229. Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Directed by Billy wilder

Synopsis

Norma Desmond is a forgotten star of the silent age, Gillis is an unsuccessful screenwriter, they get entangled together when he helps her edit her great script for Salome, he eventually becomes her gigolo. It all ends in tears.

Review

Well this was a refreshing film, it is great to see such a demented film coming out of Hollywood. Probably one of the nastiest, more demented films since Stroheim's Greed, and it is at the same time great and quite sad to see Stroheim serving as Max the butler here.

Then you have Gloria Swanson and the spectacular main character, in a part that was probably even more deserving of the Oscar than Bette Davis in All About Eve... although none of them won it.

The exploration of celebrity culture and the exploitation of people inherent in the Hollywood world is superb. The film is a feast, both visually, with its great sets, and opening and closing shots and in terms of script. This is one of the most quotable films ever made, almost every line is perfect. And when you know the actors from their silent days, this all gets mixed with a bitter-sweet feeling of loss. I can only dimly imagine what this would have looked like to the audience of the time, it feels so fresh today.

A truly amazing film, and if I could give it more than 10 stars I would.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

In dissecting Hollywood's "world of illusion" Wilder carefully placed the story within as authentic a setting as possible and made use of Hollywood history. Norma Desmond's name is believed to have been inspired by actor/director William Desmond Taylor, who had been murdered in 1922, and his close associate and friend Mabel Normand, whose career was ruined by scandals surrounding the murder.

Swanson was considered a fitting representative of Hollywood's past, remembered nostalgically by older fans but unknown to many younger movie viewers. Her personal collection of photographs decorated the set of Norma Desmond's home, causing Desmond's fictional past to resemble Swanson's authentic career.

The script refers to real films such as Gone with the Wind and real people such as Darryl F. Zanuck, D. W. Griffith, Tyrone Power, Alan Ladd, William Demarest, Adolphe Menjou, Rudolph Valentino, Rod La Rocque, Vilma Bánky, John Gilbert, Mabel Normand, Bebe Daniels, Marie Prevost, Betty Hutton and Barbara Stanwyck along with the Black Dahlia murder case. Norma Desmond declares admiration for Greta Garbo.

Wilder extended his Hollywood references into some of his casting choices. Erich von Stroheim was a leading director of the silent era. In the role of Max he watches a film with Norma Desmond and the briefly shown scene is from Queen Kelly (1929), which von Stroheim himself directed with Swanson in the title role. Cecil B. De Mille, often credited as the person most responsible for making Swanson a star, plays himself, and was filmed on the set of his current film Samson and Delilah at Paramount Studios. He calls Norma "young fellow," the nickname he had called Swanson, a tiny detail of authenticity suggested by De Mille.

Norma's friends who come to play bridge with her, described in the script as "The Waxworks", are Swanson's contemporaries Buster Keaton, Anna Q. Nilsson and H. B. Warner, who, like De Mille, play themselves. Hedda Hopper also plays herself reporting on Norma Desmond's downfall in the film's final scenes.

In a comic scene Norma Desmond performs a pantomime for Joe Gillis as a Mack Sennett "Bathing Beauty", in homage to Swanson's earliest film roles. She also performs a Charles Chaplin impersonation identical to one she performed in the film Masquerade (1924).

Wilder also made use of authentic locales. Joe Gillis's home in the Alto-Nido apartments was a real apartment block located near Paramount Studios and often populated by struggling writers. The scenes of Gillis and Betty Schaefer on Paramount's backlot were filmed on the actual backlot and the interior of Schwab's Drug Store was carefully recreated for several scenes. The exterior scenes of the Desmond house were filmed in the vicinity of an old home on Wilshire Blvd. built during the 1920s, which by 1949 was owned by the former wife of J. Paul Getty. The house was also featured in Rebel Without A Cause. It has since been demolished and an office building stands in its location.

The final scene: