ROY EDROSO, ALICUBI NEWS

March 29 (Alicubi) Billy Wilder, one of the greatest film writers and directors in history, died Wednesday night at the age of 95. Born in Austria-Hungary, Wilder worked as a screenwriter in Germany before emigrating to the United States when Hitler rose to power. He later recalled that the American customs agent who was about to stamp his passport asked him what he did for a living. "I write pictures," said the nervous Wilder. The agent stamped his passport and said, "Write some good ones."

Wilder did. He scripted Ninotchka and Midnight, among many others, before convincing studio executives to let him direct his own stories. In collaboration with co-scenarists (usually Charles Brackett or I.A.L. Diamond), Wilder made over two dozen pictures, the majority of them screen classics. These ranged from mordant comedies such as Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, and The Fortune Cookie, to groundbreaking dramas such as Sunset Boulevard, The Lost Weekend, and Stalag 17.

In 1991 the American Film Insititute held a gala in honor of Wilder, at which he made the following remarks:

I've been here for over 50 years...and all through those years I've watched Tinseltown vacillate between despair and fear.

First it was going to be sound that killed us, then television, then cable, then pornography, then cassettes, and now that terrifying new word, microchip. They're telling me that these guys in Silicon Valley, they really believe that soon we won't need theatres anymore, nor studios for that matter. They will have invented little tiny screens that you will attach to your steering wheel, or big, 20-foot screens that you will attach to the ceiling of your bedroom.

And someday, someone is going to press a button and send a signal to a satellite which in turn will light up five million screens all the way from Albania to Zanzibar. Fantastic, isn't it? Unbelievable. All the hardware is there, beautifully programmed. Bravo. Except for one little detail.

What about the software? What are we going to put on all those screens? Who is going to write it, who is going to direct it, who is going to act it?

For all I know these wise guys are right now trying to replace the human factor--microchips that will replace the human brain and the human heart. Mechanical gadgets that can simulate emotions, scream, laughter, tears.

Well, so far they've not suceeded--not yet anyway. So relax, fellow picture-makers. The fact is, the bigger they get, the more irreplacable we become. For theirs may be the kingdom, but ours is the power and the glory.