"Welcome to "Sunset Boulevard"." "I'm Ed Sikov, the author of "On Sunset Boulevard:" "The Life and Times of Billy Wilder"." "This is the cut of the film seen by most audiences on its release in 1 950." "But this is not the way that "Sunset Boulevard" originally began." "Paramount Pictures previewed Wilder's original cut in Evanston, Illinois." "Audiences there saw a very different opening sequence, and they rejected it, violently." "The credits began in a similar way with this moving camera shot, but then Wilder took us to the LA County morgue, which is where we meet Joe Gillis, played by William Holden." "He's got an identification tag on his toe because he's dead." "From an early draft of the script, quote:" ""For a moment, the room is semi-dark."" ""As the music becomes 'astral', a glow emanates from the corpses."" ""The long row of tags sways in the breeze from the ventilator system."" ""A man's voice says, 'Don't be scared, there's a lot of us here."'" ""Gillis says, 'l'm not scared."'" ""His head doesn't move, but his eyes wander to a nearby slab."" ""There, under a transparent sheet, lies a fat man aged 60 or so."" ""His eyes are open too, and directed at Gillis."" ""The fat man says, 'How did you die?"'" ""Gillis: 'What difference does it make?"'" ""They discuss how the fat man died,"" ""then Gillis says, 'Me, I drowned."'" "Then Wilder got even more morbid and risky, quote:" ""On a slab against the wall lies a blond boy of eleven."" ""His swollen child's face also peering through a transparent sheet."" ""The boy says, 'So did l. l drowned, right off the pier at Ocean Park."'" ""'lt's only bad when you try not to swallow."'" ""'lf you let it in your mouth, it doesn't hurt."'" ""'l wish my folks would come and get me."'" ""Fat man asks Gillis, 'Where did you drown?" "The ocean?"'" ""Gillis says, 'No, a swimming pool."'" ""Fat man says, 'A husky fellow like you?"'" ""Gillis: 'l had a few extra holes in me." "Two in the chest, one in the stomach."'" "When, in Evanston, Illinois, the corpses started talking, the audience laughed." "Derisively." "Wilder was shocked, and later said, "l sat there a few minutes,"" ""then left the theatre."" ""l sat on one of the steps leading down to the toilet."" ""That was a black moment in my life."" ""A lady came down who had also left the theatre and said,"" ""'Have you ever seen such shit?" "' l said, 'Never."'" "So Wilder reshot the opening sequence." "Wilder and his collaborators, Charles Bracket and D M Marshman Jr, wanted their film to be an "lnside Hollywood" thing, the sights and sounds of Greater Tinseltown, so they used many real locations to get across the flavour." "Gillis's apartment is above Franklin and Ivar Streets, it's still there, it's called the "Alto Nido"." "Wilder had been living in Hollywood since 1 934." "He was born in Poland, grew up in Vienna, worked in Berlin as a screenwriter, then went to Paris and Hollywood." "He loved Hollywood, it was his kind of town:" "a little bit hard, a little bit mean, where you could make it big or die trying, a place where dreams can both come true and die." "That's the case with Joe Gillis, as we'll see." "Gillis's lack of success was familiar, even to Billy Wilder." "When Billy made "Sunset Boulevard" he was a hot director, but back in Berlin in the '20s he was a nobody, unable to sell his scripts." "He had to start again in Hollywood too, hustling ideas to people who didn't want them." "This scene with Gillis also sets him up as an operator, a tough-talking, sarcastic, would-be hotshot." ""You say the cutest things," he snarls to the repo guy." "That's something Wilder himself would have said." "Wilder arrived in the US speaking little English, but he learnt quickly." "He loved the rhythms of American speech." "Gillis's line, "Hear about Rudy, the shoeshine man?" is a great example." ""Rudy never asked about your finances." "He'd look at your heels and know."" "It's a kind of street poetry." "Paramount pervades this film, quite a daring thing for Wilder and the studio, given this movie's bleak vision of life in Hollywood." "When Gillis goes to Paramount begging work, he enters not by the main gate, but by the smaller, more beautiful gate at the corner of Melrose and Bronson." "Paramount is where Wilder made his last six pictures:" ""The Major and the Minor", "Five Graves to Cairo", "Double Indemnity"," ""The Lost Weekend", "The Emperor Waltz" and "A Foreign Affair"." "It shows Wilder's clout that Paramount allowed "Sunset Boulevard" at all." "It was the most bitter film about Hollywood then made, and it remains so still." "Paramount could have made Wilder create a fictional studio, but they didn't." "We really do see Paramount here and elsewhere." "That's how confident they were of Wilder in 1 949, when the film was shot." "Now, Gillis calls Sheldrake "a smart producer with the ulcers to prove it"." "Wilder battled with executives, but he knew the difficulties in making a film." "It's stressful, which is why Sheldrake is burping and guzzling antacid here." "Enter Betty Schaefer, played by Nancy Olson." "This was only her second picture, but she was nominated for an Oscar, in the category of "Best Supporting Actress"." "She was paired with William Holden in three other films:" ""Union Station", "Submarine Command" and "Force of Arms"." "Holden made a splash in 1 939 with "Golden Boy" as a boxing violinist, but after that he was stuck in forgettable, nice-guy roles." "He'd made almost 25 pictures before "Sunset Boulevard", but audiences still didn't really know William Holden, so they could accept him easily as an unknown, unsuccessful