1950 Sunset Boulevard, Billy Wilder
with William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim
"Sunset Boulevard", he contends, along with "Citizen Kane" and "2001: A Space Odyssey" The first place for best film in the history of cinema. Like most educated literature, cinema also has its classics, and this is certainly one of them.
screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden), escaping to the creditors, and arrives at a gloomy old mansion. In this place lives the no longer young and fallen silent film actress Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Norma Joe proposes to revise the script that she wrote dreaming the comeback ...
"Sunset Boulevard" is a film dark, cynical but also biting. Those who know Billy Wilder is sure that his scripts are always very original, very critical of certain aspects of society. One need only recall the hilarious "One, two, three!" where, in a still divided in two by the Berlin Wall, Wilder skillfully takes around American capitalism and Soviet communism. In this case the object of criticism is Hollywood, with its ephemeral success, its rigid production systems and the inexorable law of the image, one that gives precedence who is younger and more beautiful about who is actually good. The scene that best represents this worldview the show is when Norma went to visit his old friend the director, but none of the crew to recognize. Is recognized and applauded only when an operator error, the point on a reflector. The Desmond is a character deeply well-characterized, unique and probably unrepeatable, even if sometimes it expires in caricaturist. On the other hand Wilder is one who loves to play with stereotypes and then twist, for example, you can see how these gender roles in "Some Like It Hot." The Desmond lives in a house-shaped tomb perfectly on its image and about the old days of silent cinema. Why why not work more than was in fact the coming of sound, making it obsolete as actress. Meaningful (and memorable) is the standard joke that the first preliminary meeting with Joe, "I am large, are the films that have become small." She is trapped in the role as an actress, says all the time, but does so in the manner of silent films: wide eyes and gestures very pronounced. The life of Gloria Swanson partially coincides with that of Desmond, as the character he plays is one of the greatest actresses in silent films. It is no accident that in "Sunset Boulevard" there is a scene from "Queen Kelly", one of the last silent films that turned Swanson and that led to his downfall. Nor is it a coincidence that the part of Norma's butler in "Sunset Boulevard" is entrusted Erich von Stroheim, director of "Queen Kelly", which will have a decisive role in the plot.
The film is also studded with small guest stars, Buster Keaton in the first place in the small role of a friend of Norma, and Cecil B. DeMille, the director's role in the long-time friend of the actress (and famous film director also in reality).
What makes this film a masterpiece, among other things, the particular use that Wilder did the voiceover. The film begins with the protagonist's dead body floating in a swimming pool (made possible by a magnificent scene of the wise use of mirrors), and his voice-over telling the story. This type of narration was taken with great effectiveness in such films as "American Beauty" or TV series like "Desperate Housewives."
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