History Film / SunsetBoulevard

Some months earlier, Joe, blindly fleeing his creditors, winds up in what appears to be an abandoned mansion, only to find that silent movie great Norma Desmond (GloriaSwanson) still lives there with her Austrian manservant, Max von Mayerling (Creator/EricVonStroheim). The delusional Norma believes that her adoring fans still desperately want her to return to the screen, more than two decades after the advent of "talkies" have obsoleted her and every other silent-film star on the block. Once Norma learns that he's a screenwriter, she offers him room, board and refuge from his creditors -- in exchange for his help in revising the truly hopeless screenplay she's been writing for twenty years to prepare for her comeback--sorry, [[InsistentTerminology return.]]

Some months earlier, Joe, blindly fleeing his creditors, winds up in what appears to be an abandoned mansion, only to find that silent movie great Norma Desmond (GloriaSwanson) still lives there with her Austrian manservant, Max von Mayerling (EricVonStroheim). The delusional Norma believes that her adoring fans still desperately want her to return to the screen, more than two decades after the advent of "talkies" have obsoleted her and every other silent-film star on the block. Once Norma learns that he's a screenwriter, she offers him room, board and refuge from his creditors -- in exchange for his help in revising the truly hopeless screenplay she's been writing for twenty years to prepare for her comeback--sorry, [[InsistentTerminology return.]]

In 1993, it was adapted into [[TheMusical a musical]] by Creator/AndrewLloydWebber. The Broadway premiere starred Creator/GlennClose, and The 1996 Australian premiere in Melbourne showcased a relative unknown named HughJackman, who played Joe Gillis opposite Debra Byrne as Norma Desmond, who, at the time, was ironically Australia's own WhiteDwarfStarlet. It won the 1995 Tony Award for Best Musical, in a year in which [[DamnedByFaintPraise only one other show was even nominated]].

-->'''Joe''': You're Norma Desmond! You used to be in silent pictures; you used to be big!
-->'''Norma''': I ''am'' big. It's the pictures that got small.

* BeamMeUpScotty: "Alright, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my closeup" - NOT "I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille."

* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Betty, although she's not especially manic.
** Norma supplies manic to spare. Heck, she's kooky, shakes up our boring protagonist's life, and is by all means not all there -- Norma is a ''totally straight'' ManicPixieDreamGirl.

* HappyPlace: By the end of the movie, [[spoiler:Norma's gone there, and she's not coming back]].

* HorribleHollywood: Subverted, surprisingly enough. We do see decent people working in the film industry, and even [=DeMille=] AsHimself defends [[TheWoobie Norma]] and what happened to her career. It's just all that fame and celebrity creating a "world of illusion", and that Hollywood is still a place of business where people get chewed up and spat out...

** [[spoiler: Joe realizes that he can't provide the kind of life that Betty deserves so he pretends to be a major Jerkass so she will leave him to marry Artie.]]

* IronicEcho: Max [[spoiler:was Norma's first director. When it's revealed Norma will come down for her arrest if she think they're filming her movie, Max rushes to the news cameras and begins lining them up like an old pro, getting ready to direct Norma one last time...]]

Creator/BillyWilder's classic FilmNoir from 1950, ''Sunset Boulevard'' is a dark take on the film industry and the fleeting nature of fame, to this day one of Hollywood's most scorching (and yet wistful) [[HorribleHollywood depictions of itself]], and indeed one of the greatest films of all time. (In 1998, the AmericanFilmInstitute ranked it as the twelfth best American film of the twentieth century.) While the characters are deeply flawed, some of them [[MoralEventHorizon beyond any redemption]], the film still presents them each as complex, sympathetic, and even endearing.

As the film opens, a man ([[ItWasHisSled not yet identified]]) has been found dead [[RuleOfPool floating in a pool]] in the backyard of an enormous [[UsefulNotes/LosAngeles Hollywood]] [[BigFancyHouse mansion]] on [[TitleDrop Sunset Boulevard]]. [[LemonyNarrator Our]] [[DeadpanSnarker narrator]], a jaded and struggling screenwriter named Joe Gillis (Creator/WilliamHolden), takes us back and tells us HowWeGotHere.

--> ''"You see, this is my life. It always will be. There's nothing else - just us and the cameras and [[BreakingTheFourthWall those wonderful people out there in the dark]]... All right, Mr. [=DeMille=], I'm ready for my closeup."''

----
->''"[[SignatureLine All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.]]"''

->''"[[SignatureLine All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.]]"''

