Boulevard der Dämmerung

I have yet to see a Billy Wilder film that I haven't loved, and Sunset Boulevard is definitely one of those films. It's interesting to watch the film during different times in one's life – when I was a child watching this film, I thought the story was good and that Norma Desmond (Swanson) was a pretty scary lady. In my teens/college years, I appreciated it as a certified classic and for its commentary on Hollywood. Now, in my late 20's and early 30's I found it to have a different impact on me – I was saddened by Desmond's mental illness, and when she makes her final descent down her staircase and utters her famous line as the camera pans the faces of the people around her, so full of pity, and the care her butler/ex-husband takes to make sure she's happy for maybe the last time in her life made more of an impact on me than any other time in the 20-odd times I've seen this film. There are only a small handful of central characters in Sunset Boulevard and they are so richly written that this film will remain timeless. There are not a lot of `dated' themes in this film – the circle of life that is Hollywood isn't going to be much more evolved in 2050 than it was in 1950. If you haven't seen this film, watch it because there is something for just about anyone in this film.

--Shelly

Joe Gillis is floating face down in a pool and tells his story.That story tells how he met Norma Desmond, a big star from the silent era who now is forgotten by the people.She's planning a major comeback with a script of Salome.She wants Joe to help her with the movie.The movie's no good, everybody can see that, but Joe still stays around to help her.Soon he realizes that it was a big mistake.Sunset Blvd. (1950) is a masterpiece from the master called Billy Wilder.The actors are really unique.William Holden is superb as Joe Gillis and Gloria Swanson, an actual silent film star, is absolutely brilliant as Norma.Erich von Stroheim does a wonderful job as Max von Mayerling and so does the beautiful Nancy Olson as Betty Schaefer.In cameos you can see people like Cecil B.DeMille and Buster Keaton.The movie is something really special from the beginning till the end.You can't see movies like this these days.Now we don't have directors like Billy Wilder to make them.In his movies everything usually worked.Especially the dialog was something you don't have so often in modern movies.What happened to the great writers? Only a few seem to exist.

... how would you feel if the sexes of the characters were reversed? Suppose it was a woman writer trying to break into Hollywood, completely broke who, due to a flat tire, wanders into that big mansion. Pretty much financially cornered, she agrees to a job reworking some old film star's (let's say John Gilbert lived) script and comeback vehicle and slowly, what independence she has is taken away - her things are moved from her apartment where she is behind on her rent into a room over the garage at the mansion, her host sits by and lets her car be repossessed, she is never paid the promised cash for her work, a bad rainstorm moves her from her room over the garage into a room in the main house where there are no locks on the doors and thus no privacy, and then the seduction. Who would be the cad then?

So I think Wilder meant for the audience to sympathize with Joe. Sure he makes some questionable moral moves, but he is to some degree cornered. He would have to get a hand out from somebody to go back to his job that he hates at the copy desk in Ohio, and his pride wouldn't let him. Also, some say he becomes attracted to Norma. He at best is giving her pity sex and at worst duty sex. He looks either revolted or bored every time she touches him.

There are just great performances and interesting characters all around. Unpopular opinion here - I never thought Gloria Swanson was a pretty woman, but she had such severe features that she could come across as an attractive yet unhinged woman for age 50 as Norma. Eric Von Stroheim as Max. He was a great director who lets his obsession with Norma delude them both. And then there is Betty Schaefer, the down to earth girl who does the 50s thing and gets engaged to a man the way you would buy a car - she picks something reliable and likeable and omits passion from the equation. And then she finds passion. There could have been a sequel noir with her married to the dull dutiful Artie when she begins to call the mailman by his first name. The postman would only have to ring once in her case. But I digress.

This is also a great look at Hollywood and Paramount Studios as it existed in 1950. It's too bad we don't have more actual films from Paramount Studios as it existed in 1950. To me this is a perfect film.

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 history, 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."

They truly don't make them like this anymore. 10/10

Every time I go to L.A., which isn't too often, I look at these palm-bemused, once smart stucco facades, and wonder if a Norma Desmond from a later era might be hiding from the world inside them, buttressed by cable TV (AMC or TCM, no doubt), a poodle named FiFi or Sir Francis, walk-in closets full of leopard-print Capri pants that haven't fit in decades, and a world class liquor cabinet that has seen heads of state under the table on a good night. It is because of Sunset Blvd., for certain, that my mind could ever go there. It is one of the most indelible films you will ever see.

This film is great for many reasons, not the least of which is because it is Hollywood's first look back at itself. In the milieu of this film, the silent era is only 22 years behind us. The people left behind by the rush to sound can still palpably TASTE the fame, the accolade, that particular past being not so very dim and distant. The sadness of their lives was real, and at that point in history, all around, if hidden. Way more has been made of the supposed "savagery" of this film vis a vis the faded star than I think exists now, or ever did. The often cynical Wilder is deeply in touch with the tragic here, as much as the grotesque.