I'm ready for my close up...

Sunset Boulevard is a 1950 film noir original film by Billy Wilder about the dark side of Hollywood and the film industry. The film is about a struggling script writer who stumbles upon a decaying Hollywood mansion on legendary sunset boulevard whilst looking for a place to hide his car from debt collectors, he finds a fading star of the silent screen inside, and is lured into a web of lies, deceit and obsession. Gloria Swanson stars as Norma Desmond, a once legendary silent screen star now faded into insignificance with the introduction of the talkies, and who now hides away in her decaying golden age mansion. William Holden stars as Joe Gillis, a struggling Hollywood screenwriter, up to his ears in dept an looking for somewhere to hide his car.

The film is narrated by Joe, discovered dead at the beginning of the film, as he attempts to tell us the events that lead to his demise, the narration is atmospheric, and along with the music adds to the ominous tone of the film. The film is in black and white, unusual for a time in which color was all the rage for Hollywood pictures. The cinematography is stunning and aggressive, and along with the costumes and prodution design, create a picture which not only has a great story and fantastic script, but is also a visual delight.

Costumes were designed by the legendary Edith Head, who was able to capture the fashion of the time, and the delightfully kooky nature of the world in which Joe Gillis finds himself inhabiting. Production design is also stunning, and creates a world which is exotic and strange, upon which this drama unfolds, and in which it is Joe and not Norma who looks out of place.

The actors are fantastic, and Gloria Swanson's performance as the psycotic fading star struggling to come to grips with her wallowing fame, her performance in this picture is not only the best in the film, yet one of the best in the history of cinema, she manages to inject pain, passion and yet also malice into the role of now iconic Norma Desmond. The character in the film mirrors Gloria's personal story, having been a silent screen star herself. The rest of the cast also gives strong performances, and it is almost a shame that their performances are outshined by Gloria's star turn.

In conclusion this really is an incredible movie, it is a tribute to the american film industry, and is cinematographically and visually superb, with a great suspenseful script and story and a great film noir atmosphere. Finally the film presents fabulous performances from all its leads, in particular the fantastic Gloria Swanson, as the tragic heroine Norma Desmond. Rating A+

Norma Desmond: All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.

Evolution of a cult classic

Most bloggers would probably call this a 'fan suggestion', 99% of the people of the people who read this blog i know, thus i will call it a 'friend suggestion'. My first inclination was to compare this particular film to another cult slassic, however seing as the only cult classics i could think of were The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Priscilla Queen of the Desert, i thought it might be more prudent to discuss the film alone, lets leave the camp classics for another time. The film and the book on which it is based are essentially critiques of commercialism and our culture of advertising, these are carried over into the film, as shown by scenes such as the trashing of the new VW Beetle, IKEA furniture and the destruction of the coffee shop. Norton himself spoke of the Beetle, saying that the original Beetle stood for freedom, and emancipation and yet the new Beetle stood for commercialism and capitalism.

The film is ludicrously intelligent, and shows strong performances from its 5 leads, particularly the two main characters, however i feel the true star turn is Bonham-Carter as Marla, who manages to on one hand play a sexy voluptuous femme fatale, and yet also manages to show a great amount of depth in a character that if played by a lesser actress could become 2-dimensionnel and superficial.

Another intriguing theme of the film is its view on masculinity, in some ways the character of Bob Paulson, played by Meatloaf, is the embodiment of the crisis of masculinity, and the way patriarchy is being lost in a modern society, the character was a former bodybuilder, and testicular cancer survivor, who without his testicles, grows man boobs (or bitch tits as he describes him) and becomes more than a little flabby. Bob's appearance in the film is essentially a metaphor for society, and the how something can only become stretched so far before it snaps, the was his body has from years of abuse.

Aside from the film containing a series of metaphors, the film is also supremely entertaining, and uses a unique visual style and narrative which makes the film complex and distinguished, many gags in the film will get a laugh, especially the infamous glove scene (i guess Kathy Griffin was right, people really do love fisting) Rating: A+

"Narrator: I felt like destroying something beautiful." 

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