Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
(1950)
A Review by Grant Kanigan
Directed by: Billy Wilder
Written by: Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder
& D.M. Marshman Jr.
Starring: William Holden, Gloria Swanson
Erich von Stroheim
Rating: PG
Release Date: August 10th 1950
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| Erich von Stronheim, William Holden & Gloria Swanson get ready for their close-ups in Sunset Boulevard Paramount/MPTV |
Sunset Boulevard follows Joe Gillis, (William Holden), a down on his luck screenwriter, fresh out of ideas. His scripts haven't sold in months, and he's late on his car payments. Joe seems like a decent enough guy, but not decent enough to shy away from doing anything for a buck. While avoiding repo-men out to repossess his car, Joe pulls in the garage of what looks like an abandoned mansion; a relic from the excess of pre-Depression Hollywood. Making sure the mansion is truly deserted, Joe makes his way inside. Instead of finding mothballs and spiderwebs, Joe is greeted by the peculiar Max Von Mayerling, (Erich von Stroheim), the house butler, who escorts him through the lavishly decorated mansion to the room of former silent film star Norma Desmond. Once inside, he's greeted with a vigil for her dead pet monkey, a confused and bipolar actress and the chance of a lifetime. After clearing up the confusion that he's not the casket bearer for the monkey, Desmond offers Gillis a proposition: room and board in return for helping finish her massive, 600 page screenplay. Gillis knows it's awful, but he also knows its too good of a deal to pass up. Yet, once he begins to unravel the psyche of Desmond, he finds out she has ulterior motives at play.
The key brilliance of Wilder's masterpiece is it's power of suggestion. We never find out why Desmond was so obsessed with a monkey that lived in her bedroom, or see her frenetic suicide attempts, or even find out the details behind the shocking twist regarding the relationship between Desmond and her butler Max. To go into detail; to show these things would ruin the unsettling feeling that comes with not knowing exactly what motivates those that surround Gillis, our hero. The off-kilter atmosphere, the moody, dank weather and the semi-sociopathic attitude everyone seems to convey to one another make for a startling, disturbing work of art.
Not only is the script unsettling, but the oft-changing cinematography is striking. From an underwater shot of a dead man in a pool, to rank water flowing into a drainpipe, to Desmond's terrifying 'close-up,' the cinematography, (in black and white, which was more of an artistic choice at this point in Wilder's career), is vivid, shocking, and visceral, seeming as if it's going to jump through the screen at any moment. Along with brilliant turns from the three leads, Sunset Boulevard is the rare case of all elements of a film coming together to make something fantastic.
Overall, Wilder's 1950 satire of the changing face of hollywood differs from other, terrible imitations via one key point. Did That Just Happen, Shrink, An Alan Smithee Film, and many, many more, all miss out on the core of what makes Sunset Boulevard so effective - it's cruelty. Sunset Boulevard, for all it's clever lines, funny moments, and intelligent commentary is underlined by the fact everyone is using each other for their own means. Nobody is innocent, and, by the end, nobody comes out unscathed. Wilder, via the metaphor of Norma Desmond, peels back, layer by layer, the plastic face of hollywood, and reveals a monster underneath.
Grant's Rating: 5/5 Stars
William Holden and Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard: "I am big, it's the pictures that got small"
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