Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard ranks among the most scathing satires of Hollywood and the cruel fickleness of movie fandom.
Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard ranks among the most scathing satires of Hollywood and the cruel fickleness of movie fandom. The story begins at the end as the body of Joe Gillis (William Holden) is fished out of a Hollywood swimming pool. From The Great Beyond, Joe details the circumstances of his untimely demise. Hotly pursued by repo men, impoverished, indebted “boy wonder” screenwriter Gillis ducks into the garage of an apparently abandoned Sunset Boulevard mansion.
Wandering into the spooky place, Joe encounters its owner, imperious silent star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Upon learning Joe’s profession, Norma invites him into helping her with a comeback script that she’s been working on for years. Joe realizes that the script is hopeless, but the money is good and he has nowhere else to go… More melodramatic than funny, the screenplay by Wilder and Charles Brackett began life as a comedy about a has-been silent movie actress and the ambitious screenwriter who takes advantage of her.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s long-running musical version has served as a tour-de-force for contemporary actresses ranging from Glenn Close to Betty Buckley to Diahann Carroll.
In English, with English subtitles. IMDB rating: 8,6. 115 minutes.
