Sunset Blvd.

I knew two things about Sunset Blvd. prior to watching it: It's director is Billy Wilder and the most famous line from the film is "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up". Seeing as how Wilder was the director, I assumed this was a comedy. Knowing that line, I figured it was a film about a Hollywood starlet at the height of her career. I was wrong on both accounts. Sunset Blvd. is a very dark film noir about a struggling writer who is taken in by an eccentric aging actress from the silent era who's career has long passed. It has been one of the most surprising films I have seen yet this year and I mean that in the best way possible. This is a near perfect film. William Holden is the youngest I've ever seen him on screen, encapsulating machismo even in his early days. The real star of this film, though, is Gloria Swanson and Norma Desmond. Swanson was a real silent film star who had faded into radio and television work when Billy Wilder cast her. She plays Desmond with a manic delusional quality that is creepy. I imagine that meeting Michael Jackson would have been very similar to Holden and Swanson's first encounter in the film. The fact that she is sheltered from reality by her "butler" Max, who used to be the director of her films doesn't help her condition. Max is played by Erich Von Stroheim, who was a real life director of some of Swanson's famous silent films. This inspired casting blurs the line between the film and reality, giving it an especially uncomfortable atmosphere. The ending gave me chills, learning the true context of Swanson's famous line. Wilder's film is as close to perfect as I have seen in a long time.

Trivia: Many Hollywood personalities cameoed as themselves in the film, including Cecile De Mille and Buster Keaton.

One of my favorite lines from the movie:  "That's the way a lot of us think about Schwab's drugstore...Kind of a combination office, kaffee klatch and waiting room" I'm sitting at a Starbucks as I write this.