Director: Billy Wilder
Screenplay: Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, D. M. Marshman Jr.
Starring: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Fred Clark, Lloyd Gough
Running Time: 110 minutes
Genre: Drama, thriller, film noir
Joe Gillis (Holden) is a struggling Hollywood screenwriter, who hasn't had work in ages. In danger of losing his car and his apartment, he hides out at a decaying old Hollywood mansion on Sunset Boulevard which turns out to be owned by faded star of the silent screen, Norma Desmond (Swanson), who lives alone with her enigmatic servant Max (von Stroheim). Norma is determined to be a star again and has written a long and terrible screenplay of Salome, which she hopes to star in with Cecil B. DeMille directing. Gillis persuades her to hire him as a script doctor, and soon finds himself drawn into her bizarre and twisted world of faded starlight.
Hollywood has always loved making films about itself, and this is one of the darkest and bitterest takes on the dream factory. It has one of the greatest opening in film history, as we first meet Joe Gillis as a corpse floating face down in a swimming pool, and flashing back six months to tell the story of how he came to be there, the fact that the film is narrated by a corpse helps set the strange tone for the film, where everything seems slightly off centre. Former silent star Gloria Swanson gives a memorable performance as the terrifying, pitiful and tragic Norma Desmond. A great star forgotten and left behind by an industry and a world that has moved on without her, with nothing to sustain her but memories and dreams, she becomes almost heroic in her tragedy. Joe Gillis, our nominal hero, is really more of an anti-hero, basically using Norma for her money, while mostly holding her in contempt. The great silent director turned actor Erich von Stroheim appears as the sinister manservant Max. There are several cameos from well known figures of the silent screen including Buster Keaton and Cecil B. DeMille. Incidentally this is one of David Lynch's favourite films, and I can definitely see why. It's a great film.
"I am big! It was the pictures that got small"
- Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson)
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