Dramas, Classic, Suspense, Thriller, Murder, Film Noir, Recommended, Character Study, Showbiz, Film About Film, Los Angeles, California, Movie Stars, Filmmakers, Filmmaking, Essential Cinema
Description
Billy Wilder's masterpiece SUNSET BOULEVARD, a corrosive black comedy that remains the most memorable assault on the emptiness and vanity of the movie business, stars William Holden as young, down-and-out screenwriter Joe Gillis. Narrated in flashbacks by the now-deceased scribe, the film unwinds the series of events that left him lying face down in a pool. Unable to sell his most recent chef-d'oeuvre, and in hock up to his eyeballs, Joe stashes his car in the driveway of what appears to be an abandoned mansion on Sunset Boulevard while trying to elude some persistent repo men. Closer inspection reveals the decrepit property to be inhabited by grandiose former silent movie goddess Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), and her zombie-like manservant Max (Erich von Stroheim). Upon hearing that he's a writer, the lonely but still wealthy woman offers to pay him generously to stay at the house and work on her "comeback" script on the life of Salome. Although spooked by the people and the surroundings, in desperate straits, Joe takes the job, little suspecting the madness of the netherworld he's entered. Wilder's merciless portrait of the dangers of a profession that trades in fantasy cagily couples the cynical amorality of the never-was with the near-psychotic narcissism of the has-been to reveal the vacuity of wealth and the transience of fame.
DVD Features
2-Disc Set Region 1 NTSC Keep Case Full Frame - 1.33 Audio: Dolby Digital Mono - English Dubbed - French, Spanish Subtitled - English - Optional Disc 1: Feature Film Additional Release Material: Audio Commentary: Ed Sikov - Author of "On SUNSET BOULEVARD: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder" Disc 2: Additional Release Material: Trailers: Theatrical Trailer Featurette: 1. SUNSET BOULEVARD: The Beginning 2. The NOIR Side of SUNSET BOULEVARD by Joseph Wambaugh 3. SUNSET BOULEVARD Becomes a Classic 4. Two Sides of Ms. Swanson 5. Stories of SUNSET BOULEVARD 6. Mad About a Boy: A Portrait of William Holden 7. Recording SUNSET BOULEVARD 8. The City of SUNSET BOULEVARD 9. Franz Waxman and the Music of SUNSET BOULEVARD 10. Behind the Gates: The Lot 11. Paramount in the '50s - Retrospective Featurette 12. Edith Head - The Paramount Years Featurette Text/Photo Galleries: Hollywood Location Map Morgue Prologue Script Pages
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Yet, Another Wrong Turn. Now, here's a real piece of over-rated, vintage rubbish if I've ever seen some. And, Yeah-Yeah - I know that SUNSET BOULEVARD (SB), like CITIZEN KANE, has been praised, since... Read the whole review at MatchFlick
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Released the same year that I was, this magnificent film (#16 on AFI's 2007 Top-100 Movies) was the greatest of Billy Wilder's many achievements. Wilder enraged the big-wigs in Hollywood with his... Read the whole review at MatchFlick
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