Sunset Boulevard (Sunset Blvd.)

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  August 28, 2009

  mrpopcorn

  "I am big! It's the pictures that got small."
  
  A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.
  
  REVIEW
  "Sunset Boulevard" repres...( read more)ents Billy Wilder at his most acidic and ghoulish, but it's a testament to his genius as a film maker that he could create a film as relentlessly bleak and cynical as this one and make it devilishly entertaining (and even quite funny at times) rather than unbearably depressing.
  
  There's a big fat heart at the center of Wilder's bitter pill, and it's one that could be easily missed amid the dark, film-noirish exterior. I think that ultimately "Sunset Boulevard" is about the love of movies. You can tell that Wilder loves movies as much as the sad and decaying film star Norma Desmond, played brilliant by Gloria Swanson. But he understands with an insider's point of view that there's a seedy underside to every business, and that's what he sets out to expose in his film. Movies get made and stars are born, but for every birth there's a death.
  
  I don't know how much of Swanson's performance is acting or her just being herself. If you allow yourself to think about it too long, Wilder's use of her is almost cruel, as making fun of Norma Desmond the character nearly amounts to making fun of Swanson the actress. The whole movie is uncomfortable in that same way--it's like a bunch of Hollywood used-to-be's got together and decided to let themselves be parodied for a greater cause. But the film stops just short of cruelty, because in many ways Norma is the most sympathetic character in the film, and every so often there's a glimpse of the vulnerable human being underneath that ridiculous getup that begs to be loved, and who can't relate to that?
  
  William Holden is perfect in a non-showy role that it would be tempting to pass off as an easy one. But I don't think it is an easy role. Holden has to be responsible for tempering the audience's reaction to Norma--he's the moral conscience of the film, and his steady presence anchors it and keeps it from sailing headlong into camp.
  
  There are so many quotable lines in this film, I don't know where to begin. Imagine this film and "All About Eve" coming out in the same year. It's a movie quote fan's wet dream.
  
  In an eerie bit of prophetic trivia, apparently Gloria Swanson thought this film would signal such a major comeback for her that she began plans to write a stage musical based on the film, starring herself. (She might even have gotten as far as completing it). Of course nothing ever came of it, and Swanson sunk quickly back into obscurity. But she would be vindicated to know that a stage musical did eventually appear, courtesy of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, and it actually does quite a bit of justice to Wilder's film.

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  August 4, 2009

  garyX

  William Holden stars as a down on his luck screen writer who stumbles upon faded silent movie star Gloria Swanson whilst avoiding some repo men. He sees her as an opportunity to hustle a few bucks only to find himself mired deeper and deeper in her isolated, nightmarish little wo...( read more)rld. Another cynical classic from Billy Wilder, this film is a black hearted satire on Hollywood society and its obsession with image and self. Swanson is brilliant as the hilariously awful ex-starlet who surrounds herself with her own image, incapable of dealing with a world that has passed her by. Holden's character is not much more sympathetic as the self-interested operator, consumed with self loathing at his own parasitic relationship with the quite clearly insane old dame, and Erich Von Stroheim is creepy as hell as he lurks around, feeding his mistress' self delusions of grandeur. Similar, although not quite as good as Whatever Happened To Baby Jane, the lack of likable characters make this a little hard going, and it's a little melodramatic for my tastes, but the sharp dialogue, excellent performances and bizarre mix of psychological horror and black comedy make for fascinating viewing.

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  May 28, 2009

  ohagankieran

  This is such a great film on so many levels I can't really settle on where to begin. It is so beautifully shot (in that stark black/white that only nitrate negative could achieve), has a witty, clever and extremely well-written script, features some of the best acting in film's h...( read more)istory, acrobatically balances the main plot/subplots with expert precision, contains some of the best characters on celluloid, has many true-to-life parallels (Swanson's career/real life cameos/DeMille's involvement/etc) and is peppered with such great dialogue/narration that today's film writers should take note. If that weren't enough, there's even a cameo by silent film great Buster Keaton (among others).
  
  One of the most appealing aspects of this film is how, in the story, an aging, forgotten star is trying to recapture a bygone era (the silent film era). What's interesting is that now, so many years later, we're looking back at her looking back. To present day viewers, Gloria Swanson of the 1950's is a long forgotten lost gem and to experience her own longing for the 1920's is especially captivating (and a little chilling, I might add). I don't think this film could have had that same effect when it debuted and maybe this added dimension holds so much more appeal for today's audiences. We all know that nothing lasts forever, but we don't often consider the abandoned participants; much like the veterans of a past war.
  
