On Billy Wilder, The New French Extremity, and Hollywood vs European arthouse

I’ve just watched The Apartment the 3rd time, and I’m crazy about Billy Wilder again.



There was a time I named Billy Wilder as my no.1 favourite director, then over the past 2 years, I’ve been watching more European (art) films, especially from the 40s-60s, taking an interest in experimenting and the idea of film as dream, and moving away from classic and modern Hollywood, realism, and chronological storytelling, but Billy Wilder still has a special place in my heart. Now, watching again The Apartment, I see him as representing the best of classic Hollywood, whilst Ingmar Bergman’s the best of European arthouse—the 2 camps, so to speak. 
Let me elaborate by going slightly off-topic. The other day I came across the term New French Extremity. 
This is the definition on Wikipedia:

“New French Extremity (New French Extremism or, informally, New French Extreme) is a term coined by Artforum critic James Quandt for a collection of transgressive films by French directors at the turn of the 21st century.” 

According to James Quandt: 

“Bava as much as Bataille, Salò no less than Sade seem the determinants of a cinema suddenly determined to break every taboo, to wade in rivers of viscera and spumes of sperm, to fill each frame with flesh, nubile or gnarled, and subject it to all manner of penetration, mutilation, and defilement.” 

The New French Extremity has its roots in body horror and exploitation cinema. Google for images of Baise-moi, In My Skin, or Irréversible, and you’ll get the idea. 
Wikipedia also says: 

“Films belonging to the New French Extremity take a severe approach to depicting violence and sex.” 

The world of Danish director Lars von Trier is also like that, full of violence, rape, sexual humiliation, self-mutilation, hypocrisy...—he wants to break every taboo, have no limit, and depict everything on screen. 
I can’t help wondering, all this extremity—unsimulated sex scenes, violence, rape, self-mutiliation, blood…, all this ugliness, for what? 
Somehow it looks like there are 2 camps: Hollywood vs European arthouse; the Oscars vs Cannes; telling a good story (in a conventional way) vs experimenting with form and narrative. In a way, filmgoers can be put into either camp. The way I see it is that, people who choose European art films are either those who see film as art (good) or those who like avant-garde and experiments, even for the sake of experiment (bad); whereas people who choose American films are either those who see film as entertainment (bad) or those who value characters and a good story over experiment for the sake of experiment (good). 
Because of my favourite films, my own interests and tendencies, I tend to think I’m on the side of European art films, until I’m reminded that whilst there are masters such as Ingmar Bergman, Fellini, Bunuel, Tarkovsky…, European arthouse also has lots of ugliness, lots of filth and extremity, and lots of trash. 
Billy Wilder is the reminder that in cinema, special effects get outdated, experimenting becomes boring, transgression loses it meaning, and over time a film that focuses on those things becomes worthless, whilst a film that has human characters and a good story and a heart would stand the test of time. That is why his films are never old—films such as The Apartment, Sunset Boulevard, Ace in the Hole, and Some Like It Hot, are still fresh today, and will still be fresh 50 years from now, because they deal with human beings and conflicts and feelings, and because he looks at people with clear eyes and doesn’t stoop to false sentimentality. 
Ingmar Bergman and Billy Wilder are the directors who touch me the most on a personal level. They have very different styles, and very different approaches to cinema and storytelling, but they both are interested in human beings and universal problems. 
Their films are never old. 




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Ultimately, Bergman and Wilder may be in the same camp.
Film is their way of telling stories, expressing themselves, and dealing with human problems. 
The other camp is filmmakers who are more interested in other stuff—entertainment, special effects, experimenting, narrative, shock, whatever. To me, special effects may be fun to watch, experimenting may be interesting to see, but in the end, if there’s nothing beneath all that, who cares?