USA
Billy Wilder
Bud Baxter is a minor clerk in a huge New York insurance company until he discovers a quick way to climb the corporate ladder. He lends out his apartment to the executives as a place to take their mistresses. Although he often has to deal with the aftermath of their visits, one night he's left with a major problem to solve.
Originally planning to become a lawyer, Billy Wilder abandoned that career in favor of working as a reporter for a Viennese newspaper, using this experience to move to Berlin, where he worked for the city's largest tabloid. He broke into films as a screenwriter in 1929 and wrote scripts for many German films until Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. Wilder immediately realized his Jewish ancestry would cause problems, so he immigrated to Paris, then the US. Wilder received various honors over his career, including the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1986, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1990, the National Medal of Arts in 1993, and the BAFTA Fellowship Award in 1995. He also received the Directors Guild of America's Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Producers Guild of America's Lifetime Achievement Award. Seven of his films are preserved in the United States National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