  In response to the famous Swanson line (while watching one of her silent films): "...we didn't need dialogue; we had faces", I'd like to also add that they "didn't need movies; they had films."

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  April 24, 2009

  flixsterman

  One of the best film noir pictures ever made. Just look at the plethora of glowing reviews. Not much more can be said.
  
  So...
  
  Let us digress for a moment and delve into the rarely discussed realm of the subtext, the underbelly if you will, of this iconic American classic. There ...( read more)are certain realities concerning Sunset Boulevard that are inescapable. One of the more evident ones is the non-platonic relationship between 50-something Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) and 30-something Joe Gillis (William Holden). To get the full effect of the circumstance one must, if only for a moment, visualize the two of them together... mono a mono. Personally, every time I try to wrap my brain around that I throw up a little in my mouth. My twisted imagination conjures up a Harold-n-Maude(ish) image. I know what you're thinking. It is an unsettling mental visage that no one (except of course ME) would ever dwell on. Still, its a crucial concept that must be grasped if you're to immerse yourself in the ambiance of the picture and fully appreciate its geriatric sexuality.

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  April 2, 2009

  binky013

  From a writing standpoint, kudos for this script.

  There is something about getting old, in Hollywood, that is imminently topical. In this movie about making movies, the notion of growing too old to draw an audience echoes a kind of universally unspoken nightmare for everyone

  ...( read more) who becomes a "star."

  How ironic that this really was Gloria Swanson's swan song. After this it was all a path to obscurity for her with mostly TV parts until the end. Her melodramatic acting style is almost so over the top that you might be tempted to laugh in some scenes, but the fact that her character's story is so sad keeps you from doing so. Swanson would have had my vote for the Oscar.

  William Holden is so good in this; dying young is one sure solution to the problem of aging. My favorite player is Cecil B. DeMille as himself. He completely and sympathetically understands the aging star's tragedy.

  In Hollywood, how old is too old? An interesting commentary on a problem that must plague many Hollywood industry folks even to this day.

  Okay, here's a question for everyone who might want to think about it: In literature, when a narrator continues to speak after death, is that an artistic problem, or, in this case, is that perhaps a commentary on art and immortality?

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  October 17, 2009

  ElCochran90

  "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."
  
  SUNSET BLVD. (1950)
  
  Director: Billy Wilder
  Country: United States of America
  Genre: Drama / Film-Noir
  Length: 110 minutes
  
  ...( read more)bucket.com/albums/ww125/ElCochran90/Decorated%20images/?action=view¤t=sunset.jpg" target="_blank">
  
  Billy Wilder had always been a very prolific director. From tense thrillers to romantic comedies, the main characteristic of his filmic style was that it gloriously portrayed, in a joyous way, the American lifestyle. Such elements would be irremediably exalted through plots regarding deception, malice, crime and the exquisite cinematic film-noir genre. With Sunset Blvd. he managed not only to create one of the best and most glorious American classic masterpieces with some of the most memorable, dramatic and stylish one-liners, but also to reveal what had been by then a possible myth of the obscurity of Hollywood. As scandalous and possibly offensive this timeless and dark masterpiece may have been for some people in particular, especially those belonging to Hollywood stardom and eternal egoism, Sunset Blvd. is arguably the best American film-noir ever made as well as an unforgettably compelling drama based on the typical behavior of the characters popularized by the media.
  
  In the unparalleled tradition of Citizen Kane (1941) without equaling it, the film opens with a floating corpse in a pool with his eyes wide open, staring at the deepness of the water. Resorting to a voiceover narrative structure that relies on a predominant flashback as dark as the streets of Sunset Boulevard during the night, the main character, movie screenwriter Joseph C. Gillis, slowly and wisely narrates his romance with an exceedingly egomaniac and undeniably gigantic bitch silent-movie star named Norma Desmond, who asks him to write a screenplay for her new film under the incredibly blind conviction that life, unexpectedly, is about to reward her with a big screen-comeback. Being selected as one of the twenty-five landmark films of all time by the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1989, as the 12th greatest film of the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time by the American Film Institute in 1998 and as the 16th Greatest Movie of All Time by the American Film Institute in 2007, the movie was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, which are Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, two for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Film Editing, Best Director and Best Picture. As beautiful and brilliant as the old classic Hollywood times may have been for cinema, it is clearly that a peaceful audience was not yet ready for this kind of dark meta-Hollywood film-noir, since the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences ended up mistakenly choosing All About Eve (1950) as the best motion picture of the year with Joseph L. Mankiewicz as the best director, and Judy Holliday as the better actress for her fairly decent performance in Born Yesterday (1950), directed by George Cukor. All of these awards, including the one for best cinematography, were obviously stolen from the film.
  
