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/ErichVonStroheim). 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 [[strike:comeback]] [[InsistentTerminology return.]]

** The salesman's line, "If the lady's paying, why not choose the vicuna?" underlines the fact that Joe is, in fact, Norma's gigolo.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: Norma Desmond's final speech puts a jarring little crack - indicting both Hollywood and moviegoers for her fate - in that fourth wall. See FreakOut below.

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: At the end, when Norma speaks to, "All the little people in the dark", she looks directly into the camera, and at the audience members, and mugs directly to them.

* BitingTheHandHumor / RealityText: TheMovie. Studios were very aware of all the {{Take That}}s and {{In Joke}}s in the film. Most were not amused and many were wary of the subversiveness of the film.

* {{Jerkass}}: [=DeMill=]'s assistant, who is needlessly cruel in offering to give Norma the brush-off, which the director chastises him for. The same assistant also rather tactless about Norma's age, but backtracks when [=DeMille=] points out that he's old enough to be her father.

* TheChessmaster: Joe thinks he's this. Boy, is he wrong.

* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy:
** [[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.]]
** Also, this is Max towards Norma.
* IfICantHaveYou: [[spoiler: Implied as the cause of Joe's death.]]

* DarkerAndEdgier: Norma's descent into madness is far more disturbing onstage. Made very prevalent in the ending.

* {{Irony}}: A musical where the female lead constantly ''sings'' about how the movies were better when no one spoke.

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. 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.

* ItsAllAboutMe: Norma lives her entire life like this.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Max's motivations are a bit more overtly ambiguous in the musical. In the film, when confronted by Joe, he says "I cannot let her be destroyed". In the play, he says "I will not allow her to surrender". This hints that he's not merely feeding Norma flattering lies to keep her from breaking down, but maintaining his own vicarious fantasy through her.

* {{Jerkass}}: Cecile B. DeMille's assistant, who is needlessly cruel in offering to give Norma the brush-off, which the director chastises him for. The same assistant also rather tactless about Norma's age, but backtracks when Demille points out that he's old enough to be her father.

* ItllNeverCatchOn: Paramount producer Sheldrake turned down GoneWithTheWind because he thought nobody would watch another Civil War picture.

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. 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.

* PsychopathicManchild: De Mille still sees her as that 17 year old starlet who never grew up.

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/ErichVonStroheim). 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.]]

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: It's strongly implied, and among the production crew outright stated, that Norma has been using her pet monkey as a surrogate lover.
** Which means that [[FridgeLogic the unfortunate Joe caught her on the rebound]].
** The nature of the relationship between Joe and Norma was also unmentionable in UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode era.
*** Though Joe does everything but 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?"

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Norma Desmond's backstory is essentially the same as Gloria Swanson's, playing her. Her life after films turn to sound, not so much; when she was offered the role, she had already successfully put that part of her life behind her. However, she did know peers who were very much like the character, which was why she was reluctant to accept. She didn't want audiences to mistake the story for hers. Swanson thought she had made a comeback, only to learn she had been typecast.
* WesternZodiac: Norma mentions that she is a Scorpio. Given that sign’s general use in fiction, it probably explains a lot about her.