Review of Sunset Boulevard (1950) by Ian F — 22 Jan 2011

So amazing to behold, a film about the smoke and mirrors of Hollywood. It's brutally unrestrained in it's prediction, an indictment of the vanity and stardom that the culture creates in people.

It really is a film noir in a lot of ways. To me it's almost exactly like Double Indemnity in it's overall structure, though Norma Desmond isn't exactly any kind of femme fatale. Still she ensnares the main character into a web of hysteria and leads him to his own downfall.

William Holden is so great as a down-and-out writer in Hollywood, he is so disillusioned by the world of the industry at this point that you really feel complete sympathy for his character. Once he gets caught in the world of a disturbing shrine to herself, you can't help but wince at the self-destruction he causes every second he stays longer in that house.

Gloria Swanson is also just so creepy and deluded that she derives both enormous pity and disgust. In some ways we all know characters like her, clinging to moments of the past and stubborn to face the harsh truth of their existence.

It just makes it that much more tragic and monstrous. She is a symbol of what a culture of fame and star power creates, a relentless obsession with youth and unbridled narcissism. This film is such a great satire on Hollywood and is a terrific portrait of the underside of fame that reveals it for what it really is, extremely inflated egos and a psychotic fixation on beauty.