screenwriter." "Now, here we have to question Gillis's description of Sheldrake as "smart"." ""We always look for a Betty Hutton," he says. "ls this a Betty Hutton?"" "The idea of Betty Hutton playing a rookie shortstop is a joke of Wilder's requiring some explanation." "Gillis's script, "Bases Loaded", is obviously not a "Betty Hutton"." "Hutton was the bright and winning star of "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek"" "and the great musical "Annie, Get Your Gun"." "Gillis gets the joke." "Such lines show the comic side of this film." "After Sheldrake proposes "Bases Loaded" as a "Betty Hutton"," "Gillis asks him, "Are you trying to be funny, because I'm all out of laughs."" "Gillis may be out of laughs, but Wilder never was, especially not in "Sunset Boulevard"." "Here we are at Schwab's Drugstore." "This "combination office, Kaffeeklatsch and waiting room"" "is another one of Wilder's "lnside Hollywood" locations." "Hollywood lore has it that Lana Turner was discovered there drinking a soda." "Originally, the Schwab's scene came with a notable Hollywood personality." "Wilder filmed this scene with the gossip-columnist Sidney Skolsky, but it ended up on the cutting-room floor." "ln a way, this golf course is still another central Hollywood locale." "It is a place where film industry relationships are nurtured." "Gillis doesn't get that at all, calling his agent a "big faker"." "He says, "He was hard at work in Bel Air, making with the golf sticks."" ""Making with the golf sticks" is not how Gillis would talk." "It's pure Billy Wilder. lt's the syntax of an Eastern European Jew, not a Mid-Westerner like Gillis or the Pasadena-bred William Holden." "As for the agent's reference to the "Mocambo-Romanov's rut", these were two well-known nightspots in Hollywood." "They were frequented by big-name people with big-budget wallets." "Wilder himself loved these places and the power scene they represented." "Something about the title of this film:" "Sunset Boulevard is a famous avenue in Los Angeles." "It goes from Silverlake to the Pacific Ocean, over which the sun does set." "But Sunset Boulevard also refers to the characters in this film, particularly the one we're about to meet." "She's been nearing the end of her day for some time." "Gillis also seems near his end in Hollywood." "He dreads returning home in disgrace, having failed in his dreams." "Now, you'd never call Billy Wilder a great action-film director, but this is pretty effective as a chase sequence, and it's made all the more tense by Franz Waxman's score." "Waxman had known Billy since Berlin in the early '30s." "Like Wilder, he left Germany to escape the Nazis." "Some thugs beat him up on the street, which provided physical incentive to leave for Paris as soon as possible." "Now, is it an element of chance, or fate, or both, that leads Joe Gillis into this driveway?" "His tyre blow-out appears a blessing, causing him to out-fox the repo men." "But then..." "I don't want to get ahead of myself." "The house that Wilder found for this location shooting was not located in the 1 0000 block of Sunset Boulevard as the script has it, but at the corner of Wilshire and Irving Boulevards, six miles away." "It was owned by J Paul Getty's ex-wife, but she hadn't lived there for years." "It was the kind of house "crazy movie people built in the crazy '20s"." "Unfortunately this one, like most of them, was later torn down." "Coming up is another example of Wilder's street-poetic writing style." ""Miss Havisham, taking it out on the world"" ""because she'd been given the go-by."" "It's not exactly how English professors describe Charles Dickens's character, but it works really well, and it sounds terrific." "Notice the oblique way Wilder introduces, or, rather, re-introduces Gloria Swanson to movie audiences in 1 950." "Here she is, in long shot, through the blinds, with sunglasses covering her eyes, but a beam of light on her face." "He's drawing out this introduction, teasing us with it." ""Who is this woman?" we find ourselves asking." "As I see it, this is when the film starts to turn comical." "It's weird comedy, but comedy nonetheless." "Gillis is entering a demented fun-house world here, and the nightmare is that, once he enters, he can't escape." "Max, the butler, is played by the extraordinary Erich von Stroheim, who directed such classic films as "Blind Husbands", "Foolish Wives", and his masterpiece "Greed", originally filmed as a seven-hour film." "It was cut to a quarter of that length, helping to ruin Stroheim's career." "By the 1 940s, Stroheim was reduced to playing in B-pictures such as" ""The Mask of Diijon", at the end of which he beheads himself." "Look at Holden's gesture here." "That is a comic double-take." "And here she is:" "Norma Desmond." "Just look at her." "Look at her clothes, look at her room..." "Look at the dead body on the massage table in front of the fire." ""He always liked fires, and poking at them with a stick."" "Who is this corpse?" "This is black comedy, pure and not-so-simple." "Oh... ln real life, Gloria Swanson was not like Norma Desmond, though she later wrote that she knew who she was playing, and her character clearly had much to do with herself." "It's a fantastic performance by Swanson, who wasn't the crazy diva she plays, but a hard-working woman who kept busy after her screen career ended." "She ran a company and had a radio show in New York." "She was by no means the reclusive lunatic we see here." "This is one of the most quoted lines from "Sunset Boulevard"." ""You used to be big," Gillis says, and