Sunset BLVD.

It's been a few years since I last basked in the dark, demented world of Billy Wilder's "Sunset BLVD.", one of the all time classic films. It's a world that has fascinated me since I was young; I'm entranced by it, yet horrified by it. It may have been the first really dark film I remember seeing.

"Sunset BLVD." was the film I was watching when I heard about the death of Princess Diana. I'm not sure that is significant, but I always associate that moment with this film. You could say the death of Diana sort of mirrors the ending of "Sunset BLVD." In the film we see the tragic murder of a B movie writer by an aging Hollywood starlet. It ends with a media circus event, news cameras, gossip columnists, and police officers surrounding the tragedy, Diana's real life death came with a very similar vibe. Like the narrator of "Sunset BLVD", Joe Gillis says, (who's corpse it is we see in the beginning of the film) "It's funny how much people care about you when you're dead."

But the tragic, ironic, cynical, and sad world of "Sunset BLVD." doesn't start with this realization, it's only where it's headed; it's all about the dark side of Hollywood. As people who go to the movies, we are usually spared this side of Hollywood, we get the glamour, we get the excitement, we get the stars, the artifice, the special effects. We get the franchises, the summer blockbusters, the Oscar contenders, and the box office results. But there was a time, when we could be shown this other side of Hollywood, that all the fantasy, the glitz, and the fame had its toll. That's because once upon a time, there was a man named Billy Wilder, a man who wasn't afraid to show the nastiness of his business. Looking at "Sunset BLVD.", you can tell Wilder loved Hollywood, but he also had a bone to pick with it.

The story is about Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), an old silent actress who's star has since faded. She lives in her all but abandoned mansion with only her man-servant Max (Erich Von Stroheim) attending to her every need. It is on a fateful day Joe Gillis happens to find himself on Norma's doorstep after running from debt collectors. Joe is an unhappy out of work scriptwriter who is in desperate need for a break. Luckily Norma just happens to have a script she needs work on; it's a script of "Salome", which she wants built as her triumphant return to the movies. Joe is more than willing to help out with the script, and Norma in return is more than willing to keep Joe there as her companion, to which Joe doesn't object to, at least not right away.

Much of the action of "Sunset BLVD." takes place in Norma's mansion with only her, Joe, and Max around to supply the story. Occasionally other characters make it into the scene, such as Norma's "waxworks" as Joe calls them. They are other faded actors from the silent screen who join her for bridge. The outside world isn't seen often by Norma with the exception of the scene where she visits her old stomping ground Paramount Studios to see Cecil B. DeMille regarding her comeback picture. That scene may be the definition of bitter sweet as Norma gets to relive her moments as a star all too briefly.

There is budding romance as well, and perhaps the only ray of hope for Joe in the character of Betty Schafer (Nancy Olsen). Betty is a young wide-eyed dreamer, someone who hasn't seen the harsh realities of Hollywood yet. She wants to write a film with Joe, the two fall in love, but for Joe it comes too late, his fate is sealed at the beginning of the film.

Hollywood must've been a strange mistress to Billy Wilder. Here was a director who made his career in Hollywood, a successful career. You could hardly say a director who could make a film like "Sunset BLVD." wasn't a success. The film had its share of detractors, there was the famous story of Louis B. Mayer walking out of the film in a huff saying he Wilder shouldn't have made it since people like him made his career.

But when awards season came, "Sunset BLVD." didn't do too bad earning a best original Screenplay Oscar, I wonder how Wilder might've thought about that. Of course the Academy wasn't that forgiving, it lost most of the other major awards to "All About Eve" that year. That film was a cynical look at the theatre world, I suppose since it wasn't directly about Hollywood, they could honor it.

But despite all the cynicism, and harsh realities of the film, I can't condemn Wilder for not caring. Wilder was a cynic, and may I point out most good writers are. Wilder loved making movies, so much so in his later on, he spent years and years of getting other projects off the ground, projects that would never see the light of day.

The characters of Joe Gillis, Norma, and Max are burned in our memory as a reminder that not all is well in Hollywood. Each one is a tragic figure, each have been scarred by Hollywood's wrath. Their stories of course are very well documented in other writings about the film. There is of course the story of Betty which is never written about. She tells the story of her failed attempt of being an actress, where producers wanted her to get a nose job, where she did but then they still shut her down because she's not that good of an actress. That small story got me thinking of the extremes people sometimes go in order to be noticed, to wipe away imperfections in the blink of an eye. Yet Betty does it, and so she's not an actress, she stays in the business still dreaming. She's the love of the movies Wilder brings in almost as an antidote to the bitter pills he keeps serving.

To put things back into perspective on a personal level, "Sunset BLVD." may have helped me grow up a little about Hollywood. I remember I wanted to be an actor, not just an actor, but a star, I wanted people to come and see my movies because I was in them. I wanted to go to Hollywood and live the dream, I don't really want to do that anymore. The Hollywood now has changed so much since Wilder's days, back then he could make a movie like "Sunset BLVD.", now it's highly unlikely such a film could be made within the system. I wonder if Wilder knew just how good he had it back then. The cynic never stopped, "Ace in the Hole" was right around the corner and it was probably even more devastating in depicting human cruelty to oneself. Then a decade later came "The Apartment", a romance set in a cruel world of corporate businessmen who sell humanity cheap.

But with all the anger thrown at you, you can see the love, you still weep for Norma Desmond, so deluded, so alone, so sad, Wilder never lets you forget behind the madness there was a real person inside, slightly exaggerated, nevertheless we mourn for her and her world she lives in.