Sunset Boulevard

Billy Wilder, USA, 1950, 110 minutes

Desperate to cling onto the grandeur of her youth as one of silent cinema’s leading actresses, aging star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) has barricaded herself in her rundown mansion, surrounded only by replicas of her past glory and her adoring butler Max (played by legendary German director Erich von Stroheim). When Joe Gillis (William Holden), a cynical Hollywood writer, stumbles across this delusional character he is instantly intrigued. More importantly he is also broke and therefore in no position to turn down Norma’s offer of a hefty paycheck in return for scripting her comeback vehicle.

Things grow uneasy, however, when Joe begins spending more and more time away from the mansion, preferring the company of young, idealistic starlet Betty (Nancy Olson) to Norma’s unyielding possessiveness. Murder, madness, and an unforgettable New Year’s Eve party ultimately ensue, though not necessarily in that order.

Considered one of the greatest films ever made about Hollywood and certainly one of the most biting satires, Sunset Boulevard was directed by the incomparable Billy Wilder (Some Like It Hot, Sabrina, Double Indemnity), who did not hesitate to cast his town in an unattractive light. The film also contains some of the most famous lines in Hollywood history: "I’m ready for my close-up" is the stand-out.

Swanson, Holden, and von Stroheim have never been better, each portraying characters that could have easily turned into caricatures. Von Stroheim is especially moving, whose relationship to Norma is not as straightforward as it initially seems. Buster Keaton, Hedda Hopper, and Cecil B. DeMille turn up in cameo appearances as themselves, and Wilder cleverly utilises clips from Swanson’s own 1929 silent Queen Kelly.

Review by Beth Gilligan
Written for EUFS Programme Autumn 2004