Cinema Dissection: Sunset Boulevard

Film Talks

According to Hollywood legend, when MGM’s all-powerful studio chief Louis B. Mayer first watched Sunset Boulevard at a special industry screening, he berated the film’s director Billy Wilder, proclaiming “You have disgraced the industry that made and fed you! You should be tarred and feathered and run out of Hollywood!” Wilder simply retorted, “Go f*ck yourself!” His scathing indictment of the self-proclaimed dream factory exposed the tarnished delusions hidden beneath its glittering, glamorous facade, perfectly captured in the dynamic between William Holden’s scrounging screenwriter Joe Gillis and Gloria Swanson’s deranged, faded film star, Norma Desmond. Join facilitator and SIFF Programmer Dan Doody for a scene-by-scene breakdown of this film noir masterpiece from its opening pool shot to its iconic final close-up.