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DVD Sunset Boulevard (Special Collector's Edition)
Billy Wilder's noir-comic classic about death and decay in Hollywood remains as pungent as ever in its power to provoke shock, laughter, and gasps of astonishment. Joe Gillis (William Holden), a broke and cynical young screenwriter, is attempting to ditch a pair of repo men late one afternoon when he pulls off L.A.'s storied Sunset Boulevard and into the driveway of a seedy mansion belonging to Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), a forgotten silent movie luminary whose brilliant acting career withered with the coming of talkies. The demented old movie queen lives in the past, assisted by her devoted (but intimidating) butler, Max (played by Erich von Stroheim, the legendary director of Greed and Swanson's own lost epic, Queen Kelly). Norma dreams of making a comeback in a remake of Salome to be directed by her old colleague Cecil B. DeMille (as himself), and Joe becomes her literary and romantic gigolo. Sunset Blvd. is one of those great movies that has become a part of popular culture (the line "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up," has entered the language)--but it's no relic. Wow, does it ever hold up. --Jim Emerson
Review(s): DVD Sunset Boulevard (Special Collector's Edition)
The downside of being the pool boy
When I first watched Sunset Boulevard decades ago, I thought it was all about the narcissistic silent film star has-been, Norma Desmond, brilliantly played by 53 year-old Gloria Swanson. Swanson totally becomes Desmond through her facial expressions, hand gestures, vocal inflections and more. Watching it years later, I realized how much I had missed. Norma Desmond is only part of the plot. The overall big picture is a cynical sardonic look at how people in Hollywood use each other to advance their careers. I was reminded of the Bob Seeger line, "He used her and she used him, and neither one cared. They were getting their share." Director Billy Wilder's stark look at the dark side of human nature was far more realistic than the "Father Knows Best" and "boy meets girl/boy gets girl" versions of the 1950s often presented as reality.
If you haven't watched this movie within the last few years, I highly recommend viewing it again. The second time I caught much that I had missed, including some darkly amusing double entendre dialog, and even a bit of visual parody of another famous mid 20th century film.
Every aspect of this film is fabulously enacted, including the cinematography, camera angles, set design (particularly the 1920s mansion in disrepair), and costumes that convey the creepiness of (to quote another song) "living in the past." Adding to the authenticity were the similarities of the movie plot to the actors' own lives: Gloria Swanson really was a silent film actress who hadn't worked in many years who really was directed by Cecil B. DeMille, William Holden too was making a comeback, and Norma Desmond's director turned butler, was played by former movie director Erich von Stroheim. As stated in the bonus commentary, all three were has-beens, played by has-beens.
Sunset Boulevard is considered to be one of the best movies ever made, and I wholeheartly agree. Unfortunately, the movie All About Eve won best picture for 1950 instead of Sunset Boulevard. All About Eve was a good movie, but Sunset Boulevard is a far better movie, that 56 years later stands the test of time.
P.S. I found the bonus material at the end quite enlightening, including the 2002 commentary by actress Nancy Olson who was in Sunset Boulevard and had aged quite well.
Down and out in Beverly Hills
This film chronicles the dysfunctional relationship between two people who really have no one in this life but each other, and even that relationship is mostly a sham. Holden plays the kept young man who stays because of the money, while Norma, the wealthy but aging actress, desperately clings to her memories of past stardom. She enlists the reluctant Holden to help perpetuate her mental necropolis of faded celluloid glory, despite his own qualms about the situation, and eventually their relationship unravels, with tragic results. The separate commentary material was fascinating in that the has-been characters that von Stroheim, Holden, and Swanson played in the movie actually reflected the fallen state of their careers at that time. Overall still a great classic and worth your time.
"Special Edition" Isn't So Special...
I won't waste time talking about how good the movie itself is. You probably already know that. But the Special Edition producers could have tried a little harder for the extras on this disc. The commentary track is interesting for about 10 minutes then becomes one of those excruciating experiences where the commentator has run out of things to say and just describes what's happening on-screen (e.g., "Joe grabs his coat and goes out the door"). He doesn't even seem to know very much about Gloria Swanson, since one inside joke in the film is that Swanson asks Wm Holden what astrological sign he is before giving him a job --- which is exactly what DeMille did with Swanson before giving her a job.
The Edith Head documentary is good, but it's also available on several other disc releases for movies that she worked on. And the Franz Waxman short is informative. The most interesting thing is seeing and hearing what Nancy Olsen has to say. That was a great asset. But some of the other interviews, such as Glenn Close saying that Norma Desmond is a great character for an actress to play, is just filler, as is the interactive Hollywood map showing locations from the film.
Great movie, but the disc was put together by under-achievers. Maybe someday Criterion can do it justice.
Related DVD's Sunset Boulevard (Special Collector's Edition)
Showered with Oscars, this wonderfully bitchy (and witty) comedy written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz concerns an aging theater star (Bette Davis) whose life is being supplanted by a wolf-in-sheep's-clothing ingenue (Anne Baxter) whom she helped. This is a film for a viewer to take in like a box of chocolates, packed with scene-for-scene delights that make the entire story even better than it really is. The film also gives deviously talented actors such as George Sanders and Thelma Ritter a chance to speak dazzling lines; Davis bites into her role and never lets go. A classic from Mankiewicz, a legendary screenwriter and the brilliant director of A Letter to Three Wives, The Barefoot Contessa, and Sleuth. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Director(s): Joseph L. Mankiewicz DVD Release Date: Released the 14 January 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Maybe "nobody's perfect," as one character in this masterpiece suggests. But some movies are perfect, and Some Like It Hot is one of them. In Chicago, during the Prohibition era, two skirt-chasing musicians, Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon), inadvertently witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. In order to escape the wrath of gangland chief Spats Colombo (George Raft), the boys, in drag, join an all-woman band headed for Florida. They vie for the attention of the lead singer, Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe), a much-disappointed songbird who warbles "I'm Through with Love" but remains vulnerable to yet another unreliable saxophone player. (When Curtis courts her without his dress, he adopts the voice of Cary Grant--a spot-on impersonation.) The script by director Billy... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 22 May 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Roman Polanski's brooding film noir exposes the darkest side of the land of sunshine, the Los Angeles of the 1930s, where power is the only currency--and the only real thing worth buying. Jack Nicholson is J.J. Gittes, a private eye in the Chandler mold, who during a routine straying-spouse investigation finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into a jigsaw puzzle of clues and corruption. The glamorous Evelyn Mulwray (a dazzling Faye Dunaway) and her titanic father, Noah Cross (John Huston), are at the black-hole center of this tale of treachery, incest, and political bribery. The crackling, hard-bitten script by Robert Towne won a well-deserved Oscar, and the muted color cinematography makes the goings-on seem both bleak and impossibly vibrant. Polanski himself has a brief, memorable cameo... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Faye Dunaway - John Huston - Jack Nicholson DVD Release Date: Released the 23 November 1999 Usually ships in 24 hours
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