Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Film: Sunset Boulevard

Director: Billy Wilder

Country: Austria / USA

Released: August 1950

Runtime: 110 minutes

Genre: Film Noir

Studio: Paramount

Influenced: Joseph L Mankiewicz, George Cukor, David Lynch, Sam Mendes, Baz Luhrmann

Like Wilder’s earlier film Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard is a film noir filled with twists and turns that keep the audience guessing till the end, but this time Wilder has his gaze fixed on Hollywood itself, not the solving of any crime. Unlike his earlier films, however, Wilder is even more brazen in his use of flashback this time, opening the narrative of Sunset Boulevard with a crucial plot point that actually takes place at the end of the story: the discovery of a corpse in a former Hollywood star’s swimming pool. In an early script discussion scene at Paramount studios, full of black comedy, there's also mention of James Joyce – no coincidence I think given how self-referential and self-reflexive this modernist film is.

Similar to Double Indemnity, Wilder uses voiceover narration to liberal effect, with the inner monologue of struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis referencing Miss Haversham from Great Expectations at one point when he first sees the grand but rundown property of Norma Desmond. Wilder's casting of legend of cinema Erich von Stroheim, who plays Norma’s butler (and former director) Max, adds to this sense of faded grandeur. Even he is outshone though by Gloria Swanson as Norma, one of the most iconic performances in all of cinema: “I am big, it’s the pictures that got small.” 

She references the matinee idols of silent cinema – Fairbanks, Gilbert and Valentino – that were obliterated from memory by the arrival of the talkies. Norma also mentions Greta Garbo as the only modern star that can hold a flame to the likes of her. At another point, Norma even does a Charlie Chaplin routine, while Wilder also gives cameos to Cecil B DeMille and Buster Keaton, making the film a tribute of sorts to the silent era. But the intent here is much more than nostalgia.

Sunset Boulevard is mainly a scathing critique of Hollywood and the entertainment industry. It portrays the ruthless and exploitative nature of show business and the price that individuals pay for fame and fortune. Swanson is so deluded she goes through a gruelling regime of beauty treatments and calorie counting to get ready for her imagined return to the big screen. The film's commentary on the destructive nature of celebrity culture is as relevant today as it was when the film was made in 1950.