Sunset Boulevard (Sunset Blvd.) (1950)

Posted : 11 months, 1 week ago at Jul 27 0:58

“I am big! It’s the pictures that got small!” Ah, Norma Desmond. Gloria Swanson delivers what might arguably be my favorite performance by an actress. Ever. She plays such a complicated, melodramatic gargoyle of a living shell that is both frightening yet humorous. She flirts with going over the edge, and yet reigns herself back in. I love it. I also love it because I’ve always felt that this was the most honest film about Hollywood. It’s full of self-delusional people who stop emotionally and mentally maturing, yet time goes on and forgets them. Real life figures like Cecil B. DeMille, gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, and silent film stars Buster Keaton, H.B. Warner, and Anna Q. Nilsson add touches of authenticity and poignancy. My favorite part of the film is when Desmond tries t...Read more

Posted : 11 months, 2 weeks ago at Jul 21 4:53

Joe Gillis (William Holden) is a struggling young Hollywood screenwriter who accidentally drives into the grounds of a big old house on Sunset Boulevard while trying to get away from two men intent on repossessing his car as he is behind with his payments. The owner of the house is old time movie actress Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) now forgotten by the public but who used to be big. ("I am big. It's the pictures that got small"). Gillis tells her he is a Hollywood scriptwriter so she offers him a job to help her complete a script which she hopes will enable her to make a glorious "comeback" to the silver screen. The script is in fact so bad it would be unfilmable and although at first reluctant Gillis decides he will take advantage of the situation he has found himself in by agreeing to...Read more

Posted : 1 year, 2 months ago at Apr 27 11:54

It’s a hard and cynical film, which struggles with its doomed but sweet “normal” love affair.

It has some of the best and most memorable lines (“I am big, it’s the pictures that got small”, and “nobody walks out on a star!” come to mind).


Rating : 8/10