35. Conversations with Wilder

By Cameron Crowe (358 pp) This is a book of Cameron Crowe interviewing Billy Wilder and it's fantastic. Crowe asks a lot of interesting questions and perfectly captures Wilder's cranky elder side while also getting some great stories out of him. As I read I made a list of all the Wilder movies I want to see but of course many aren't available or are on some platform that I don't have. I gave this book to Bob years ago and can't remember what prompted me to ask him to get it out for me. It's been on my nightstand for awhile. I would read a chapter or two and then let it sit. As I got to the end, I put off reading it because I assumed it would end with Billy Wilder's death and I didn't want to be sad that he died, you know, in 2002. That's not how it ends even though Wilder himself suggested that. Bob decided I needed the book of Francois Truffaut interviewing Alfred Hitchcock. Who knows how long that will be on the nightstand?