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Sunset Blvd. (Paramount: 1950) |
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Directed By:
Billy Wilder
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Written By:
Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, D.M. Marshman Jr.
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Starring:
William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olsen
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Profanity: None |
Violence: Mild |
Sex/Nudity: None
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Review:
Sunset Blvd. is a Hollywood movie that is about Hollywood. It is set in Hollywood. It introduces you to some real Hollywood movie-makers. It explores the difficult and time-consuming art of screenwriting. It even takes you behind the scenes of an actual Cecil B. DeMille production. However, Sunset Blvd. isn’t a documentary about the inner-workings of Hollywood as much as it is a character study of two fictional Hollywood filmmakers, Joe Gillis and Norma Desmond. Joe Gillis is a failure of a screenwriter, unable to develop a single good story to sell to a Hollywood executive. Norma Desmond is a has-been silent film actress and an egomaniac who still believes that she is revered by legions of fans across the world. Joe and Norma meet one day and reach an agreement: Norma will allow Joe to stay in her eloquent mansion, provided that Joe helps Norma to write her next script. Soon, the psychotic Norma begins to fall in love with the not-so-smitten Joe, and Joe begins to realize that the agreement may have become more than he had bargained for. With great drama and intriguing characters, Sunset Blvd. may not be the only movie about Hollywood, but it certainly is one of the greatest films, if not the greatest film of its kind.
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Score:
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