:23:02
I want to say how happy I am to be
in the studio making a picture again.
:23:07
You don't know how I've missed you.
I'll never desert you again.
:23:14
Because after "Salome" we'll make
another picture and another.
:23:18
You see, this is my life. It always
will be. There's nothing else.
:23:24
Just us and the cameras
:23:28
and those wonderful people
out there in the dark.
:23:34
All right, Mr DeMille,
I'm ready for my close-up.
:23:37
What this film is truly about
is a very, very huge theme,
:23:44
which is universal.
:23:46
That is opportunism
and its consequences.
:23:51
Everyone in it is, to some degree,
an opportunist.
:23:55
That's a polite way of putting it.
:24:00
The nature of this business
:24:03
is the exploitation of people
:24:08
and its consequences.
:24:10
It's people who are willing
to sell themselves out for any price.
:24:15
The test of time
has kept this film alive
:24:21
in people's interest and excitement
:24:26
and fascination.
:24:28
The film's a masterpiece.
:24:30
It looks more real today
than it did then.
:24:33
It looks less Gothic,
less melodramatic,
:24:38
less flamboyant.
:24:40
One of the interesting things
about Billy Wilder
:24:44
is that he bridges Old Hollywood
and New Hollywood.
:24:48
He's got all the grace, the structure,
the beautiful language,
:24:53
the careful screenplay
and image construction,
:24:56
with the bitterness and cynicism
of the present.