Sunset Boulevard - a 1950 Film Noir classic starring William Holden and Gloria Swanson. It was nominated for 11 Oscars but only won 3 - Best Screenplay, Best Music and Best Art Direction. Acting nominations went to William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Eric von Stronheim and Nancy Olson in addition to nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, Billy Wilder.
OHMYGOSH this movie is SO FANTASTIC! Gloria Swanson is GENIUS - demented, crazy, awesome. I could not keep my eyes off of her from the minute she gets on screen. This movie is about Norma Desmond (Swanson), a has-been actress of the silent film era who lives in a old huge house on Sunset Boulevard. Joe Gillis (William Holden) is a screenwriter who comes across the house and looks to hide away there, thinking it is abandoned. When he goes in and encounters Norma, she basically decides to keep him captive there so that he could help her write her screenplay that would bring her back to the movies, back to the fans that "never forgave her for leaving". Norma falls in love with Joe but he never loves her back - he stays, knowing that she is a means to the end he hopes for, that is, selling a screenplay. Norma is pretty crazy - she still sees herself as royalty and when she goes to see Cecil B. DeMille (cameo in the film!) she feels like, this is where she belongs and this is where everyone wants to see her. I won't say exactly how the movie ends so I don't ruin it, but the last scene of the movie is SO INCREDIBLE!!!!! This is where Gloria Swanson delivers her famous line "Alright Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my closeup." She is truly haunting and crazy and just so amazing.
There are so many interesting pieces of information about this film. Gloria Swanson's career was VERY similar to Norma Desmond's. Swanson was a former silent film star - the difference was that she want on to have success in radio and TV once the talking films came about. However, when Sunset Boulevard came around, she really hadn't made a movie since the early 30's. So it was, in a sense, her "comeback" movie.
When Sunset Boulevard came out, it was both loved and hated. Critics seemed to love it but Billy Wilder, the director, was always afraid of how Hollywood studios and actors, writers, etc. would receive it because, after all, it shows the evil and bad side of Hollywood. Louis B. Mayer famously reprimanded Wilder after an early screening saying he disgraced the industry that made and fed him. Many believe that the reason it didn't win any of the major Oscars was for this reason - that some Hollywood-ers just couldn't deal with the subject matter.
One more thing - this movie is considered Film Noir, which I know very little about and I'm pretty sure I've never really seen a movie classified as such. It was very dark, almost like a mystery movie. The music was really eerie and there was a LOT of shadow/light work. VERY cool - definitely added to the overall sense of weirdness.
Let me share a clip of how amazing Gloria Swanson is:
Some interesting background info from Wikipedia...
"The street after which the film is named has been associated with Hollywood film production since 1911 when the town's first film studio opened on Sunset Boulevard. The film workers lived modestly in the growing neighborhood, but during the 1920s profits and salaries rose to unprecedented levels. With the advent of the star system, luxurious homes noted for their often incongruous grandeur were built in the area. The stars were the subject of public fascination throughout the world as magazines and newspapers reported the excesses of their lives. As a young man Billy Wilder was interested in American culture, with much of his interest fueled by the country's films. In the late 1940s many of the grand Hollywood houses remained, and Wilder, now a Los Angeles resident, found they were part of his everyday world. Many former stars from the silent era still lived in them, although most were no longer involved in the film business. Wilder wondered how they spent their time now that "the parade had passed them by" and began imagining the story of a star who had lost her celebrity and box-office appeal."
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