Mr. Wilder and Me by Jonathan Coe

…that’s because it’s a picture about people, and nobody wants to see those any more.

from Mr Wilder and Me by Jonathan Coe

In 1977, Star Wars dominated the culture and Jaws was the highest grossing film of all time. Famed Hollywood director Billy Wilder was ‘out’, compelled to turn to Germany to fund a film close to his heart.

By chance, a Greek-born, multilingual, amateur musician is traveling America with a friend whose father arranged a meeting with Wilder. Calista knew nothing of the films of the golden age of Hollywood, including Wilder’s masterpieces Sunset Boulevard, Some Like it Hot, The Apartment, and Double Indemnity. Arriving in flip flops sandals and cut-off jean shorts, the girls are disoriented by the glamorous restaurant and the company. In the middle of dinner, the friend takes off, leaving Calista alone.

Wilder and his writer Iz Diamond hope to pick Calista’s brain to understand “what the young people want from the pictures these days.” One yawn later, Calista has inspired Wilder with an idea. He gives her the script for his film to read.

When Wilder heads to Greece to film his movie, he asks Calista to be a translator. And Calista’s life is changed, immersed in movie making, surrounded by Hollywood stars, embarking on a love affair, learning at Wilder’s side, all leading to a career writing movie music.

Wilder understands the horror of life. His mother disappeared during WWII. He wants to make compassionate films, a romantic at heart. Fedora, Calista contends, was the product of Wilder’s urge to give something beautiful to a world obsessed with “youth and novelty.”

You have to give them something else, something a little bit elegant, a little bit beautiful. Life is ugly. We all know that. You don’t need to go to the movies to learn that life is ugly. You go because those two hours will fill your life some little spark…that it didn’t have before. A bit of joy, maybe.

from Mr. Wilder and Me by Jonathan Coe

Mr. Wilder and Me is a lovely escape, saturated with Hollywood nostalgia and insight. It is a thing of beauty.

Now, I want to go on a Wilder movie binge.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Mr. Wilder and Me
by Jonathan Coe
Europa Editions
Pub Date September 27, 2022
ISBN: 9781609457921
PRICE $27.00 (USD)

from the publisher

In the heady summer of 1977, a naïve young woman called Calista sets out from Athens to venture into the wider world. On a Greek island that has been turned into a film set, she finds herself working for the famed Hollywood director Billy Wilder, about whom she knows almost nothing. But the time she spends in this glamorous, unfamiliar new life will change her for good.

While Calista is thrilled with her new adventure, Wilder himself is living with the realization that his star may be on the wane. Rebuffed by Hollywood, he has financed his new film with German money, and when Calista follows him to Munich for the shooting of further scenes, she finds herself joining him on a journey of memory into the dark heart of his family history.

In a novel that is at once a tender coming-of-age story and an intimate portrait of one of cinema’s most intriguing figures, Jonathan Coe turns his gaze on the nature of time and fame, of family and the treacherous lure of nostalgia. When the world is catapulting towards change, do you hold on for dear life or decide it’s time to let go?