Norma is not pleased to hear that." ""l am big," she corrects him." ""lt's the pictures that got small."" "But what's usually missing when people quote it is the punchline:" ""Uh-huh. I knew there was something wrong with them."" "ln any case, Norma Desmond is big." "Her gestures are oversized, her emotions even more so." "She's grandiose and unnatural-looking, given her excessive make-up." "By 1 950, acting was more naturalistic than it was in the silent era, when actors relied on big gestures to get their characters' emotions across." "ln fact, Holden had been playing guy-next-door types for the last ten years." "Both his characters and pictures were small compared to Norma Desmond." "It doesn't take much for Norma to start railing against the film industry." "She's obviously quite mad here, but she has a point." "Gillis has another Wilderesque smart remark to make, this time about talk." ""That's where the popcorn comes in." "You buy a bag and plug up your ears."" "He follows up with another crack like Wilder would make:" ""Sh." "You'll wake the monkey."" "But, as we're about to see, Joe Gillis is essentially a sell-out." "He's going to be working for this nutcase." "She offers him a job and he takes it." "And he hates himself for it." "This is a recurrent theme in Wilder's work:" "people who sell out in some form or another." "There's a sense of self-contempt that pervades Wilder's films." "Two of his best films to come, "Ace in the Hole" in 1 951 and "Stalag 1 7" in 1 953, are about men who'd do anything to get ahead, even, or especially, if it's completely immoral." "And there, of course, is her screenplay." "A lot of it." "Norma's reaction to the word "comeback" is also justifiably famous." ""l hate that word," she cries." ""lt's a return."" "Oh, that's what it is." "ln this scene, Wilder's camera dwells on the creepiness of the mansion." "The overblown and antiquated quality, the sheer absurd excess it represents." "The house is just an architectural extension of Norma herself." "It's an expression of her character." "Notice what the script is about." "As she says, "Salome." "What a woman."" "Now that's hilarious." "Salome gets John the Baptist's head served to her which is also what Norma Desmond..." "but I'm getting ahead of myself again." "Watch how these two people interact:" "Norma Desmond, from another era, and Joe Gillis, Hollywood 1 950." "A lot of the tension comes from the interplay of two styles of acting, competing performance styles:" "Norma's, the colossal expressivity of the silent era;" "Joe's, the muted, underplayed style of postwar Hollywood." "This is an amazing posture Norma assumes here." "That cigarette holder, that claw." "It seems to suggest a vampire." "It's also worth mentioning Edith Head's costuming, which is spectacular." "Head's problem was to dress a character who is out of time, but also rich enough to buy anything, including the most expensive clothes in Beverly Hills." "So Norma's clothing had to be in style and out-of-date at the same time." "Edith Head solved this by mixing glamorous postwar styles with the odd throwback element here and there." "A beautiful hat trimmed in outrageous feathers, for example, and, certainly, a lot of leopard skin." "The doorbell rings and it's time for, as Gillis says, "comedy relief"." "The monkey mortician has shown up, so we don't forget the corpse upstairs." "As Gillis reads his script, he's saying he's concocting a plot of his own." "But in fact, he hasn't." "Norma Desmond has beaten him to the punch." "He's been trapped in Norma's world since coming in the door." "ln other words, he's taken the place of the old chimp, or "chump"." "While Norma is busy trapping poor Joe, I'd like to mention that when Wilder had no money in Berlin in the late 1 920s, he worked as a dancing gigolo at the Hotel Eden, waltzing ladies around the dance floor for pay." "He found it demeaning." "Many of his films are about sell-outs, men and women who sell themselves, both literally and figuratively." "Joe Gillis ends up doing both." "As demented as Norma may be, she has the authority, the power." "Here again, she's setting that trap and he's walking right into it." "What Max is about to tell Joe in the scene above the garage is also true of Gloria Swanson in the 1 920s." "She was a huge star who was treated like royalty." "As Wilder himself once said," ""This was a star who was carried from her dressing room to the sound stage."" "Gillis's remark about Max is also true about Erich von Stroheim:" ""l pegged him as slightly cuckoo too."" "Stroheim was slightly cuckoo." "He had a thing for sexual kinkiness in the films he directed himself." "Wilder and his co-writers, Bracket and Marshman, created a classical screenplay in three acts, and Wilder will now show that the end of act one has arrived." "After we see the rats in the empty pool..." "After Wilder shows us the monkey's burial..." "Since Gillis has taken the monkey's place, we can safely bid bye-bye to it." "Gillis says, "lt was all very queer, but queerer things were yet to come."" "With that, the curtain falls, and the first act of "Sunset Boulevard" is over." "The second act also begins with voice-over narration, as Gillis explains his situation to us." "The shot of hands playing the organ is unusual for Billy Wilder." "It calls attention to itself as arty and stylistic." "Wilder favoured less showy shots than this, but he obviously wanted to show the baroque, even Grand Guignol nature of Norma Desmond's warped world." "It's an extreme world, expressed here by those hands in extreme close-up." "Look at the mise en