Sunset Blvd is a classic American film noir filmed in 1950 and a lesson in what refusing to grow old gracefully can result in.
Its director, Billy Wilder, directed other iconic films and Sunset Blvd was awarded three oscars. The setting for the film, as the title may suggest, is the classic boulevard running through Beverley Hills in Los Angeles. For many this is associated with money, opulence and fame.
Leading actor William Holden plays the hack movie writer and Gloria Swanson stars as Norma Desmond, the aging actress that refuses to give up right until the fatal end.
Holden's character, Joe Gillis is a young writer and when we first meet him he is virtually bankrupt. His car is getting towed away and everyone is hankering after him for debts they want to collect. His encounter with Desmond gives him financial options as she ask him to write a screenplay that will return her to the screen.
Desmond falls in love, but Joe is only using the relationship as a stopgap until the big time. He eventually gets tired of being a kept man and tried to leave, but Norma's suicide attempt has him returning out of guilt.
She thinks that she can be a successful actress again, but the years have not been kind and she is trying to rise in an industry that rewards youth and beauty over everything else.
In secret Joe works on a script with a younger writer Betty and the two of them fall in love. He is determined to leave Norma, but she fires a shot and he falls dead into the swimming pool at her lavish mansion.
At this point Desmond in her deranged, mentally unstable state delivers her classic line "I'm ready for my close up". She is unable to cope with reality preferring to switch to a fantasy world where she is at the center stage.
The film is tragic, timeless and unique and presents the challenges of growing old gracefully in the movie industry.
The character of Norma is treated with pity and pathos and although she does ultimately murder Joe, she is shown to be a product of the industry that she inhabits. An industry that eats her up and spits her out.
Desmond has several maids and each are gentle with her and try to hide the fact that she has aged and grown out of touch with reality.
Ultimately our sympathies lie with Desmond. All her possessions and material wealth can not help her instability and refusal to accept growing old gracefully. Her heartbreak and fear that she has lost her last chance at love lead her to commit the tragic acts that ensue.
Joe, her lover's untimely death, is sad and wasteful, but he represents the exploitative force behind Desmond's demise. - 40732
Its director, Billy Wilder, directed other iconic films and Sunset Blvd was awarded three oscars. The setting for the film, as the title may suggest, is the classic boulevard running through Beverley Hills in Los Angeles. For many this is associated with money, opulence and fame.
Leading actor William Holden plays the hack movie writer and Gloria Swanson stars as Norma Desmond, the aging actress that refuses to give up right until the fatal end.
Holden's character, Joe Gillis is a young writer and when we first meet him he is virtually bankrupt. His car is getting towed away and everyone is hankering after him for debts they want to collect. His encounter with Desmond gives him financial options as she ask him to write a screenplay that will return her to the screen.
Desmond falls in love, but Joe is only using the relationship as a stopgap until the big time. He eventually gets tired of being a kept man and tried to leave, but Norma's suicide attempt has him returning out of guilt.
She thinks that she can be a successful actress again, but the years have not been kind and she is trying to rise in an industry that rewards youth and beauty over everything else.
In secret Joe works on a script with a younger writer Betty and the two of them fall in love. He is determined to leave Norma, but she fires a shot and he falls dead into the swimming pool at her lavish mansion.
At this point Desmond in her deranged, mentally unstable state delivers her classic line "I'm ready for my close up". She is unable to cope with reality preferring to switch to a fantasy world where she is at the center stage.
The film is tragic, timeless and unique and presents the challenges of growing old gracefully in the movie industry.
The character of Norma is treated with pity and pathos and although she does ultimately murder Joe, she is shown to be a product of the industry that she inhabits. An industry that eats her up and spits her out.
Desmond has several maids and each are gentle with her and try to hide the fact that she has aged and grown out of touch with reality.
Ultimately our sympathies lie with Desmond. All her possessions and material wealth can not help her instability and refusal to accept growing old gracefully. Her heartbreak and fear that she has lost her last chance at love lead her to commit the tragic acts that ensue.
Joe, her lover's untimely death, is sad and wasteful, but he represents the exploitative force behind Desmond's demise. - 40732
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