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Today, a movie narrated by a corpse.
OPENING MUSIC
Number 3 in a series of movies about movies, "Sunset Boulevard,"
directed by Billy Wilder
If "Living in Oblivion" was angry comedy, "Day for Night" affectionate comedy,
"Sunset Boulevard" is cynical, creepy comedy.
Very creepy. And very funny. But dark, sad.
Did I mention creepy?
The picture opens at dawn with sirens, motorcycles, police cars, press
and newsreels heading to a swank address on "Sunset Boulevard".
a Voice-over tells us that A *** has been reported.
They arrive to find a young man floating face down in the swimming pool.
Indelible image. Shot upward from the bottom of the pool.
Behind him you can see flash photographers above him, seen through the water.
We're looking at the corpse whose voice we've been listening to.
By the way, if anyone tries to argue
that you shouldn't have narration in a movie. Just sit them down and show them "Sunset Boulevard".
It might change their mind the voice tells us a big star was involved
and then he takes us back six months to show us how it came to pass
that he wound up floating face down in that pool.
We learn he had been a screenwriter named Joe Gillis,
Not a very good writer. Living in a seedy apartment building.
trying to *** out stories on a typewriter. Remember typewriters?
out of money. Out of options.
And the repo men out for his car.
To escape them, he turns into a random driveway out on Sunset Boulevard.
Out where the rich people live.
The repo guys miss the turn. but poor Joe Gillis has no idea what kind
of a trap he's driven into.
The home belongs to a former silent movie star named Norma Desmond.
Rich. All but forgotten. Living in decadent splendor,
In a house that's too big for her
It h asn't been touched since the 1920s.
It's an unfading monument to her faded glory.
A cathedral to her excessive bad taste. And that house is one of the treats of this
film. Her bed is amazing.
Her living room is amazing The art direction and set decoration
won Oscars
The great silent star drips with contempt for the talkies.
And yet, even though her character hates dialog
ironically, Wilder gives her the all the best lines.
The lines people never forget. The ones that make the lists of best movie
quotes. You probably know them.
Even if you haven't seen the picture, you probably know them
But just in case you don't, I won't spoil them for you.
Hear them first from Norma's lips.
Norma's been dreaming of a comeback. Has written a sprawling, mess of a screenplay
as her vehicle.
Happy convenience, eh? : a rich patron who needs a script-doctor
and a scriptwriter down on his luck desperate for work, Behind on his rent.
It's a Faustian tale Joe makes his deal with the devil.
He's in his twenties. She's fifty. let the dance begin.
*shudder*
Funny how Hollywood won't blink at pairing older men with younger women
and expect us to take it. But
flip genders on the age gap and we're expected to disapprove
*shudder.*
Lurking in the background keeping the gears turning
—a creepy, obsessively protective, old butler, Max Von Mayerling.
He's worth watching just for his glower, his gloves
and the way he says, "Madam."
But there's much more to Max than glower, gloves, and accent.
Spoilers.
What gives this movie special resonance and authenticity
is the casting. Norma is playe d by an actual Silent Film
goddess, Gloria Swanson.
And Max is played by the legendary director
Erich von Stroheim— There's a deliberate clash in acting styles
between those two relics
and the naturalistic acting style of
William Holden who plays Joe Gillis.
""Sunset Boulevard"" by the way, did wonders for Holden's career.
He would have a string of iconic movies in his future
including "Bridge on the River Kwai," "Network,"
and "The Wild Bunch."
Poor Joe Gillis doesn't stand a chance against Norma's piteous,
need, her desperation—and her money.
He has another, more appropriate love interest: a young woman in the script department at
Paramount Played by Nancy Olson.
She represents a possible escape from the trap he has sprung on himself.
But we know from the opening there is no escape for Joe Gillis.
He's destined wind up floating face down in Norma's pool.
There are few movies about movies that see deeper
into the dark heart of desperation that fuels both the hopefuls
and the has-beens of Hollywood.
There are few films that give you so much of what you want from a movie:
images you can't unsee, lines you can't unhear,
and performances you can't shake. (unless what you want from movies is
explosions, chases, and guys in tights
who fly. In which case,
shop elsewhere)
The screenplay is masterfully constructed in the way it leads us
and Joe step by step
into darkness And just when you think you know how creepy
things are, there's always one more revelation. [SIGH]
Academy award for story and screenplay went to
Charles Brackett, D. M. Marshman, Jr.,
Billy Wilder
It's Norma's picture above all. Norma Desmond is one of the great monsters
of the cinema. And like the greatest of screen monsters,
she manages to tug at our heart. Swanson plays her as the ultimate drama queen.
Balancing on the edge of self-parody, flashing eyes and witchy gestures
straight from silent films. Yet somehow she remains real, and human.
And she will break your heart.
Where many movies just peter out in the last reel.
This one ends powerfully and grotesquely.
A closing line that winds up at number 7 on the AFI
list of all time best movie quotes An an image that will sear its way into your
memory All against a perfect music cue from Franz
Waxman —he won an Oscar for his score.
Until Next time I'm Mickeleh
[END MUSIC]
DVD Extras
A lot of extras
There's lots of Hollywood color throughout the movie
Glimpses of other silent film legends, including Buster Keaton
A visit to the legendary Schwab's Drug Store And scenes on the Paramount lot where we encounter
Cecil B. DeMille on the set of his film "Samson and Delilah."
Early in the movie, we see Joe Gillis's apartment building.
It's still standing in Hollywood. Alto Nido Apartments,
1851 North Ivar Street.
Norma Desmond's "Sunset Boulevard" mansion, however, is long gone.
In a sense it was never there. The building we see
was actually located miles away from Sunset Boulevard
just off Wilshire Boulevard. Not far from downtown.
Before it met the wrecking ball, that mansion appeared in another movie classic:
"Rebel Without A Cause." It's the abandoned house where
James Dean, Sal Mineo, and Natalie Wood spend a night.
In 1929, a young Erich Von Stroheim directed a young Gloria Swanson in
a film called "Queen Kelly." It was financed by her lover,
at the time Joseph P. Kennedy of... Yes.
those Kennedys. who was U.S. Ambassador to the UK
and father to President John F. Kennedy, Senators Bobby, and Teddy.
Queen Kelly was never distributed in the U.S. But a clip from it shows up in "Sunset Boulevard"
standing in for an old Norma Desmond picture. Norma's Bed, by the way?
Recycled from Phantom of the Opera.
For more Movies about movies here's my playlist.
For a well argued recommendation and review of Lord of the Rings ...
the fellowship of the rings see Neafcy.
It's on his pissed list. Movies he watches while drunk.
His review makes me want to see it again. Now.
Drunk or sober.
Bye Now