scène in general:" "the setting and props, in particular." "Norma has surrounded herself with hundreds of pictures of herself." "She literally lives in her own world." "Narcissistic, unable to distinguish between the images of herself and what she has actually become." "And what is she wearing around her neck?" "As Gillis blue-pencils Norma's awful script, and as she reacts badly to the changes, it's worth mentioning that Wilder rarely let his actors change his dialogue, and, in fact, he sometimes timed their line deliveries with a stopwatch." "Later, during the production of "Some Like lt Hot"," "Wilder held up filming deciding whether to allow Jack Lemmon to repeat the simple line:" ""Now you're talking."" "Despite the fact Wilder was a great screenwriter and Desmond is not, maybe Billy is identifying with her a bit here." "Again, watch this incredible performance by Gloria Swanson." "Drag queens cannot get this across when impersonating Norma Desmond." "She's hilarious, even ridiculous, but she's not a total caricature." "Swanson's Norma Desmond is still a great actress." "Larger than life and able to sustain that gigantic quality very well." "Norma was correct earlier on:" "it is the pictures that got small after the silent era." "But that doesn't mean her silent screen-style acting is a joke." "The film they are about to watch is called "Queen Kelly", which starred Gloria Swanson and was directed by Erich von Stroheim." "According to Wilder, it was Stroheim's idea to use this footage." "You can see here how gorgeous Swanson was in her youth." "And how photogenic." ""We had faces," she says, and she's right." "It's worth noting that "Queen Kelly" was a disaster commercially, in fact, it was never completed." "It was another nail in the coffin of Swanson's career and it basically ended Stroheim's career as a director." "Just to mention, some critics have called "Sunset Boulevard" a film noir but as you'll see, the lighting alone makes it a monster movie at times." "And here we meet the waxworks, Norma's friends." "First, Anna Q Nilsson, a Swedish actress, a precursor to Greta Garbo," "H B Warner, a fine dramatic actor, and then, the great Buster Keaton, one of the two great comedians of the silent screen, the other being Chaplin." "Wilder had approached another silent star, William Haines, who became a renowned interior designer in Hollywood, but Haines turned him down." ""No mascara," he told Billy." "Aside from the spectacle of three huge stars now reduced to "waxworks", look how dreadfully Norma belittles Joe in this scene." "She's emasculating him just as the repo men come to take away his car." "He calls it a matter of life and death, as the loss of a car in LA could be." "This scene marks the end of whatever sense of independence Gillis has left." "He's forced to realise here just how much of a kept boy he has become." "And here it is:" "Norma's fabulous 1 932 lsotta Fraschini." ""The whole thing was upholstered in leopard skin," Gillis comments." "It's gaudy, almost like a bordello, and I think Wilder presents Gillis here as a kept boy in a male harem of one." "And, of course, she starts in on his clothes." "She's picking on him." "He's humiliated." "He can't even chew gum." "So off we go to the haberdashers, where Gillis gets some new duds and a lot more humiliation." "The salespeople here obviously know what's going on in this relationship." "Apparently, they've seen this sort of thing before." "This guy tells Joe to "take the vicuña coat as long as the lady is paying", and Wilder tracks forward on that vicuña line, very far forward." "It's funny, and the smirk on the salesman's face is priceless." "But look at Holden's face." "He's really, really humiliated." "It's funny but also very sad." "Billy Wilder's essential tone in three words: funny and sad." "If you look for symbols in movies, screenwriters and directors use water as a way of cleaning up some mess." "ln "Psycho", Janet Leigh decides to give the money back and immediately takes a shower to wash her crime away." "But here, this downpour only serves to force Gillis into the mansion." "There's something corrupting about this rain, it's dirty and depressing." "Now Gillis has become quite the hunky whore." "Like the leopard skin upholstery of Norma's car, this creepy house, so overdecorated, really starts to look like a bordello." "As Max says, "lt was the room of the husband."" ""The husbands, I should say."" "ln other words, this is where Norma Desmond keeps her sexual toys." "But Wilder adds a new revelation:" ""What's this with the doors?"" "As Max tells him, they've had to remove the locks because" ""Madame has moments of melancholy."" "ln fact, so did Billy Wilder." "Like a lot of comedians, Wilder was often morose, hyper but morose, and moody." "The difference is that Wilder only had moments of despair, whereas Norma Desmond is suicidal and more or less insane." "And look at her room." "Again, an extension of her personality." "Norma's New Year's party is a pivotal moment." "It's a series of scenes, beginning with this one." "It marks a major transition for Gillis's character, and for Norma's too." "And this transition takes a little while to play out." "On the stairs, Gillis says, "lt was at the party"" ""that he discovered what Norma Desmond really felt about him."" "My question is, where has he been?" "Hasn't he been watching this movie?" "I guess not, he's in it." "The point is, he's been narrating but he's understood nothing." "He's been a dope, a sentiment to which I'm sure he'd agree." "ln fact, he does call himself an idiot here." "Notice Norma's outfit here." "She's got that drape over her arm." "Looks rather like a veil, doesn't it?" "Yes, I think it's symbolic:" "Edith Head's update of Salome's famous Dance of the Seven Veils." "For Wilder, the dance we'll soon see also serves as a prelude to the last scene of the film." "As creepy as this is, it's also quite dazzling." "Unlimited champagne, that enormous cake, your own band playing," "Valentino's tile floor..." "Gillis's situation may be sordid, but he has good reason to go through with it." "We're meant to understand Gillis's self-prostitution very clearly here." "He's living the good life." "So what if he has to hold his nose sometimes?" "But the film is more balanced than that." "Look how happy Norma Desmond is when she's dancing with Joe Gillis." "When she stops being the lunatic and dances with the man she loves," "Norma Desmond becomes almost appealing, even beautiful." "Well, a little bit anyway." "Wouldn't it be great to pull off wearing that cigarette holder like her?" "How many people can do such a thing?" "ln a way, she's truly magnificent." "The gift she gives Joe is another matter." "Why?" "Because it pushes Gillis over the edge, it's the last straw." "Norma is now drunk and jealous, an unpleasant mix given her dementia." "Still, as melodramatic as Norma is, one can't help feeling sorry for her." "Leave aside the fact that she's a gargoyle." "From her perspective, and maybe from ours if we have any sympathy, she's also an attractive, wealthy woman in her early fifties, who has fallen in love with a very handsome and virile younger man." "Holden himself was 31 at the time." "It's painful for Norma to realise, to her huge humiliation, that she's just not desirable to him." "It's painful for us as well, and I think Wilder is asking us to feel sympathy for her." "Notice the focus pull from Gillis in the foreground to Max in the background." "Wilder shifts the camera's focus to Max because what Max is doing as a servant is what Gillis would be doing, figuratively, if he stayed at the house." "At the same time, Wilder sympathises with Gillis." "It makes perfect sense for him to leave. lt's the right thing to do." "But his self-extraction from that house isn't as smooth as he'd like." "His watch chain catches on the doorknob." "And right away, we see the life to which Joe Gillis is returning." "He's alone, and hitchhiking in a downpour." "Quite a come-down from that mansion, and all that champagne and caviar." "I must confess, Artie Green's party is one of my least favourite scenes." "It seems a little too carefree to me." "I'm sure that hungry young people in Hollywood can have great parties, but this one seems forced." "They're singing the Oscar-winning song "Buttons and Bows", with the song's composers, Jay Livingstone and Ray Evans, sitting at the piano." "Another "lnside Hollywood" reference." "And we meet Artie Green finally, recognisable to vintage TV buffs as Jack Webb, Detective Joe Friday from "Dragnet"." "Webb wasn't just the star, he had conceived the series, first for the radio in 1 949, the year "Sunset Boulevard" was in production." "Adolphe Menjou is the same vintage as Gloria Swanson, the star of such films as Chaplin's "A Woman of Paris", and Joseph von Sternberg's "Morocco", almost always playing a dapper and expensively-dressed fellow." "That's why Artie Green compares Joe Gillis to him." "And here's Betty Shaefer again, now revealed to be Green's girlfriend." "But notice how Wilder sets poor Artie up for a fall." "He's no match for Gillis in the stud department." "First Artie comments on Gillis's gorgeous face, then he compares himself to the society queen Elsa Maxwell." "Maybe Wilder wants us to see Artie as less interested in Betty than he claims." "But we'll soon see, even before Betty does, that Betty finds herself drawn far more to Joe Gillis than to Artie Green." "While Betty and Joe set up their working relationship, here's more about Nancy Olson." "Despite her Oscar nomination, she lost to Josephine Hull, who was in the Jimmy Stewart comedy, "Harvey"." "She had roles in nine other films over the next five years." "She retired from the movies in 1 955, though she made more films later." "She was married to the composer Alan J Lerner, and later to the president of Capitol Records, Alan Livingstone." "Holden went on to star in three more films for Wilder:" ""Stalag 1 7", "Sabrina" and "Fedora"." "He became one of Wilder's closest friends." "He also appeared in other films, from Joshua Logan's "Picnic"" "to Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch"." "Gillis has a fairly dirty line here:" ""Maybe there's some paper around."" "I'll spell it out: he means toilet paper, something the Production Code would have banned as a direct reference." "Wilder clearly thinks toilet paper is a funny medium on which to write notes for a Hollywood screenplay." "Just when Joe thinks he'll be respectable again, his past comes to haunt him, as it often does in film noir." "He has broken Norma Desmond's heart and she has responded by slashing her wrists with his razor blade." "So much for his new independence." "Now, in addition to self-contempt, he can add tremendous guilt to his list of emotional problems." "And back he goes." "Even in the face of Norma's suicide attempt," "Max is protective of her public image." "The musicians mustn't know what happened." "Yep, it's another Hollywood cover-up." "Wilder knows how that place operates." "He'd lived and worked there long enough to know." "This is a subtle and nuanced tone Wilder achieves in this scene." "Gillis pities Norma, but he still despises her, and what she's done to him." "Norma is humiliated, but she still maintains her pride." "When she delivers the line, "Great stars have great pride" I think we believe her." "The slightly high angle here is important." "Gillis is narrating this morbid story, he's effectively looking down on himself as he makes his fatal move." "Namely, back into Norma Desmond's arms." "And then this sad, hideous, desolate gesture." "The third and final act opens with Betty Schaefer trying frantically to reach Joe." "Max says he's not there, but we know he must be living with her, and romancing her once more." "Here's the "stray dog" as Max calls him, showing some beefcake." "We can see exactly why Norma keeps him around." "Joe is back to being a kept boy, and Wilder displays the goods for us to see." "Notice how Joe plays the role, even more than before, as his relaxed physical manner in front of Norma indicates." "This is a Production Code-approved way of saying they've slept together." "If there's any doubt what's going on here," "Franz Waxman gives us a lurid saxophone interlude in the score, when Norma hands Joe the money." "She's obviously paying for something other than cigarettes." "And back to Schwab's Pharmacy." "A bit of dialogue here drives the point home again." ""Where have you been keeping yourself?" says Betty." ""l haven't been keeping myself at all," he replies." "It's funny to watch Betty develop a hard edge the minute Gillis threatens her career aspirations." ""l don't want to be a reader all my life. I want to write!"" "Despite her fresh face and winning demeanour," "Betty is just as hungry as everyone else in Hollywood, including Wilder." "Here's what seems to be another overt symbol: the circling umbrella." "It's the vortex into which Joe has fallen." "The world of mad Norma Desmond, re-enacting her glory days." "The Mack Sennett Bathing Beauties," "Sennett being a successful comedy producer during the silent era." "He's most famous for the "Keystone Cops" films." "Here, Norma also recalls Mabel Normand and Marie Prevost, two more important figures of early cinema." "What we're seeing here is pretty absurd, yet Gloria Swanson invests this whole scene, and its aftermath, with a genuine joy at performing again." "Norma Desmond and Gloria Swanson are both great performers, and they know it." "As they prove, with what we're about to see." "Charlie Chaplin as the Tramp, one of the most frequently imitated characters in all cinema." "But, like most of the imitators of Norma Desmond herself, these imitations usually come off as superficial." "Swanson's, though, strikes me as very, very good." "There's an effortlessness to it, just like Chaplin had." "The comedy equivalent of great dancing." "Amazingly enough, Paramount has called." "And this is when the scene turns grotesque." "Norma, still in her Chaplin outfit, turns back into Norma." "It's one of Swanson's best scenes, because she's forced to deliver this speech with that moustache, and she still makes it work." "Norma has talent, charm, fame, fortune, and it seems her dream of returning to films will come true." "And yet, she's obviously quite out of her mind." "Max, in this scene, notices her make-up is a bit off." "He notices this through the rear-view mirror, because Max has had experience with this sort of thing before." "But we don't know that yet." "According to Billy Wilder, while filming this scene," "Erich von Stroheim crashed into the Bronson Gate because he couldn't drive, but that story is, like some of Billy's best stories, probably fabricated." "It's lucky for Norma that Jonesy the guard recognises her." "Only the old-timers recognise her, as we'll soon see in greater detail." "For me, and for many people, getting inside a studio is pretty exciting, and Wilder knows that." "ln the sound stage, we have a great high- angle shot encompassing everything;" "the set, the camera, the boom, the crew, the lighting superstructure, and he punctuates the shot with that flashing light bulb, just to pump up the energy a little more." "Despite its bitterness toward Hollywood, this is a movie for movie lovers, and this whole sequence is about loving movies." "It's a Cecil B DeMille epic, so we've got these glamorous Biblical creatures running around, in inane and overblown costumes." "Notice the chain of command leading up to Mr DeMille:" "the second assistant goes to the first assistant, and it is only he who dares to approach the mastermind himself." "Despite Wilder's attempt to soften DeMille by handing him that line about how millions of fans gave Norma the brush," "DeMille comes off as a fairly sour figure, a manipulative autocrat making one of his risible extravaganzas." "DeMille agreed to the role for a healthy salary and a new Cadillac." "Wilder's original idea was to have Hedy Lamarr sitting at her chair." "DeMille is filming his 1 949 epic, "Samson and Delilah", starring Hedy Lamarr and Victor Mature." "According to Wilder, Lamarr asked Paramount for $25,000 for a cameo, so they dropped the idea." "Again, this is exciting for those of us who haven't been inside a sound stage." "Notice the contempt with which she brushes this boom away." "There really was a Hog-eye at Paramount, an old-timer electrician named John Hetman." "Here Wilder makes it clear Norma Desmond isn't entirely forgotten, as all the other old-timers respond to her with awe and admiration." "Billy himself remembered the old silent stars." "ln fact, one of the articles he wrote as a young journalist in Vienna was an interview with the great Danish movie star Asta Nielsen." "But Paramount