Every time I watch Billy Wilder’s 1950 black comedy “Sunset Boulevard,” I find myself nearly derailed when the numerous famous quotes from the film appear.  As Smash Negativity says, while the film “delves into the depths of obsession and despair, it also sprinkles moments of humor throughout. From Norma Desmond’s [Gloria Swandon] over-the-top theatrics to Joe Gillis’ [William Holden] sarcastic and cynical remarks, the film finds levity amidst the darkness. It reminds us that even in the most somber of circumstances, a touch of wit and laughter can bring much-needed relief.”

The quotes have been referenced in other films, as parodies or otherwise: “I am still big. It’s the pictures that got small.” “I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille.”

When strugggling screen writer William Holden, who is fleeing from the repo man, turns into a seemingly abandoned driveway leading to a seemingly abandoned mansion his first thought is hilding his car. But, he soon comes under the spell of nearly-forgotten film star Gloria Swanson  who lavishes him with attention and gifts while hoping that he can help her write her big comeback film. Things don’t gso as planned for either of them.

Pamela Hutchinson, in “Suset Boulevard: What Billy Wilder’s satire really tells us about Hollywood,” writes: “Former silent film star Desmond may be mad, but there is a grain of truth in what she says: Swanson was one of Paramount’s biggest stars even back when it was called Famous Players-Lasky, just as we are told Desmond was too. While Sunset Boulevard appears to attack the pretentions and excesses of the silent era, in fact its argument about the bad old days of Hollywood is more complicated than that. The horror at the heart of the film is that, as the studio system was starting to crumble, the beginnings of the industry were coming back to haunt it. Desmond’s pride mocks the fall of Hollywood just as it was teetering, rocked by the antitrust laws, the coming of TV and the communist witch-hunts.”

What the public saw in the films and their publicity was a bit different than what went on behind the scenes and corporate offices. If you haven’t lost your innocence about Hollywood already, watching “Sunset Boulevard” will take care of that transformation for you. As Huchinson says, “For all its humour, Sunset Boulevard is a bitter and queasy film, and the figure of Desmond is its greatest grotesque, a woman of 50 striving to be 25, surrounded by images of herself and entranced by her own face on a cinema screen.”

“They took the idols and smashed them, the Fairbankses, the Gilberts, the Valentinos! And who’ve we got now? Some nobodies!” – Norma Desmond

–Malcolm