Title/Year : Sunset Blvd, 1950
Director/Birth Country/Year Born: Billy Wilder, Austria, b.1906
Budget: $1,752,000 (estimated)
Gross: $5,000,000 (Worldwide) ( January 1960)
Synopsis: A former silent-film starlet entangles with a young screenwriter, a tale of exploitation unfolds, humiliation and failed dreams.
Political/ Social Commentary: Self- reflexive in its relationship to Hollywood. Critique of censorship.
Narrative and Visual Keywords: survival, narcissism, melodrama, noir (solely stylistically), borders on black comedy, grandiose, decaying, cynical, love triangle, crime of passion, illusion, jealousy, prologue informs the ending with posthumous voiceover.
Main Character/Arc: Norma Desmond, simultaneously a sympathetic and villainous figure. Completely histrionic. Loses touch with reality.
Notable Collaboration: Cecil B. DeMille plays Cecil B. DeMille. As a director he himself was in the spotlight continuously from the early silent period to the age of CinemaScope and stereophonic sound. On set DeMille sported high boots, riding breeches, even twin pearl-handled revolvers.
Historical relevance/recognition: In 1989, the film was among the first group of 25 deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Etc.Louis B. Mayer allegedly said of Director Wilder, "You have disgraced the industry that made and fed you! You should be tarred and feathered and run out of Hollywood!" Also, "I'm ready for my close-up Mr.DeMille" is a commonly re-appropriated quote from the film.
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