20 Movies: Sunset Boulevard (1950)

I keep hearing a song on the radio that begins, “I want to be a billionaire so freakin’ bad…” Well, be careful what you wish for. That’s sort of William Holden’s problem in Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard.

Sunset Boulevard (1950)
directed by Billy Wilder

We didn’t need dialogue. We had faces!
– Nora Desmond –

One of the best movies to ever come out of Hollywood is 1950’s Sunset Boulevard, a movie about Hollywood. It’s a kind of anodyne for the glamorous mystique of the movie business.

Interestingly, it takes core elements of Hollywood, romance and a degree of sentimentality, and, by turning them inside out, creates a noir film – cynical and dark yet just as romantic.

A struggling Hollywood writer (William Holden) is hard up for money, hiding from bill collectors and trying to hang on to what little he has, particularly his car. He hides out in run down looking mansion where he meets an aging silent film star (Gloria Swanson). He finds himself drawn into her world, one that’s fantastic and tinged by an element of madness.

There are twin seductions occurring here: she is seduced by his youth and good looks, as well as by the thought that he might hold the key for her comeback.

He, in turn, is seduced by the respite staying with her allows him, as well as the wealth he has access to by staying with her. In a sense, they corrupt one another, although both are well on the way already.

Eventually Holden winds up playing the part of gigolo as he helps her with a terrible screenplay (which she believes will re-establish her as Hollywood’s premier star). She, in turn, provides for him – a place to live, clothing, gifts and so on.

But everything is twisted, including Holden’s talent as a writer and his essential character.

By compromising to get by, he compromises his better self and, even when he begins working secretly on a script worthy of his talents, that also becomes tainted by his moral lassitude.

It’s a movie about Hollywood’s compromises and the essential deception between what is presented on screen and the manner in which films are made. In other words, there is a moral disparity between public display and private actions.

From the start, in his opening voice over, Holden’s character is cynical. There is humour here, and throughout the film, but it is dark and bitter. But even from the story’s beginning we see what has happened to Holden in terms of moral compromise.

There is an early scene where a script of his is turned down, briskly brushed off as lame by an efficient, attractive script-reader (Nancy Olson). But from the scene, through Holden’s words and action, we know why the script is turned down – it isn’t true. It’s compromised writing.

It is the script of someone writing what he thinks someone else wants to hear rather than what is true to him as a writer.

His talent, like his character, is degrading beneath his desire to succeed at any cost.

From the humour he uses, you also know that he is aware of this on one level but casually dismissive of it on the surface.

He doesn’t want to face what he knows is happening to himself, so he hides it beneath cynical wise-cracks.

In the character of Swanson, we see what is likely the result of Hollywood’s culture of compromise and pursuit of success – the dismissed artist dissolving into madness.

It’s a brilliant film, one of the best noir pieces ever, one of the best movies ever. It somehow manages to balance a number of elements – mystery, romance, humour and horror.

The movie also takes the interesting approach of basically telling us the ending at the beginning.

The film is thus not so much about what happens as it is why it happens. It’s the “why” that holds the film’s critique of Hollywood and, more broadly, the desire to succeed.

With the DVD, we get a great transfer – the movie looks great. There are also a number of excellent features on the disc, a nice plus for an older movie. (With many older films all we get are trailers.)

If you haven’t ever seen Sunset Boulevard, what are you waiting for? It is one of the great films and, now, it’s available on a great DVD. (Refers to the 2002 Special Collector’s Edition.)

See: 20 Movies – The List

Sunset Boulevard (the trailer)

When is a movie a Christmas movie?

Christmas Day is unfolding before us. At some point, our minds will turn to movies – well, mine will. So I spent a little time looking online to see what various people considered the top Christmas movies (there are oodles of lists out there).

What is interesting, to me, is what people consider a “Christmas movie” to be. For example, Rotten Tomatoes has a list of their Top 25 Christmas movies. You’ll see they describe their process of selection – their criteria. Elsewhere, I noticed a lot of lists that stated overtly or, through implication, criteria. They seemed to vary quite a bit.

Perhaps it’s because I have criteria in my own mind, not well articulated, of what constitutes a Christmas movie to me. Because I have this idea, many of the lists I found struck me as odd (like the Rotten Tomatoes list).

A movie’s story takes place at Christmas. Is it therefore a Christmas movie? If so, the question becomes how much of the movie takes place then? You’ll notice Rotten Tomatoes says, for their list, “… movies in which Christmas only plays a small part …” are excluded. But then the question becomes, how small? In other words, it’s pretty subjective.

Here’s the thing, though … As far as I’m concerned, this is niggling. I think, more than anything else, the subject and tone of a movie make it a “Christmas movie.” That’s why for me movies like “Die Hard” and “Lethal Weapon” aren’t even considered. They’re action movies. A Christmas movie is drama and/or comedy and/or romance. There is also a fairly good dose of sentimentality – sometimes far too much. (Though you do get some leeway with Christmas movies as it’s expected.  Still, if you go too far over the top you fall flat.)

I saw one list that included An Affair to Remember. I believe it’s just the tail end of the movie that occurs around Christmas. In fact, I’ve never thought of it as a Christmas movie. However, now that I have, I think it does qualify because of it’s subject and tone. (And heaven knows, it has sentimentality.)

In recent decades, we’ve seen more Christmas-themed movies that have a kind of deconstructionist approach to Christmas movies. That’s a hoighty-toighty way of saying that satire and cynicism play a part in them, even if they do end with a traditional sentimental conclusion. For example, there’s Bad Santa. (I plan to watch it again to see if I have the same opinion I originally had, which was a pretty low one.) Is this a Christmas movie? It’s a long, long way from It’s a Wonderful Life.

There is also a movie like Scrooged, a movie I like mainly for Bill Murray’s performance (an almost perfect Scrooge). But compare it to the 1938 and 1951 versions of A Christmas Carol (Scrooged is essentially a remake of that story). Those earlier versions were sentimental dramas. Scrooged is a comedy, somewhat satirical,  with a happy ending.

I don’t think I can articulate what I think a “Christmas movie” is but, as people like to say, “I know it when I see it!”

For what it’s worth, and in no particular order, here are a bunch of movies I think of as Christmas movies:

(I obviously have a fondness for older Christmas films. No surprise there.)