  The screenplay elaborated by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett and D.M. Marshman Jr. demanded a great complexity and constant strokes of genius. Creating an obscure Hollywood story and merging it with reality may seem as a fun challenge and an entertaining game for the screenwriters to show their knowledge about cinema, but it is ultimately a difficult task. Counting with several outstanding cameos such as of the prolific composers of the film Ray Evans and Jay Livingston (Rear Window [1954]), The Godfather [1972]), actresses Anna Q. Nilson (Adam's Rib [1949], An American in Paris [1951]) and Hedda Hopper (Wings [1927], The Women [1939]), actor H.B. Warner (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington [1939], It's a Wonderful Life [1946]), actor, director, screenwriter, producer and editor Buster Keaton (Sherlock Jr. [1924], The General [1926]), and director Cecil B. DeMille (King of Kings [1927], The Ten Commandments [1956]), who actually plays a rather relevant role within the film, Sunset Blvd. has daringly ventured into a desperate downward spiral of psychological doom and soul abomination through the famous world of Hollywood, creating a believable atmosphere. What the cinematography accomplished to create is a darker and more vertiginous atmosphere where arising emotions culminate in tragedy and total madness, thanks to its dusty giant scenarios and its perfectly captured frames.
  
  I'll dedicate an exclusive paragraph for the acting. William Holden offered a brilliant personification of the typical American and romantic detective of predominant stylish, with one minor detail: he's not a detective, but a credited screenwriter. His perfect love complement is interpreted by Nancy Olson, another romantically confused screenwriter named Betty Schaefer, who would only be the drop that would overflow the glass and unleash chaos. Erich von Stroheim (Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages [1916], La Grande Illusion [1937]) portrays a rather macabre character that, at first glance, seems to be hiding an extraordinary amount of secrets, and a psychological disorder and a dependent weakness. The whole show is, naturally, stolen by Gloria Swanson, who ironically was also an acclaimed silent-film actress. She is the ultimate reincarnation of the (unfortunately) typical film star who has already faded into the empire of goods abundance, an increased feeling of ownership of the world as being the reason of the creation and existence of cinema, and the creation of a powerful and greedy empire by an irremediably lost-in-life upper class. Her exceeding sensation of false despotism can be deliciously contrasted with the artistically awesome mansion scenario with an organ that constantly plays thanks to light wind gusts, like a human's soul harmonically tossing desperate screams of impossible freedom, concluding with hundreds of photos of an army of Norma Desmonds and a big movie screen where she can contemplate her own films, showing the real-life feature film Queen Kelly (1929), starring the real Gloria Swanson and directed by the real Erich von Stroheim.
  
  Is this Hollywood's most audacious classic? Perhaps it is, but it is undeniably the best and most ambitious and visionary masterwork of Billy Wilder. Poetically speaking, the film is absolutely grandiose, from the literarily inspired script to the hypnotic black-and-white photography and an unforgettable and unequalled female leading performance. Myths and truths behind the scenes revealed, Sunset Blvd. is an American masterpiece released at the exact time, a period where American films reached a beauty that rarely is accomplished nowadays, but that it is not supposed to be remade for any reasons, not even for financial ones, but to be worshipped and admired as a source of true cinema landmarks.
  
  98/100

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  October 15, 2009

  addienairzan

  And I thought Cartman's mom is the biggest bitch in the whole wide world..

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  September 30, 2009

  kunam88

  i hate t admit it,but to be honest,of all the classic movies that i've been watched till this day (DR CALIGARI,ALL ABOUT EVE,CITIZEN KANE,REAR WINDOW,etc),this is the weakest.seen it today over almost 60 years of its initial release,is just very irrelevant.the acting is overmelod...( read more)ramatic and the story is predictable.i waited until the last scene to find something groundbreaking,that makes this movie stand in number 50 in top 250 movies of IMDB,but i couldn't find any,.i know i'm in the minority for this,but hey,its just my opinion,

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  September 18, 2009

  BurtHarbinson

  The greatest series of pictures ever captured on celluloid.
  
