"I am big. It's the pictures that got small."
~Norma Desmond
1950
Hubby and I enjoy noir very much, he has his favorites, Key Largo, Casablanca, Dark Passage, To Have And Have Not, and I enjoy those films to, but there is one noir film I consider high above the rest, Sunset Boulevard! How to you play a character that is over the top without going too far over the top? Well, Gloria Swanson could teach a class in the subtleties of the overly dramatic, by using this performance alone. Her portrayal of Norma Desmond, evokes as much sympathy as it does genuine terror. You don't know from one moment to the next, just which Norma you are talking to, because believe me, you don't just watch this movie, you talk to it!. Norma is an aging actress, dealing with superficial perceptions, both hers and others, and the ever changing Hollywood machine, that cast her aside when talkies came along. Also whispering in poor Norma's ear is the self-loathing, suspicious, selfish man-child who seems to have traded his own life, for the safety of life in a depressing mansion on Sunset Boulevard, in Los Angeles. William Holden is great as, Joe Gillis, a writer who takes a job as Norma's plaything, and manly counterpart. He is every bit as lost as Norma is, so can a co-dependency be far apart? The film has some stunning social commentary for the time, and a more than cynical attitude toward Hollywood. With it's slightly eerie feel, it's worth watching on a rainy night, but if you don't have one of those handy, any night of the week, or weather conditions will do, but rainy nights are so dramatic, aren't they?
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