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Home , Charles Brackett, Nancy Olson, Pola Negri

SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950) Dir. Released: August 10th, 1950 (US) / August 17th, 1950 (UK) Run Time: 110 mins 35mm - Mono

Cast: “I am big. Its the pictures that got small!” — Norma Desmond In the Gloria Swanson was arguably the biggest star in the world. Other dominating figures such as , , and were the biggest names in show business. Gloria was the Nancy Olson quintessential movie star, fashion icon and celebrity personality as we think of them today. Miss Swanson had humble beginnings in shorts but soon graduated to feature films. Working with Paramount Studios she received Eric von Stroheim 10,000 letters of adoration a week in her prime and collaborated with Cecil B. DeMille, Sam Wood, Allan Dwan and any Cecil B. DeMille number of other recognisable titans of the era. In 1925 when her contract was coming to a close with Paramount, Miss Swanson was offered $15million a year (adjusted for inflation) to renew her agreement with them, but like Billy Wilder Hedda Hopper realised in the over-arching satire of Sunset Boulevard, Gloria Swanson, too, saw through the illusion that Hollywood ultimately is. She rejected the offer of Paramount, electing instead to rid herself of the shackles of the studio system and became her own producer, seizing back her freedom and individuality to work as she saw fit out of the confines of an H. B. Warner entirely male-dominated industry. Unfortunately for Gloria, as tastes changed and sound-movies became the new accepted norm, she saw little success moving forward and she would ultimately extradite herself from California in 1938, Anna Q. Nilsson punished for daring to different. Miss Swanson took up residence in a ground floor apartment on Fifth Avenue in New York City where she would remain until her death in 1983.

Writers: By 1950 Billy Wilder had already garnered critical success with films like and The Lost Weekend before he set out to make Sunset Boulevard. This was to be a project that employed Wilder’s undeniable aesthetic in tandem Billy Wilder, with his European sense of satire. Sunset would be a mirror held up to the cracked face of Hollywood; a mirror that would Charles Brackett expose all of it’s imagined grandeur and be a scathing indictment of the studio system. Fearing reprisals from Paramount, however, Mr. Wilder would make up false stories in script meetings and gave the film a working title of “A Can of Beans”. & D. M. Marshman Jr. With little more than a few pages of script and a general idea of plot, Billy Wilder set out to cast his character of Norma Desmond. Pola Negri, and Mary Pickford were all considered but Gloria Swanson still had some old friends on the Paramount lot. She and Wilder had worked together years earlier on Music in the Air and when she was Producer: recommended, Gloria travelled to Hollywood to screen-test for the part in early 1949 after nearly a decade away from the screen. Gloria tested with , who at the time was set to play the role of Joe Gillis, though the role would Charles Brackett ultimately go to William Holden. Thrilled with her test, Wilder and his long-time collaborator, Charles Brackett, cast Miss Swanson immediately. The film was to grow and evolve as the production unravelled and having Gloria as their lead undoubtably urged a definite direction. and Cecil B. DeMille, both collaborators of Swanson’s in the Cinematography: silent days, would join the cast. DeMille would film his sequences while on the actual Paramount lot of his real-life project Samson and Delilah. Miss Swanson’s personal artefacts of her career were slowly added to the sets, sequences from John F. Seitz Gloria’s film Queen Kelly were included and gradually the plot details were realised. It is impossible that Sunset Boulevard would be remotely the same movie had Gloria not been involved and no one could have played Norma Desmond so perfectly. The fragments of Gloria’s old silent acting style make for ghostly expressions and grand gestures becoming of a Music: character that is slowly losing her grip on reality.

Franz Waxman Opening to test audiences the film was received with massive praise. At a private Paramount viewing Mary Pickford was said to be so overcome with emotion that she was unable to meet with Swanson to congratulate her in person after the screening. The film was seen by some as a tribute to those silent stars that, with the advent of television, were slowly Costume Design: beginning to fade away into history. The film also garnered some backlash. MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer is said to have Edith Head called Billy Wilder a ‘bastard' at a screening, yelling “you have disgraced the industry that made you and fed you!” to which Wilder replied, “F*** you!” — But despite the industry backlash and the feelings of betrayal, the film was a critical and commercial success. However, when it came to Award season Sunset would not receive recognition in any major category. It was given a handsome set of nominations but a disappointing number of wins. For Hollywood to bestow upon : Sunset Boulevard such a tribute would be to acknowledge the point of the film, which is to mock those very institutions. As Best Writing (Won) the years have passed it is widely considered, at least in the publics heart, that the Best Actress Oscar of 1951 should have gone to Gloria Swanson. Best Art Direction (Won) Indeed, Sunset Boulevard seems to acknowledge the individuals within Hollywood by paying them affectionate tribute, but Best Music (Won) this feeling of nostalgia is immediately revoked when one surveys the rotting and queasy landscape which the film Best Actress (Gloria Swanson, Nominated) inhabits. Wilder means to say that the foundation on which the system is based is fundamentally flawed and none that enter it are likely to escape, at least not unscathed. Each characters narrative is one of desperation as they try to cling to Best Actor (William Holden, Nominated) something that perhaps never existed in the first place. Hollywood makes promises that it can’t or won’t ever keep. Best Supporting Actress (Nancy Olson, Norma, Joe, Betty and others are eaten, stripped of all valuable resource and ultimately regurgitated by the industry they are compelled to love. Unfortunately, none are ever released from its grip even after Hollywood has long forgotten them. Nominated) Nearly 70 years on from it’s release, Sunset Boulevard is as relevant as it ever was. It touched on issues of age and Hollywoods shallow approach to beauty. As a woman of 50, Norma Desmond has become a has-been who has long since Best Supporting Actor (Eric von Stroheim, past her prime and in our society today youth and beauty are still held on a metaphysical pedestal. The ‘casting couch’ Nominated) phenomenon is perhaps as present in the public mind as it ever has been as key players in this historically male- dominated industry are finally being held accountable. Above all, Sunset Boulevard demonstrates how unrealistic Best Director (Nominated) expectations set by an abusive and domineering institution, person or otherwise will ultimately lead to a fracturing of mind and body. The superficial aspirations that saturate our culture today are alluring, but are hollow and without real meaning. Best Cinematography (Nominated) Perhaps Norma’s immortal final lines of the movie suggest that we are all ready for our ‘close-up’ or, at least, a moment of Best Film Editing (Nominated) self-reflection in which we can each look inward and ask ourselves what is truly important before its too late and we become riddled with bullets face-down in a swimming pool. Best Picture (Nominated) Sunset Boulevard has been catalogued and preserved in the National Film Registry and has been consistently ranked as one of the best and most influential films of all time receiving 12th place on the American Film Institute top 100 films. A musical adaptation by Andrew Lloyd Webber has consistently shown around the world since 1993, most notably with Glenn Close in the lead role.

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