Underplayed Gems

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Sunset Boulevard poster
Directed by
Billy Wilder
Genre
drama film, film noir, flashback film
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 50m
Rated
NR
Rating
8.3 of 10 from 2,964 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A struggling screenwriter stumbles into the home of a faded silent film star. She keeps him there as she plots her unlikely comeback to Hollywood.

melancholicdarkly comicdreamlikeunsettlingslow-burncynicalglamorously tragic

What happens

Sunset Boulevard is a 1950 American black comedy film noir directed by Billy Wilder and co-written by Wilder, Charles Brackett, and D. M. Marshman Jr. It is named after a major street that runs through Hollywood and western Los Angeles. The film stars William Holden as Joe Gillis, a struggling screenwriter, and Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, a former silent film star who draws him into her deranged fantasy world, where she dreams of making a triumphant return to the screen. Erich von Stroheim plays Max von Mayerling, her devoted butler, and Nancy Olson, Jack Webb, Lloyd Gough, and Fred Clark appear in supporting roles. Director Cecil B. DeMille and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper play themselves, and the film includes cameo appearances by silent film stars Buster Keaton, H. B. Warner, and Anna Q. Nilsson. Praised by many critics when first released, Sunset Boulevard was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including nominations in all four acting categories, and won three. It is often ranked among the greatest movies ever made. As it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the US Library of Congress in 1989, Sunset Boulevard was included in the first group of films selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. In 1998, it was ranked number 12 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 best American films of the 20th century; in 2007, it was ranked 16th on their updated 10th Anniversary list. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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