9/10
One of cinemas great grotesques is Norma Desmond, unhinged, lonely central figure in Billy Wilder's acidic 50s Hollywood deconstruction.
It's a story about how Hollywood's central mechanism is people, using people. Of course, the main character believes he is using Norma to make some money and avoid his creditors - she believes she is using him for something even more scary.
There are a couple of astonishing pieces of filmmaking - the famous opening shot, the terrifying and soul wrenching final moments as Desmond's plane comes crashing down in flames (metaphorically, of course) and the invention/one of the first uses of a classic device (think American Beauty).
It's so tough to say something interesting and original about a film that pretty much everyone knows is a great movie, so lets compare it to the other classics in Wilder's past. Obviously, my favourite of Wilder's films is The Apartment, a quite awesome and sweet piece of comedy. This couldn't be more different from that - where The Apartment is as lovable and cute as a moth eaten cuddly dog, Sunset Boulevard is a razor edged, howling monster of a film.
It is brilliant. See it if you haven't yet.
A
Monday, February 23, 2009
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