A cinephile's fantasy: a rare meeting between legendary filmmaker Billy Wilder and one of his biggest fans, German director and cinephile Volker Schloendorff (The Tin Drum, see also The Ninth Day). Billy, How Did You Do It' takes the form of an extended conversation conducted over a few days: leisurely, entertaining, often revealing, occasionally gossipy, always intriguing.

Wilder takes Schloendorff swiftly through his early years before launching into passionate recollections of his American films. If you feel as though you may be robbed of a large chunk of the director's biography - not to mention a couple of dozen remarkable films - be patient; Wilder weaves his childhood, movie apprenticeship and the rise of Nazism into his far ranging reminisce. Irma la Douce, The Apartment, Ninotchka, Some Like It Hot, The Seven Year Itch, Stalag 17, Sunset Boulevard, The Lost Weekend, Double Indemnity. Wilder draws on his phenomenal recall to detail the making of classic cinema, the stars, their eccentricities and the Hollywood honchos he tamed.