* HeyItsThatGuy: Alongside all the silent movies stars "as themselves", Joe's very happy go lucky friend Artie is played by Jack Webb, who had just begun to hit it big on the PoliceProcedural ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}''. It's so weird to see that guy smile.

* RealitySubtext: Norma is played by Gloria Swanson, who was a silent film star, and worked with Cecil B. [=DeMille=]. Max is played by Erich von Stroheim, who was a silent film director.
** The movie that Norma and Joe watch together was comprised of footage of from TroubledProduction ''Queen Kelly'' (1929) - directed by none other than Erich von Stroheim.
** And Cecil B [=DeMille=] referred to Swanson as "young fella" when both were getting started in Hollywood.
** The Waxworks, of course, were real former Hollywood stars then considered has-beens, including Buster Keaton.

* ThoseTwoActors: After the success of the film, this was attempted with William Holden and Nancy Olson; they appeared in three further films together, but none of them was really successful.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Several other old-time stars were considered for the role of Norma Desmond including Pola Negri, Mary Pickford, and even Mae West. Montgomery Clift was originally cast as Joe Gillis, but pulled out - reputedly because he himself was [[RealitySubtext dating a much older (and arguably washed up) singer at the time]].

* ActorAllusion: Creator/GlennClose portrays a lonely troubled woman slowly driven to insanity due to her unhealthy obsession with a man, eventually she's pushed over the edge and goes on a murderous rampage... But enough about Alex Forrest in ''Film/FatalAttraction''.

** Norma supplies manic to spare. Heck, she's kooky, shakes up our boring protagonists' life, and is by all means not all there -- Norma is a ''totally straight'' ManicPixieDreamGirl.

* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Subverted with Joe and Betty.
** [[spoiler: He realizes that he can't provide the kind of life that Betty deserves so he pretends to be a major Jerkass so she will leave him to marry Artie.]]

* BittersweetEnding[=/=]DownerEnding: Yes. [[spoiler:Joe is dead and Norma shot him, but Norma's complete break with reality lets her think she's finally making her comeback.]]

->'''Norma Desmond:''' I 'am' big. It's the pictures that got small!

->''"Audiences don’t know somebody sits down and writes a picture . . . they think the actors make it up as they go along."''

* RedHerring: [[spoiler:Max, being Norma's "discoverer," principle director, and pathetically devoted first husband]], would seem to have more than ample motivation to kill [[spoiler: Joe]]. It turns out that [[spoiler:Norma does it herself]].

As the film opens, a man ([[ItWasHisSled not yet identified]]) has been found dead [[RuleOfPool floating in a pool]] in the backyard of an enormous [[UsefulNotes/LosAngeles Hollywood]] [[BigFancyHouse mansion]] on [[TitleDrop Sunset Boulevard]]. [[LemonyNarrator Our]] [[DeadpanSnarker narrator]], a jaded and struggling screenwriter named Joe Gillis (WilliamHolden), takes us back and tells us HowWeGotHere.

In 1993, it was adapted into [[TheMusical a musical]] by Creator/AndrewLloydWebber. The Broadway premiere starred GlennClose, and The 1996 Australian premiere in Melbourne showcased a relative unknown named HughJackman, who played Joe Gillis opposite Debra Byrne as Norma Desmond, who, at the time, was ironically Australia's own WhiteDwarfStarlet. It won the 1995 Tony Award for Best Musical, in a year in which [[DamnedByFaintPraise only one other show was even nominated]].

* ActorAllusion: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Close Glenn Close]] portrays a lonely troubled woman slowly driven to insanity due to her unhealthy obsession with a man, eventually she's pushed over the edge and goes on a murderous rampage... But enough about Alex Forrest in ''Film/FatalAttraction''.

!!The film contains examples of:

* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Cruelly subverted with Joe and Betty.

** The nature of the relationship between Joe and Norma was also unmentionable in the HaysCode era.
*** Though Joe does everything but [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar spell it out for the audience]]: "Very simple set-up. Older woman who's well to do. A younger man who's not doing too well. Can you figure it out for yourself?"

[[quoteright:255:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Sunset_Boulevard_Poster.jpg]]

* HeyItsThatGuy: Alongside all the silent movies stars "as themselves", Joe's very happy go lucky friend Artie is played by Jack Webb, who had just begun to hit it big on the PoliceProcedural ''Radio/{{Dragnet}}''. It's so weird to see that guy smile.

* FreakOut: Norma has one by the end, where she believes that the news cameras come to report on the murder are film cameras for the filming of her next movie, and [[http://youtu.be/SA9lFsiut2Q addresses the camera with a speech]], which ends famously: