Sunset Boulevard – autism and cinema

Summary

Sunset Boulevard was directed by Billy Wilder who would go onto to make some of the most influential comedies of all time including Some Like It Hot, The Seven Year Itch and The Apartment. This drama follows a faded silent Hollywood actress Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) and her chance meeting with a young screenwriter Joe Gills (William Holden). Norma grasps onto Joe imploring him to finish the screenplay that she has been writing for many years, which is going to be her glorious comeback. The decline of Norma’s grasp on reality leads to a third act which is emotionally stirring, unnerving and surreal.

This is by far my favourite film Billy Wilder Film. The script is brilliant as it shows how rejection and unrealistic expectations can lead to self-delusion and a deep denial of reality. You cannot escape the twisted irony of how the script and Norma Desmond’s life mirrored the real life of Gloria Swanson.

10/10 – Calum Roberts

Languages:: English
Countries:: United States of America
Cast: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Fred Clark, Lloyd Gough, Jack Webb, Buster Keaton, Cecil B. DeMille, Hedda Hopper, Anna Q. Nilsson, Ray Evans, Jay Livingston, H.B. Warner, Franklyn Farnum, Larry J. Blake, Charles Dayton, Fred Aldrich, Joel Allen, Gertrude Astor, Edward Biby, Danny Borzage, Ken Christy, Ruth Clifford, Archie R. Dalzell, Eddie Dew, Julia Faye, Al Ferguson, Gerry Ganzer, Rudy Germane, Kenneth Gibson, Creighton Hale, Chuck Hamilton, Len Hendry, E. Mason Hopper, Stan Johnson, Tiny Jones, Howard Joslin, Arthur Lane, Perc Launders, William Meader, Gertrude Messinger, Harold Miller, John 'Skins' Miller, Lee Miller, Ralph Montgomery, Bert Moorhouse, Jay Morley, Howard Negley, Eva Novak, Frank O'Connor, Robert Emmett O'Connor, Jack Perrin, Sidney Skolsky, Emmett Smith, Archie Twitchell, Yvette Vickers, Edward Wahrman, Henry Wilcoxon