Sunset Boulevard - 9 stars out of 10

Sunset Boulevard - 9 stars out of 10

In the world of Epic Hollywood Classics, "Sunset Boulevard" deserves a spot near the top.  Whether you are into great acting, interesting characters, inspired dialogue, or an unpredictable storyline, this film has it all.  Norma Desmond is the perfect noir character, shrouded in mystery and illusion.  As she pulls struggling Hollywood writer Joe Gillis into her delusion, the plot thickens when Joe must choose between love in real life and luxurious ignorance.  The thing that really thrills me about "Sunset Boulevard" is its blurring of the lines between scripted characters and the real lives of the actors who play them.  The main draw for the film is Gloria Swanson, playing the washed up silent film star Norma Desmond who lives in a house with just her memories and delusions of grandeur.  In reality, Swanson WAS a film star from the silent era who often made films with director Cecil DeMille.  DeMille plays himself in the movie, as a modern director who used to direct the movies of Norma Desmond.  During one scene, Desmond is seen playing cards with some friends from the old days and the friends are played by three of her real-life silent film contemporaries.  During another scene, Swanson performs a Charlie Chaplin pantomime identicle to one that she performed in a silent film.  Her butler, played by Erich von Stroheim, claims that he was one of the three most important directors of silent films.  In reality, experts do consider him to be one of the greatest directors of the silent era and he actually worked with (you guessed it) Gloria Swanson, just as his character worked with Desmond in the story.  Within the story, they even watch a clip from "Queen Kelly" in which von Stroheim directed Swanson.  If these parallels aren't enough to draw you in, this film is incredibly deserving of its four Oscar nominations for acting, nomination for Best Picture, and three Oscar wins including Best Writing.  This is probably one of the ten greatest films that did not win Best Picture (behind "Shawshank Redemption," of course).  William Holden's narration as Joe Gillis is superb, intensifying each scene as we slowly discover his fate.  The dialogue perfectly captures the main character's distorted view of reality and provides some truly memorable Hollywood moments (particularly the final line of the film).  The cinematographer also accomplishes two of the coolest images in cinema history, with a shot looking up at a dead body floating atop a swimming pool (accomplished with a mirror at the bottom of the pool) and the iconic spotlight slowly illuminating the nearly forgotten actress.  Whether you have been watching this film since it came out in 1950 or are just enjoying it for the first time today, "Sunset Boulevard" provides an interesting look into the dark side of Hollywood fame and fortune.