'Sunset Boulevard' (Billy Wilder, 1950)

Title: 'Sunset Boulevard'

Release Year: 1950

Director: Billy Wilder

Cast: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson.

Plot: A broken screenwriter accepts economic help from former silent actress Norma Desmond in exchange of leading her last movie towards a major success.

Review: Second film dedicated to the history of cinema that I see. I simply love when filmmakers explain their own story, and 'Sunset Boulevard' is not an exception.

This time, we see how a reputed silent actress lives her mature days remembering her golden times and how she drags Joe Gillis into her world. Swanson's Norma Desmond is a pretended-to-be naive character that still believes that she's a star, but deep down you can't help but feel sorry for her (as her butler secretly does), as you discover that she's a missunderstood creature that hasn't been able to accept that her time has passed and the cruel world has forgotten her and has protected herself from external attacks in a self-made bubble. No need to say it, Swanson's nearly-insane performance is terrific.

Gloria Swanson at her best, delivers a magnificent performance

Holden's character awakes more mixed reaction. Yes, at the end, he laments that Desmond is going to be humilliated for believing that she's a star and tries to enter some sense in her mind, but he chooses a fake love story with her (clearly prostituting himself) over his real love for Olson's character just for money and then... he abandons her. It doesn't even make sense!

The ending to such a bizarre story is as good as it gets; arrested for murder, her loyal butler decides to maintain the lie a little bit longer, pretending that the TV cameras are indeed for a new DeMille's film she's going to shoot, a part that she happily accepts with the famous line 'All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up' while she approaches the lens and the screen gets blurry for the last time.

As Joe narrates, Norma Desmond, thinking that she's a star again, heartfully thanks everybody for helping her return to stardom, and closes the film believing that her revival is a reality