New Plaza Cinema Lecture Series: The Cinema of Billy Wilder

The Sublimely Subversive Cinema of Billy Wilder

Writer/director Billy Wilder (1906-2002) made social satire and scalding comedy look easy. The Polish-born and German-raised genius behind The Apartment, Some Like It Hot, and Sabrina captured the outrageous quirkiness of the USA better than most of his Hollywood contemporaries. But there was also the serious commentator responsible for such hard-hitting dramas as Sunset Blvd., Double Indemnity, Ace in the Hole, and The Lost Weekend.

Join film historian Max Alvarez for the laughter and intensity in this sprawling study of the great Billy Wilder and his unforgettable Hollywood achievements.

Author, film historian, and public speaker Max Alvarez is a former visiting scholar and guest lecturer for The Smithsonian Institution and previously film curator at National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. His partnerships have included University of California, Los Angeles and Berkeley; Museum of the Moving Image, New Plaza Cinema, Library of Congress, and the National Gallery of Art in D.C.

Alvarez’s lecture topics range from the Cold War and political blacklisting to depictions of elections and the US presidency in Hollywood movies, immigration on film, China during the 20th Century, European women artists, censorship history, 20th century Jewish culture, and the British and American theater. Author of The Crime Films of Anthony Mann (University Press of Mississippi) and a major contributor to Thornton Wilder/New Perspectives (Northwestern University Press), his latest book is The Cinéphile’s Guide to the Great Age of Cinema (released June 2020). www.maxjalvarez.com

Website: www.maxjalvarez.com