Sunset Boulevard

While Billy Wilder made a name for himself directing cynical comedies, such as "The Apartment", he is forgotten as a great dramatic director. The few times he stepped completely into the genre he made some classics, among them "The Lost Weekend" which garnered star Ray Milland a Best Actor Oscar and still stands as an unflinching look at the effects of alcoholism, and "Stalag 17", a gritty war movie. However, his best dramatic effort is "Sunset Boulevard", another unflinching examination, this time of his very own craft. Watching "Sunset Boulevard" you get the distinct impression that Wilder either had a severe ax to grind or really was as cynical as his films would indicate, as everyone is shown in an extremely unflattering light. Demented and forgotten silent film star Norma Desmond (played by the forgotten, possibly demented silent film star Gloria Swanson in an amazing performance) takes in struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis and initially hires him to rewrite her 200 page script, "Salome". Soon their relationship turns sordid, as Norma falls madly (literally and figuratively) in love with the handsome young Joe, who tries playing both sides, taking Norma's money, but also telling himself he will bolt the first real chance he gets to pursue "Blind Windows", a script he is writing with Betty, a pretty young script girl at the studio. Both of the main characters are pretty unlikeable, nothing new for a Billy Wilder film, but he also crams in Norma's creepy butler Max (played by forgotten silent film director Erich von Stroheim, another absolutely brilliant bit of casting), a cigar chomping, "Action!" barking Cecil B. DeMille (playing himself!), a bunch of other forgotten silent film stars playing a bunch of forgotten silent film stars (that Joe calls "the wax works", an extremely apropos description), and a dead monkey's funeral, all to create an atmosphere that Hollywood is a bitter, depressing, backstabbing, delirious, disastrous place to work and live. Not exactly Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in drag.

As the film opens Joe Gillis is lying face down in a swimming pool, dead. Take that "American Beauty". We flash back though, with this knowledge purposely in our heads, to when Joe has just had his latest idea (and last chance) shot down by the studio chief. Out of money and chased by repo men after his car, Joe ducks into a winding driveway up in the Hollywood Hills and loses the men. He wanders into the seemingly shut up mansion but finds its occupant, an eccentric older woman in mourning for her dead monkey. After serving as pall bearer in the bizarre ritual, Joe realizes the woman is Norma Desmond, the actress. He quickly comes to understand that Norma is convinced she is still a star, thanks to an elaborate ruse put on by her butler, Max, also her ex-husband and director of some of her greatest films from her glory days. For years Max has been humoring her as she writes her epic "Salome", lying to her about studio interest in her and the project, writing her fake fan mail, and allowing her to indulge her vanity through home screenings of her old movies (Interestingly, Wilder uses clips of "Queen Christina", a legendarily unfinished film Stroheim, a legendarily extravagent director, had shut down on him due to exorbitant costs that starred the real Gloria Swanson). In the history of Hollywood there are few, if any, more fully realized roles than that of Norma Desmond, and give Gloria Swanson credit; she came out of retirement and absolutely transcended, blurring the line between herself and her on screen alter ago to the point that one had to wonder, was Gloria Swanson really crazy? She is that good, and the role is that perfectly delineated. For a while Joe manages to keep Norma happy by working on her script (and, as the film alludes, indulging her sexually) by day and sneaking away to work on his script with Betty back at the studio by night. Finally completing the epic, Norma thinks she can just put in a call to C.B. DeMille, her old friend at Paramount, and walk right in with the cameras ready to roll. Calls from the studio have convinced her this is the case (when in fact they really want to borrow her hideous 1920's beast of a car for a Bing Crosby movie!), and Max is too devoted to tell her the truth.

After realizing her dream project is not going to happen (thanks to a disastrous visit to the studio) Norma becomes hysterical and tries to kill herself. Joe can sense the situation spiraling out of control, Norma is incredibly unstable and this latest (and probably last, in an interesting parallel to Joe's situation at the beginning of the film) defeat is too much for her to bear, so he tries to break off their "relationship" by returning everything she bought him, packing his suitcase and just walking out the front door. Norma has been forgotten by everyone in Hollywood, but she absolutely refuses to be forgotten by Joe Gillis, a nothing screenwriter she gave everything she had to, and responds by shooting him dead. This all sets up the film's stunning and now famous finale: with (news)cameras rolling, Norma makes her final appearance for her fans, boldly announcing "Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up!" as DeMille, Hollywood tabloid queen Hedda Hopper, and dozens of others look on in utter curiousity, watching this train wreck proceed past them, the public suddenly very interested in Norma Desmond once again. Predictably the film created quite a sensation in Hollywood, prompting Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM, to publicy vilify Wilder for the cinematic condemnation he gave the industry. But Wilder, always ready with a snappy comeback, simply responded to Mayer's outburst with a curt "Fuck you". The final film really is a masterpiece, and watching it, you completely forget that it is a Billy Wilder film. The understanding of the studio system, the absolutely perfect realization of a scorned older woman, the exquisitely detailed attention to time and place, all seems like too much credit to give to an obscure Polish immigrant who came to Hollywood twenty years before not knowing a single word of English. Watching this film now though, keeping in mind that Wilder could create something as powerful as this, something as hysterical as "Some Like It Hot" and something as touching as "The Apartment" and one has to wonder: when considering the list of the greatest directors of all time, along with John Ford, Howard Hawks, and Alfred Hitchcock, one really must include Billy Wilder, a true master of his craft.