Furthermore, it is not obvious to me that nonbelievers are repulsed by what is foreign, odd or «mystical» — not when Hollywood movies gross billions precisely by delivering symbols that
defy easy assimilation and require work to understand.
He's a fascinating figure, Wilder — a director of obvious genius who has
defied easy auteur classification not because he didn't have his distinguishing characteristics (the outsider hero yearning for
assimilation, for instance), but because his films are only queasily liked and then only at arm's length.