Sunset Boulevard

Part two of the Billy Wilder and William Holden experience: Sunset Blvd.

I actually saw this film a few days before I returned home for Easter weekend, but I just lacked the willpower to throw it up on the blog until now (I revere you Stan, you crazy blogger).

Anyways, I feel as though this movie has already been reviewed once (I think Sweeney?) so I’ll just leave its synopsis at this: A burnt out screenwriter in L.A., Joe Gillis, is on the run from creditors trying to reposes his car when he escapes to this huge, decrepit mansion which happens to belong to a has-been silent movie star, Norma Desmond, her career ruined once motion pictures went to the “talkies”. Norma ends up trapping Joe at her house as she hires him to edit this novel of a screenplay she’s written as her big comeback to the films. The only catch is that from very beginning you know it’s going to be curtains for Joe as the opening to the film shows the screenwriter floating belly-up in Norma’s swimming pool, dead.

It’s easy to see why this film has received so much admiration over the last several decades - mostly thanks to Gloria Swanson’s unbelievable performance as Norma. She’s like this crazy old witch that lurks in a tower overlooking La-La Land. Then, by chance, some poor sap walks in through her doors allowing her to sink her nails into him, trapping him there for the rest of his life. It’s gripping how crazy Norma looks in every scene. From her introduction where she’s mourning over the loss of her best friend (a chimp), to the very end where she’s so delusional she descends her staircase to meet the press (all there after Joe was found murdered at her house - by Norma) and believes it to be the set of her next major movie. Crazy, bonkers, and terrifying. Fuck Holden in this picture. It’s easy to say that Swanson’s performance is quite possibly one of the best in cinema history.

Another accomplishment in this film is its writing. There are dozens of quotable lines, many of which I’m sure you have heard before: “I am big! It’s the pictures that got small,” and “Alright, Mr. Demille. I’m ready for my close-up.” Just brilliant lines. I also enjoyed Joe’s cracks at being a screenwriter, such as: “The last one I wrote was about Okies in the dust bowl. You’d never know it, because when it reached the screen the whole this played out on a torpedo boat.” The film definitely deserves the Oscar for Best Writing it received.

I hope to catch some more Wilder films - Some like it Hot and The Apartment are high on the list - but for now I’ll get back to some important items on the list.