Written by Malkmusian and an obscure reference goes here for this movie review.
Billy Wilder is considered by many to be one of the greatest comedy directors of all time.
However, what some people forget to recall was that he was a notable film noir auteur who implemented reverberating and timely satire into his films, including 1945’s Double Indemnity with Barbara Stanwyck and 1950’s Sunset Blvd. with William Holden, Gloria Swanson, and former silent film stalwart Erich von Stroheim.
Taking the unbelievable and combining it with real-life decadence that took place at the time, Wilder’s Sunset Blvd. has not only become an expose on the lifestyle of long-past-their-prime actors and actresses in Hollywood but also a pop cultural phenomenon as well, giving the close-up a negative connotation.
The film is primarily about Joe Gillis (Holden), a struggling screenplay writer who tries to submit his experimental psychological drama akin to that of Vertigo and future Hitchcock films to Paramount Pictures, who turn it down - ironically - forcing Joe to move back to Ohio.
However, due to Joe’s tax evasion, the scriptwriter ends up at the house of faded actress/oil magnate Norma Desmond (Swanson), where her ex-husband and former director-turned-servant Max (von Stroheim) bathes her in a constant stream of her own ego, making her believe that she was responsible for the success of Paramount Pictures in the 1920s.
What Joe does not know was that Norma wants to have somebody adapt her trite melodramatic epic Salome for a film hopefully directed by Cecil B. DeMille, who, along with Max, gave her a bit too much of an ego.
The story is the greatest thing about the film itself, it being an attack on the focus on big-budget (at the time) epics and the decadence and greed of actors and actresses (possibly, on purpose, von Stroheim the butler directed a film in 1925 called Greed, about such decadence), especially directors like Cecil B. DeMille who were obsessed with success and spectacle that they would direct such trite like Salome if it meant instantaneous success.
What makes the story scary is that all of its omens about the death of originality and the resurrection of decadence is relevant to this day. To this day, there exists little to no auteurs - Wes Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, and Christopher Nolan being some of the only modern-day ones - and even if there were some stalwarts, they now direct hackneyed adaptations of Nicholas Sparks melodrama in hopes of success among the unwisened audiences.
Faded stars buy real estate or anything that “pumps” in the money, adding to their greed. Most of these stars were from an era long past - save for Molly Ringwald and Macaulay Culkin - when they were in high demand. Lord knows they want a comeback. Lord knows they will go to extremes, even murder, to get their way.
The cinematography also makes a big impression on the viewer, showing Joe’s floating body from the bottom of the pool in one scene to the overall mise-en-scene throughout the cleverly-written satire. It also gives effect to Joe’s growing lust for Norma whenever he runs back to her when she attempts to kill herself out of loneliness.
If anything detracts from the film, it would probably be the overdramatic efforts on Gloria Swanson’s behalf to give life into Norma Desmond. According to the script, Norma is supposed to be a parody of the dying actress who still thinks she has it, but Swanson gives her something else: the actress who just can’t let go of her past.
However, a mentally-scarred actress need not to be melodramatic all of the time and ridicuously decadent. The monkey she buries was overdoing it a sliver - then again, that is Wilder’s style.
I give the film an A+ mainly for its story and cinematography, while the acting was not much of a problem to subtract any points.
This film is essential for anybody who likes dark satires that are still relevant in today’s society, i.e. Network, A Face in the Crowd, Matinee.
Category: Media, Quick Reviews | 
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