Sunset Boulevard

Norma Desmond: There once was a time in this business when I had the eyes of the whole world! But that wasn't good enough for them, oh no! They had to have the ears of the whole world too. So they opened their big mouths and out came talk, talk, talk!

If there's one thing Hollywood loves, it's movies about Hollywood. There are a lot of films that poke fun at the ridiculousness of the industry, the self-centered people, and their disconnect from every day life, but there are few that speak of its cruelty. Hollywood is not kind to its former stars and there is no film that shows this better than Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard.

Joe Gillis (William Holden), an out-of-work screenwriter, stumbles onto retired silent film star Norma Desmond's (Gloria Swanson) property while trying to avoid some creditors. She hires him as a live-in screenwriter to help make revisions to her lengthy, poorly written screenplay about the life of Salome with which she hopes to make her comeback. Originally hoping to just make a quick buck, he agrees but soon he get roped into her life as a kept man and must cope with her delusions of fame and glory that have long since faded. It's a cynical and sadly realistic look at the price of stardom and the loss of adoration and love.

SPOILERS

The story becomes all the more poignant when you learn that Gloria Swanson was, in fact, a prominent silent film actress whose career waned after the rising popularity of talking pictures. Even more telling is the fact that she did work with directors Cecil B. DeMille and Erich von Stroheim (who plays her former director/husband turned butler) and her "waxwork" bridge friends were also former silent film stars that never successfully transitioned to "talkies." While they may not have been driven to madness, they were treated just as poorly once they lost popularity and were soon forgotten by the industry they helped to create.

On another level, this shows the detrimental effect fame can have on a person. Max (Erich von Stroheim) talks about how Norma was a fresh-faced, innocent girl when he discovered her, but as she became more famous, she became more demanding and difficult to work with, not because of spite but because of the pressure she was under. She was changed by her fame and then shunned by the same people that made her what she was. Max's own sense of responsibility is so great that he cannot bring himself to tell her he is the one who writes her the fan letters. Even DeMille finds it impossible to tell her that the studio wants her antique car more than her. And her desire for a return is simply motivated by wanting to work again, to be needed, to have purpose and return to the days when she was happy. Before she was isolated by fame in an empty mansion with only a butler and a dead monkey.

Joe is another person who protects her out of pity with the added incentive of a comfortable life, but when confronted with the choice between an honest life and continuing on with Norma, he realizes that he cannot stay. He does not deserve to find happiness with Betty (Nancy Olson), but he cannot help Norma continue in her pathetic delusion. Unfortunately, at this point we clearly see that Norma is just as guilty as those around her. She refuses to see the truth and when confronted with it, the only way she can cope is with madness. The final scene is one of the most memorable in film not because of her madness, but because of our complete pity and sympathy for her. She is what we never want to become, someone who sacrifices her future to her past, someone who chooses the dream over the reality. In the end, she is left with nothing but her delusion. She will always be alone in an empty mansion on Sunset Boulevard.