5. Sunset Blvd.
The grandaddy of all "inside Hollywood" films, Sunset Blvd. is the sad, sordid, satirical tale of Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), a great silent movie star who refuses to acknowledge she's been put out to pasture, and whose desire to make a big come back finally leads to madness ("Alright, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up..."); and Joe Gillis (William Holden), the hapless screenwriter who "always wanted a pool", and gets far more than he bargained for when he allows himself to be "kept" and used by the great Norma Desmond. Billy Wilder's 1950 masterpiece is often described as a "poison letter" to Hollywood, but it's more nuanced and forgiving than its reputation suggests. Hollywood here is a study in contrasts: it's a tough town where talented dreamers can never quite break into the system, but where the right bit of luck can land you a big break; it's a family, but a family where estranged children are never seen again (Desmond's reemergence on a Cecil DeMille's set is one of moviedom's most moving scenes). More than anything, Sunset Blvd. is an ode to the fact that making movies is a lot of very very
very hard work; that when good ones happen, it's sort of a miracle; and that the seductive world building of filmmaking can lead to both inspiration and delusion. There's something both deeply moving and deeply creepy about
Desmond's final confession that "this is my life - there's nothing else...just us...and the cameras...and those
wonderful people out there in the
dark..."