Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Sunset Blvd. (1950) [Special Collector's Edition]
A Film by Billy Wilder
DVD9 (VIDEO_TS) | NTSC 4:3 (720x480) | 01:50:12 | 8,19 Gb
Audio: English, French - AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English, French
Genre: Drama, Film-Noir | Won 3 Oscars | USA
A Film by Billy Wilder
DVD9 (VIDEO_TS) | NTSC 4:3 (720x480) | 01:50:12 | 8,19 Gb
Audio: English, French - AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English, French
Genre: Drama, Film-Noir | Won 3 Oscars | USA
Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, an aging silent film queen, and William Holden as the struggling writer who is held in thrall by her madness, created two of the screen's most memorable characters in Sunset Boulevard. Winner of three Academy Awards., director Billy Wilder's orchestration of the bizarre tale is a true cinematic classic. From the unforgettable opening sequence through the inevitable unfolding of tragic destiny, the film is the definitive statement on the dark and desperate side of Hollywood. Erich von Stroheim as Desmond's discoverer, ex-husband and butler, and Nancy Olson as the bright spot in unrelenting ominousness, are equally celebrated for their masterful performances.
IMDB - Top 250 #32
DVDBeaver
Great literature can be great entertainment. Sunset Blvd. is both. It is a deliciously tense film noir, with moments of humor and romance, and it also taps into universal themes. The desire for fame and recognition is older than the movies, and selling your dignity is part of the oldest profession.
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
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But what makes great literature is, first, complete competence in storytelling — that’s the baseline. And it should also have thematic cross-references so that one part of the story echoes in many other parts. And it must have a few master strokes from the artist that suggest deeper levels of meaning, without explicitly spelling them out.
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
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There are a half dozen or more such strokes in Sunset Blvd.: Norma’s dead monkey, Joe’s golden chain that traps him in the house, the extreme closeup on Max’s gloved fingers playing the organ with a scared and tiny Joe in the background, and the opening shot from the bottom of the swimming pool are but a few.
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
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The film’s Hollywood-as-power themes resonate throughout, from the casting to the acting, even to the sets and costumes. Joe is a modern screenwriter and he speaks in a hard-boiled dialogue that contrasts with Norma’s larger-than-life silent-screen gestures. Perhaps the deepest echoes come from a scene in which Norma and Joe sit down to watch one of her old pictures while Max runs the projector. Footage from a film called Queen Kelly springs to life. That’s a film that starred a young and beautiful Swanson (Norma), and it was directed by Von Stroheim (Max). In fact, it’s a film that could be said to have ended Von Stroheim’s career, and occurred at the end of Swanson’s. And here it is in the fictional world of Max and Norma, a symbol of days gone by.
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
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Academics can have great debates about the metaphors and similes in those strokes and echoes. Those of us who are less observant still get a riveting story, plus repeat viewings that reveal more and more each time, and the nagging sense that the artist is far smarter than we are.
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
No other motion picture about Hollywood comes near Billy Wilder's searing, uncompromising and utterly fascinating portrait of the film community. Beneath it all is vanity, madness, murder, and a twisted obsession with filmdom's past. Wilder's work is a sardonic portrait of an aging silent film star and a cynical young man who is engulfed by the demented siren's delusions.
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
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The movie opens with a jolt: the bullet-riddled body of a young man is seen floating face down in the pool next to a mansion. The ghostly voice of Joe Gillis (William Holden) recounts the events leading up to his death, which are shown in flashback. A hack screenwriter, Joe is hounded by creditors and desperate for cash. After failing to sell a script–his last hope–he's driving aimlessly when he spots a couple of repo men who are after his car. He speeds off, gets a flat, and pulls into the driveway of a dilapidated mansion, where he hears an arresting female voice calling down to him, ordering him into the house. Max (Erich von Stroheim), a severe-looking, bald-headed butler, waves Joe inside, where he is shown into the august presence of silent screen star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). After lamenting the current state of the film industry, she offers Joe a job writing a reworking of Salome, which she plans to use as a comeback vehicle. Joe knows it's a pipe dream, but he needs the work. The creepily seductive Norma insists that he stay with her while working on the script. Observed by Norma and the somber, silent Max, Joe becomes a virtual prisoner of the actress and her strange past.
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
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SUNSET BOULEVARD is Billy Wilder's sour, insightful critique of showbiz nostalgia–the myths by which a tawdry, profit-driven industry has managed to define itself as a dream machine of unfailing glamour. Essentially satirical, the film works equally well for those fans who read it as straightforward melodrama, largely because of Swanson's remarkable performance. This was a comeback for Swanson, who achieved what her tragic character in SUNSET BOULEVARD could not. Yet the attention she received upon her return to Hollywood still couldn't match the adulation lavished on Swanson in the 1920s, when tens of thousands turned out to cheer her in mammoth parades. Swanson was thus in a singular position to empathize with her character's longing for Hollywood's past glories. As Norma says: "We didn't need dialogue. We had faces then." There is much of Norma Desmond that is Swanson. Not only did she allow Wilder to exploit her hard-earned image, but she let him incorporate her silent career, including footage of her work in von Stroheim's QUEEN KELLY, into the film. Swanson, however, was never the neurotic, mentally disturbed creature that Norma is off-screen. Before Swanson was chosen, Wilder and producer-coscenarist Charles Brackett talked about the possibility of using Mary Pickford, Mae Murray, Pola Negri, or even Mae West as Norma. It is unlikely that any of them could have come close to the magnificent performance given by Swanson, whose penetrating, courageous grasp of the character astounded critics, public, and peers. In 1989, SUNSET BOULEVARD was selected by the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as one of 25 landmark films, leading examples of American cinematic art.
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Special Features:
- Full Screen Format
- Dolby Digital: English Mono, French Mono
- English Subtitles
- Commentary by Ed Sikov of "On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder"
- The Making of Sunset Boulevard
- Theatrical Trailer
- Hollywood Location Map
- Photo Galleries
- Morgue Prologue
- Edith Head: The Paramount Years Featurette
- The Music of Sunset Boulevard Featurette
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
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