History Film / SunsetBoulevard

** ''The end?'' It's the opening shot!

* MostWritersAreWriters: Joe's a screenwriter.

* INeverGotAnyLetters: Norma Desmond receives hundreds of fan letters a day, but it turns out they were all written by her dutiful and unconditionally loving butler Max to cushion her from the realities of being discarded by the Hollywood star system and forgotten by her fans.

* ClingyJealousGirl: Norma. As Joe is walking out on her, she comments desperately, "No one leaves a star. That's what makes one a star." Then she shoots him.

* HollywoodPersonlityDisorders: Norma Desmond has Narcissitic Personality Disorder. She didn't take her descent from superstardom well. She hired a former director as a butler and reads fake fan mail. Eventually she goes completely delusional when she can't accept that the world doesn't revolve around her.

* AsHimself: Creator/CecilBDeMille, Creator/BusterKeaton Anna Q. Nilsson, H.B. Warner and Hedda Hopper play themselves.

* BitingTheHandHumor[=/=]RealitySubtext: 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.

* BreakHisHeartToSaveHim: Joe loves Betty, but pushes her away so she'll marry Artie, a genuinely good man who adores her, and not get hurt by Joe's own shortcomings.
* BreakingTheFourthWall / TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: Norma Desmond's final speech puts a jarring little crack - indicting both Hollywood and moviegoers for her fate - in that fourth wall. She then approaches and mugs at the camera. See FreakOut below.

** Also the pool.

* ClingyJealousGirl: Norma -- suffocatingly so -- due in part to her melodramatic star persona.
* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Max.

* DestructiveRomance: And OH, how dysfunctional, with Norma's outbursts and Joe's passive aggressive BS. [[spoiler: Close to the end, it turns out that her relationship with her butler is even worse.]]

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: [[spoiler:{{Inverted|Trope}} with Norma's dead pet chimp]].

* ForgedMessage: The fan letters that Norma had been getting over the years were actually [[spoiler: written by her butler Max to spare her from the fact that the public had forgotten her]].

* GloryDays: Norma Desmond's are well over.

* HowWeGotHere: With an epilogue as well.

* INeverGotAnyLetters: Inverted.

* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: The organ as Joe enters Norma's parlor for the first time.
* LemonyNarrator: Joe's a particularly cynical example. [[ForegoneConclusion Probably because he's dead.]]

* PosthumousNarration: One of the most famous examples.

* RedHerring: [[spoiler:Max, being Norma's "discoverer," principal 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]].

* RuleOfPool

* ShrineToSelf: Played horrifyingly straight.

* SugarAndIcePersonality: Max is a rather bizarre (and creepy) example.

* WhiteDwarfStarlet: Norma Desmond is probably [[TropeCodifier the ultimate example]]. She also supplies the page image.

* DiesWideOpen: Joe is shown dead with his eyes open in the pool at the beginning. However, when the homicide squad pulls him out of the pool, his eyes are closed.

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 Creator/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]]. The musical returned to Broadway in 2017, still starring Glenn Close.

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: [[spoiler:[[InvertedTrope Inverted]] with Norma's dead pet chimp]].

* GrandStaircaseEntrance: Norma invokes this trope when she meets what she thinks is a MediaScrum covering her big comeback. [[spoiler: She's actually getting arrested for Joe's murder.]]

* FamousLastWords: "All right, Mr. De Mille. I'm ready for my close-up." To clarify, Norma's not dying, but it marks the final descent into insanity for her.

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

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.

* AsHimself: Creator/CecilBDeMille, Creator/BusterKeaton and Hedda Hopper play themselves.

* MissIdentifiedWeapons: Norma claims to have a revolver but when we see said gun in question its actually a semi-automatic pistol. There is actually a lot of FridgeBrilliance to this. Someone of Norma's generation would have gown up in a world where revolvers where synonymous with any form of handgun. Someone working in the silent film era where no one needed to worry about semantics like "pistol" and "revolver" would also not need to know the difference. By the time the film takes place you could expect a gun owner to know the difference, but Norma likely bought her pistol years ago on a whim. In other words shes behind on her gun knowledge as she is everything else.

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 Creator/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]]. The musical returned to Broadway in 2017, still starting Glenn Close.

* RealitySubtext: [[invoked]] TheMovie. How much so? The film was extremely shocking for Hollywood insiders, sending shockwaves through the industry. Audiences were more or less unaware of it, though, and just thought of it as a snarky FilmNoir.

* RealitySubtext: TheMovie. How much so? The film was extremely shocking for Hollywood insiders, sending shockwaves through the industry. Audiences were more or less unaware of it, though, and just thought of it as a snarky FilmNoir.

** The salesman's line, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw9Ski5DJMA Well, as long as the lady's paying for it, why not pick the vicuna?]]" underlines the fact that Joe is, in fact, Norma's gigolo. There's also the pool scene. Joe is wearing nothing but trunks while Norma massages his shoulders, in a very IHaveYouNowMyPretty moment.