Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Country: US
Technical: bw 110m
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich Von Stroheim
Synopsis:
A down-at-heel scriptwriter in Hollywood happens upon a faded silent movie star's mansion while evading repo men from the rental car company, and finds himself staying on to doctor her comeback script of Salome. When she falls in love with him he grudgingly becomes her rentboy too.
Review:
A remarkable film for a number of reasons: it was a forerunner of the more adult subjects Hollywood would tackle in the fifties, both for its sexual relationship and for the way it cynically analyses the industry's callous abandonment of the superannuated while remaining sympathetic to any 50 year-old woman's need to remain young; it was made early enough to be cast tellingly with genuine relics of the silent era; it encompasses comedy, melodrama, satire and drama with a deftness of touch in the changes of mood. Wilder uses some marvellous deep-focus compositions and the contrast of acting styles between the two stars provides a serendipitous parallel. (Note: the film De Mille is seen directing is clearly Samson and Delilah, out the previous year.)
Country: US
Technical: bw 110m
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich Von Stroheim
Synopsis:
A down-at-heel scriptwriter in Hollywood happens upon a faded silent movie star's mansion while evading repo men from the rental car company, and finds himself staying on to doctor her comeback script of Salome. When she falls in love with him he grudgingly becomes her rentboy too.
Review:
A remarkable film for a number of reasons: it was a forerunner of the more adult subjects Hollywood would tackle in the fifties, both for its sexual relationship and for the way it cynically analyses the industry's callous abandonment of the superannuated while remaining sympathetic to any 50 year-old woman's need to remain young; it was made early enough to be cast tellingly with genuine relics of the silent era; it encompasses comedy, melodrama, satire and drama with a deftness of touch in the changes of mood. Wilder uses some marvellous deep-focus compositions and the contrast of acting styles between the two stars provides a serendipitous parallel. (Note: the film De Mille is seen directing is clearly Samson and Delilah, out the previous year.)
Country: US
Technical: bw 110m
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich Von Stroheim
Synopsis:
A down-at-heel scriptwriter in Hollywood happens upon a faded silent movie star's mansion while evading repo men from the rental car company, and finds himself staying on to doctor her comeback script of Salome. When she falls in love with him he grudgingly becomes her rentboy too.
Review:
A remarkable film for a number of reasons: it was a forerunner of the more adult subjects Hollywood would tackle in the fifties, both for its sexual relationship and for the way it cynically analyses the industry's callous abandonment of the superannuated while remaining sympathetic to any 50 year-old woman's need to remain young; it was made early enough to be cast tellingly with genuine relics of the silent era; it encompasses comedy, melodrama, satire and drama with a deftness of touch in the changes of mood. Wilder uses some marvellous deep-focus compositions and the contrast of acting styles between the two stars provides a serendipitous parallel. (Note: the film De Mille is seen directing is clearly Samson and Delilah, out the previous year.)