Sunset Boulevard - The Centennial Collection
by Billy Wilder
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Erich von Stroheim, Fred Clark, Gloria Swanson, Nancy Olson, William HoldenDirector: Billy Wilder
Brand: HOLDEN,WILLIAM
Cinematographer: John F. Seitz
Writer: Billy Wilder
Editor: Arthur P. Schmidt
Producer: Charles Brackett
Writer: Charles Brackett
Writer: D.M. Marshman Jr.
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); French (Dubbed)
Format: Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 110 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-11-11
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Paramount
Movie Reviews of Sunset Boulevard - The Centennial Collection
Movie Review: A CLASSIC FOR THE AGES
Summary: 5 Stars
.....Does anyone remember that Judy Holliday won the best actress award in 1950? Bette Davis said that she and Gloria Swanson cancelled each other out and that opened the door for Holliday. The fact that Swanson did not win and that Sunset Boulevard did not win Best Picture can be attributed to the petty politics of the Star Machine that built up and then discarded aging actors like spoiled milk when they could no longer pull their weight at the box office. It was a cutthroat business and they didn't like having their dirty linen aired.
.....Gloria Swanson gives the performance of a lifetime as the aging star still living in the past and William Holden's performance as the wise cracking con man established the screen personna that would win him an Academy Award in 1953 in another Billy Wilder Black Comedy, "Stalag 17".
.....It would seem that the movie was written specifically for Ms Swanson because she had been a Silent Screen Star but that was not the case. Swanson had been retired from films since the talkies and Wilder originally wanted Mae West for the part of Norma Desmond. He wanted to write a "Black Comedy" that would spoof Hollywood and the Desmond character was supposed to be a parody of an over-the-hill actress that would make the audience laugh. It was George Cukor who recommended Swanson to Wilder and it was the best posiible choice. Ms Swanson was so perfect for the part that she pulled the audience in and won their sympathy. They didn't laugh at her character, they felt compassion.
.....Holden's character who originally used Desmond for his own personal gain redeemed himself when he rushed to her bedside after her suicide attempt. In a gut wrenching scene after he admonishes her for being so foolish and she sobs that she will do it again, the band that she had hired for her seduction scene of her young lover, begins to play Old Lang Syne to an empty ballroom. Holden goes to her bed and wishes her a Happy New Year.
This is a great movie and a must have for the serious collector.
Summary of Sunset Boulevard - The Centennial Collection
Genre: Drama
Rating: UN
Release Date: 11-NOV-2008
Media Type: DVD
Billy Wilder's noir-comic classic about death and decay in Hollywood remains as pungent as ever in its power to provoke shock, laughter, and gasps of astonishment. Joe Gillis (William Holden), a broke and cynical young screenwriter, is attempting to ditch a pair of repo men late one afternoon when he pulls off L.A.'s storied Sunset Boulevard and into the driveway of a seedy mansion belonging to Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), a forgotten silent movie luminary whose brilliant acting career withered with the coming of talkies. The demented old movie queen lives in the past, assisted by her devoted (but intimidating) butler, Max (played by Erich von Stroheim, the legendary director of Greed and Swanson's own lost epic, Queen Kelly). Norma dreams of making a comeback in a remake of Salome to be directed by her old colleague Cecil B. DeMille (as himself), and Joe becomes her literary and romantic gigolo. Sunset Blvd. is one of those great movies that has become a part of popular culture (the line "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up," has entered the language)--but it's no relic. Wow, does it ever hold up. --Jim Emerson
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