doesn't want Norma at all." "The studio only wants her car for a Bing Crosby picture." "Billy had worked with Crosby on "The Emperor Waltz", and he found the experience less than satisfying." "Crosby was the only star Wilder worked with who got away not only with changing Wilder's dialogue, but with hiring his own hack writers to rewrite parts of Billy's screenplay." "Look at how Wilder has DeMille spoil Norma's brief return to the limelight." "He orders Hog-eye to turn off the light, and her few true fans disperse." "Billy makes DeMille seem even worse." "DeMille doesn't even have the guts to tell Norma the truth." "Here's where Joe meets Betty again in her office in the writers' building." "The idea of collaborating on a screenplay was dear to Wilder." "He always worked with a writing partner." "She's glad to see him, maybe too glad." "She is, after all, still engaged to marry Artie Green." "Joe's not a bad ideas man, as far as screenwriting is concerned." "He delivers the idea of the two characters meeting flippantly, but it's what Wilder used to call a classic "meet cute"." "For instance, a couple meet in a department store, when the man only wants to buy the bottom half of some pyjamas, and the woman only wants the top." "That was the "meet cute" in Lubitsch's "Bluebeard's Eighth Wife", which was co-written by Billy Wilder." "Norma's make-over is made to look exaggerated and ridiculous, but these days plastic surgery is so common among ageing Hollywood stars that nobody bothers to hide the surgery any more." "They still think they must look young to be successful, and maybe they do." "Remember that Norma Desmond is really only in her fifties, which makes her desire to look younger all the more pathetic." "ln this scene in Joe's bedroom," "Norma is acting the role of the great silent actress she once was." "She performs most effectively using her face and her hands." "She may seem exaggerated to audiences unused to such gestures, but it's great in terms of silent screen performance." ""lf only there weren't words, words..."" "Given the already excessive gestures she employs," "Norma herself creates a rope of words." "The rope she referred to earlier, and she's strangling herself with them." "Norma's melodrama only pushes Joe to work at night with Betty." "Billy always worked with a collaborator." "He liked the interplay." "But his collaborations with Bracket, who co-wrote "Sunset Boulevard", weren't always as happy as the one Joe and Betty are about to enjoy." "They argued so much they threw phone books at each other." "Their secretaries simply got used to hearing the shouting and thudding." ""Mad about the boy," signed Norma." "Well, she is." "They take a walk around the studio late at night." "Betty's speech about being born and growing up in Hollywood was based on someone real:" "Mrs Billy Wilder, the lovely Audrey Young, whose mother had worked in the Paramount wardrobe department." "Audrey wanted to be in the movies, but because of her terrific voice, she became a successful big band singer before marrying Billy and became Audrey Wilder." "They've come close to a big clinch here, but Joe cuts it short." "He's saving it for later." "Max's revelation here is a very biting comment on Billy's part." "It's another harsh remark on what happens to Hollywood has-beens." "But it's also a strikingly bitter reference to Erich von Stroheim himself." "Stroheim never became a star's masochistic slave, but he let his career go to hell after Gloria Swanson stopped working with him after "Queen Kelly"." "Notice how very dark this scene is, there's barely any light at all." "As almost always, Norma plays this scene, this time with Joe asleep, as silent film melodrama." "Big gestures, big facial expressions..." "This is really the only mode of expression she knows." ""Untitled Love Story":" "that's what she's afraid of." "We're back at the office working, but Betty is preoccupied." "It's true, she's not romantically impressed by Artie Green at all, and instead has fallen for the studly Joe Gillis." "ln a way, we see this even before she does." "When they finally kiss on the balcony," "Wilder got what he wanted on the first take, but he called for a second take just to make sure." "The second time, he let them kiss and kiss and kiss" "All without calling "Cut"." "Finally, the crew started snickering, then, one of the spectators watching the filming yelled "Cut" herself." "It was Mrs William Holden, who wasn't amused at Billy's joke." "Here's something younger audience members may not recognise:" "Norma is using the phone, that's the sound of the dial turning." "This turns into one of the creepiest scenes:" "poor Norma, inflamed and made mean by jealousy, with those patches on her face, whispering dirt into the mouthpiece." "She reveals through this dialogue, which is directed at Betty Schaefer, that she holds Joe in contempt for what he is." "As she puts it, men of his sort are, in her view, really worthy of derision." "She still plays everything as silent melodrama, but it turns to genuine emotion when she's caught." "She's so flustered she stops the performance she thinks has been to her own advantage." "When she says that line about "Don't hate me, Joe", it's neither funny nor grotesque." "It's quite real-sounding, and as such, all the more touching." "When Betty arrives at the mansion," "Joe remains flippant as he shows her around the house, even, or perhaps because, he's at the depth of his self-contempt." "After all, he's showing his young girlfriend his old girlfriend's palace." "He goes on and on about the house to explain why