58-The Best Years of Our Lives - Director:William Wyler. Cast: Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo and Harold Russell.


---"I have never been as interested in the externals of presenting a scene as I have been in the inner workings of the people the scene is about."
-William Wyler-
The comments would be echoed and elaborated upon in 1948 by Andre Bazin,the leading intellectual among French film scholars.His seminal essay about Wyler's body of work has remained the essential analysis.Subsequent critics and scholars have either agreed or disagreed with it but have not been able to ignore it.In sum,Bazin regarded 'Best Years' as the epitome of Wyler's "invisible style"--that is,when the director chose to use it.He was an eclectic filmmaker,who lets the content of each picture determinate it's own style.By "invisible",Bazin meant his signature was honest,democratic and stripped down,in contrast,say,to that of Orson Welles,which he regarded as mannered,even sadistic.

Wyler's point,Bazin wrote,"is to provoke the spectator,not to put him on the rack and torture him.All he wants is that the spectator can (1) see everything ; and (2)choose as he pleases.It's an act of loyalty toward the spectator,an attempt at dramatic honesty". Bazin compares the neutrality and transparency of Wyler's staging--"un style sans style"--with Andre Gide's literary technique,which maximized clarity,immediacy and directness.He even counted the number of shots in "Best Years"to prove his point,noting that it used roughly one hundred-ninety per hour compared with three to four hundred an hour for the average picture.This meant longer,therefore less deceptive,shots that allow the audience to choose what it sees.Unlike Welles's use of 'deep focus' to create effects(such as foreshortening perspective or heightening suspense),Wyler makes functional use of the technique.

"It is through professionalism,not as esthete but as craftsman,that he has become the consummate artist," Bazin wrote,noting this was already evident in Dodsworth."When we talk about his direction,we must keep in mind...that his first and only worry is to make the audiences understand..."----

-from the essential book

A Talent for Trouble: The Life of Hollywood's Most Acclaimed Director, William Wyler by Jan Herman
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"It's easier to know that Wyler is Hollywood's finest director for actors than it is to explain it.He doesn't articulate his criticism.But you sense his dissatisfaction.He seems to know when there's more to be gotten than you're giving.And he's relentless until he has it.The released print is the deferred proof."
-Fredric March-
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"the best directed film I've ever seen"
-Billy Wilder (on "Best Years")-
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"William Wyler is A Giant.And 'The Best Years of Our Lives" is a giant film."
-Mel Brooks-