  Billy Wilder puts on a pair of fine white satin gloves, and shamelessly slaps Hollywood right across the face. What a classy, and respectable move.
  
  What happens in this film, is a chain reaction of occurrences, that ca...( read more)uses the glass of the mind's eye to overflow, and topple. Impressive, in countless ways.
  
  Photography. The first evident sign of this little piece of magnificence.John F. Seitz, who is also responsible for Double Indemnity, provides us with the same dark, and smokey cinematography in Sunset Boulevard. Entire lifetimes flashing before your eyes with one detailed frame. From square one, opening scene, we have one of the most interesting and provocative shots in cinema history. A very difficult, and well-worth while set up that no modern day photographer would even bother with because of the difficulty to pull off.
  
  The coolest aspect of Sunset Boulevard, was the irony of the characters, and their actual relationships with Hollywood at the time of the film.
  
  Gloria Swanson WAS Norma Desmond. A once extremely popular silent film star, slowly fading out in modern times, like the end of a cigarette. Erich von Stroheim, who had directed, and thought to had both brought the rise and fall of Gloria's career, essentially plays himself. Fucking brilliant. The sets for Norma Desmond's house, were filled with actual photos of Gloria Swanson. There will never be a more accurate, and more realistic depiction of Hollywood.
  
  There is a very poignant yet simple scene where Norma is playing bridge, with several other silent film stars, also forgotten, and considered washed up. The likes of Buster Keaton, Anna Q. Nilsson, and H. B. Warner. Also, the performance by Desmond from Chaplain's film "Masquerade". A powerful scene, yet so cute, and whimsical.
  
  What happens here, is that Wilder bridges a gap between the end of the silent era and modern films with sound. As a way to pay homage, and deep respect, but to also show the dirty reflection back at the industry, as an example. A way of saying, don't forget where you came from you heartless swine; and without people like Gloria Swanson, you wouldn't be in business!
  
  Norma says it best herself:
  
  "There once was a time in this business when I had the eyes of the whole world! But that wasn't good enough for them, oh no! They had to have the ears of the whole world too. So they opened their big mouths and out came talk. Talk! TALK! "
  
  It was not only the transition to sound that essentially phased-out the voices of these silent film stars, but also the every growing greed amongst Hollywood producers. Brilliantly exposed by Wilder, and thought to have been a direct betrayal of all of the producers that helped Wilder to even have such freedom to set up such an elaborate bitch-slap on the industry.
  
  But listen to this......
  
  It is reported that after a private Paramount screening of Sunset Boulevard, Barbra Stanwyck became so moved that she bowed and kissed the hem of Gloria Swanson's skirt. Wow...!! My god, imagine what a beautiful scene that would have been to witness. *tears*
  
  I think that we all owe Norma Desmond the same level of respect. And remember, she will always be big, the real deal... as modern day pictures become smaller and smaller, and more and more detached.
  
  Yes, if the ending was in 3-D, I would have shit my pants.

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  September 12, 2009

  itsmagical

  One of my favourite films EVER!!!

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  March 6, 2009

  moonrivers

  bill holden is the new blood of hollywood forced to condescend to entertain one of old hollywood's legends, and lawdy, lawdy, lawdy, how does one tolerate the egotistical ol' shrew? it's the point of view bill wilder only seems to endorse...
  wilder's ultimate consideration for killing the younger generation still makes points...hot lead in yer back, punk!
  and, but of course, gloria swanson's movie.

• William Holden
• Gloria Swanson
• Erich von Stroheim
• Nancy Olson
• Fred Clark
• Lloyd Gough

Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

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  All About Eve (87%)
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  House of Sand and Fog (33%)
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  In a Lonely Place (100%)
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  American Beauty (100%)

• Classic with Gloria Swanson & William Holden with cameos by Buster Keaton, Cecil B. DeMille & Hedda Hopper?  Answer »
• In this classic movie, it opens up to a man's body floating in a pool, then the narrator comes in to tell of how he ended up dead in the pool. (hint: it contains the quote: I'm ready for my close-up Mr Duval)  Answer »
• Name this movie "I am Big, it's the pictures that got small"  Answer »
• Which movie is this scene from? Joe Gillis: You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big. Norma Desmond: I *am* big. It's the *pictures* that got small.  Answer »

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