?" ?
But it definitely feels great to have good dialogue from time to time ^^
"Why, I don't have to, but I find it natural."
A+ to infinity...........
Any recent dialogue that come anywhere close to Billy Wilder's?
You really love that Sunset Boulevard typewriter clip huh 😂
Mentioned screenwriting? I’ll show that clip!
Mentioned directing? I’ll show DeMille readjusting himself in his chair!
I'd like a Moviewise list of classic romantic films that really stand up and could be enjoyed on a date night. I thought Sabrina was great, Roman Holliday alright. This Ninotchka looks good. What are some things that the ladies can enjoy?
It means dear little Nina.
Won't argue with your assessment of this film's quality. But if you wanna analyze films for the wit & intelligence of dialogue, you should've started with Letter To Three Wives(1949) and All About Eve(1950), both written(& directed) by Joseph L Mankiewicz, who won a best screenplay Oscar for both....🎭🙏🎼
Oh you
th-cam.com/video/w0mE_e8N-4Q/w-d-xo.htmlsi=_P45cHtMsZG123RC
Aaron Sorkin?
I'm sorry, we're out of cream.
You could have chosen Miller's Crossing
Who would you say the dialogue master(s) are in the modern age?
I don't think anybody does it consistently. But as weird as the sounds, the one recent movie that comes to mind for me is The Big Lebowski.
@@commieRob I remember the Coens. They used to make movies, right?
To me, the most recent thing that comes close to Wilder’s wit in my opinion are the writers for FRASIER (especially the late 90s).
@@Michelle-Eden sometimes they made movies. Other times they made The Lady Killers.
Coens
Shinobu Hashimoto is the greatest screenwriter of all time
Oh is that so? Why do you say it?
@@Tigerfire75 Look at his masterworks: Throne of Blood, Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Harakiri, Ikiru, Samurai Rebellion. Not to mention his "lesser films" like Hidden Fortress.
@juju10683 do I watch them in the original Japanese either learning it or subtitles. Or do I go with a dubbed version
Perhaps a bit too much analysis. Ninotchka is an ageless comedy but at least as much because of Ernst Lubitsch's direction and the extraordinary presence of Garbo as the script, on which Wilder had two collaborators.
Pal, you are a genius, please go and write a movie. This videos are great but you have to create something out of all your knowledge!
The throwback is called a callback.
I was wondering if he was using the term differently but it sure seems like a regular old callback.
@Hegder I should say in America it's called a callback. Might be different in other places.
Wilder & Brackett and, later with Izzy Diamond, were great teams. Alone Wilder could not write, unlike Bergman, who wrote after he stopped directing. This smart and literate dialogue will never come back because audiences are not literate and neither are producers or directors. They speak demotically, which is to say, without either art, nor artifice.
Its still called woo.
NEE nutch kah. Not nee NOUGHTCH ka. Stress on 1st syll.
It really made me sad when you compared Ninotchka to modern romantic comedies. Where Billy Wilder respected his audience, saw them as intelligent people who can recall a fact from earlier to make a comeback for a joke, who had wide vocabulary to appreciate a clever play on words, contemporary screenwriter sees their audience as imbeciles who need to have the jokes explained to them and have patience of a five year old child who can't stand a slower, serious scene and need to be bombarded with quick, primitive exchanges
Don't need to be so cynical. All you have to do is to look at Bojack Horseman if you want a modern example of a work that makes full use of the power of words. It even has one episode that's just an episode-length soliloquy and another that's entirely silent and tells its story through visuals. For other non-filmic modern masterworks, there's also the video game Disco Elysium which is a 1 million word long maximalist masterpiece which uses every single literary technique possible. Even Succession came out recently, which Moviewise analyzed before. These three are examples of contemporary works that display enormous literary craft and received huge critical acclaim when they came out. Classical Hollywood had its fair share of cliched dreck that nobody remembers nowadays.
You have the entire history of human creation at your fingertips, and you can access media from countries all over the world. If you can't find any gems or 'intellectual' works, that speaks more about your lack of resourcefulness than it does the current state of art.
@@harryaudessis3869- Indeed, in 1956 Theodore Sturgeon observed that "90% of everything is crud".
The vast majority of one art form is, practically by definition, mediocre.
When we revisit the past we remember the very good, the very very bad (because it is fun to badmouth it) and ignore everything in between. This happens to me as I try to recall the anime that I feasted upon in the '80s as it does to the responsible of buying rights for a "movie classics" channel, hence the reason why we seldom see the crap that shared space with good works before we were around.
I would suggest that you analyse the writing of the fan series "The Stories of Sodor" by Victor Tansig, specifically the 4th and 5th seasons. But i believe this request is too immature for your standards, so i won't insist.
You've not heard every writer's dialogue spoken in English.
Never heard of this movie. I'm sure it's great, but I'm Russian and for me this romantic line feels the same as if main character fell in love with Magda Goebbels. She was a part of Civil war, she is obviously a part of Stalin's terror. No way to drink cocktails and flirt with her. Same story would be rather fun in 70s with some rigid Soviet secretary. But in 30s she's totally a butcher.
Too much commentary, too little "dialogue".
When I think of dialog that flows in perfect meter like music, I think of "Trouble in Paradise" (1932, directed by Ernst Lubitsch; screenplay by Samson Raphaelson, adaptation by Grover Jones from the play by Laszlo Aladar) -- in which "confessions" are also seductions -- or accusations that start off on the wrong foot:
LILY: "I have a confession to make to you. Baron, you are a crook. You robbed the gentleman in 253, 5, 7 and 9. May I have the salt?" [...]
GASTON: "Countess, believe me, before you left this room, I would have told you everything. And let me say this, with love in my heart: Countess, you are a thief. The wallet of the gentleman in 253, 5, 7 and 9 is in your possession. I knew it very well when you took it out of my pocket. In fact, you tickled me. But your embrace was so sweet..."
- LATER -
MME. COLET: "Monsieur La Valle, I have a confession to make to you. You like me. In fact, you’re crazy about me. Otherwise, you wouldn’t think about my reputation. Isn’t that so? But, incidentally, I don’t like you. I don’t like you at all. And I wouldn’t hesitate one instant to ruin your reputation…[snaps her fingers] like that!"