he lives there." ""A very simple set-up," he says." "Then Wilder gives him a wonderful turn of phrase:" ""An older woman who's well-to-do, a younger man who's not doing too well."" "All that stuff here appears to mean something to him." "He's describing the decor seemingly admiringly, but his tough-talking manner only makes us doubt him all the more." "His harshness shows he's getting rid of Betty because he cares for her." "Does he love her?" "That's another matter." "Real love may not be part of Joe Gillis's emotional repertoire." "And so Betty leaves." "Wilder tilts his camera up to Norma." "As in her introductory scene, she's got a very precise, very intense light on her face." "She's still on top of him, still controlling him." "As anyone before playing an important scene, she checks her make-up." "This close-up of Norma on the line "You're leaving me" is crucial." "It's sudden and scary because it brings us close to someone having a nervous breakdown." "The intensity signals the end of whatever rationality Norma has left." "At this point she's purely mad, and she'll stay that way till the end." "Wilder has finally turned poor Norma Desmond into a pure grotesque." "Not that she doesn't deserve it, and not that Hollywood isn't to blame in the end." "That's an inspired line:" ""No one ever leaves a star." "That's what makes one a star."" "Well, not exactly, Norma, maybe it has to do with sustaining a connection with an unseen audience, something Norma hasn't done for 20 years." "Note that she shoots him in the back." "Wilder hated Westerns, but even he would admit that this violation of the "Code of the West"" "indicates cowardice on the part of the bad guy, in this case Norma." "So Wilder returns to the beginning, and shows us who that guy was in the pool." "Maybe some audience members knew it all along." "Speaking for myself, I was shocked when I saw this for the first time." "It seems like a tragedy, but Wilder doesn't want to sustain that mood." "He needs a bizarre punchline, so he cuts to Norma saying," ""The stars are ageless, aren't they?"" "Yes they are, especially when they turn into celebrity murderers." "Cut to Gillis in the pool surrounded by policemen and photographers." ""Well," he says, "this is where you came in."" "He's grown comfortable with being dead by now, he's had the whole film to get used to it." "And death hasn't diminished his tough-talking sense of irony." "He says, "Funny how gentle people get with you when you're dead."" "Here come the newsreel guys, from Paramount." ""Here's an item everybody could have some fun with," he says." "He's cynical, but he's right." "As the OJ Simpson and Robert Blake trials prove," "Hollywood is still pretty heartless." "All those entertainment shows focusing on human misery, as long as it's about somebody famous." "The rest of us are heartless too in regard to famous people." "We're glued to our TV sets, after all." "They called Wilder cynical, but I think he was just ahead of the curve." "Watch the cop try to use the telephone." "Wilder cuts to Hedda Hopper taking over the narration, only her mode of expression is classic, overblown gossip-speak." "Wilder and Bracket were friendlier with the other major gossip-columnist," "Luella Parsons, but Hedda Hopper had been an actress first, and they knew she'd be much better on screen." "There's another key close-up of Norma coming, to capture the moment when she hears the word "cameras"." "As I said, Wilder doesn't overuse close-ups, here or in other films." "He saves them for key expressive moments like this, when Norma realises her dream of appearing in pictures again." "ln "Sunset Boulevard", Gillis gets his swimming pool in the end," "Norma gets her big scene, not a comeback, but a return." "Even Max gets to direct again." "It's perverse but true:" "the three main characters all get what they want." "Only Betty Schaefer gets left out of the big payout." "Max is particularly lucky." "He directs one of the greatest scenes ever recorded on celluloid," "Norma Desmond, descending the stairs, at the end of "Sunset Boulevard"." "Even with her ghastly make-up and outrageous outfit, one can't help feel sympathy with Norma here, when she doesn't know what scene she's expected to perform." "It's like a nightmare, when you can't remember your lines, and despite the hideousness and humour of it all, it's also rather touching." "Gillis's lines here are telling." "He describes Norma's dream as having "enfolded" her." "Even though she's killed him, Joe still shows her a little mercy." ""Enfolding." lt suggests that Norma Desmond's dementia is actually one of self-protection." "Maybe you need that in Hollywood." "More comedy here, when Norma asks DeMille, really Max, if she can speak, and not waiting for an answer, she just plunges on ahead into her speech." "Even though she's completely mad now, she still finds a beautiful description of the love of making movies, a love Billy Wilder maintained until his death, in Spring 2002." ""There's nothing else, just us"" ""and the cameras and those wonderful people out there in the dark."" "Of course, Wilder can't help himself, he has her gesture to us with that creepy claw, as she says that lovely line:" ""All right, Mr DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."" "An often misquoted line, but as the film ends," "Norma doesn't really get the close-up she craves." "Wilder pulls out of focus before she achieves it." "He's right, she is out of focus, thoroughly, and so is the industry that made her what she became." "This is Ed Sikov, and I certainly hope you enjoyed the picture."