History Film / SunsetBoulevard

* AdaptationDistillation: The musical, while staying extremely true to the film, gives more insight into Norma's character, making her a much more tragic and sympathetic well rounded figure, bordering almost on a BrokenBird.

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. In 2019, it was announced that a film version of the musical — with Close once again [[RoleReprise reprising her role from the stage production]] — had entered development. However, it was delayed three times -- first to October 2020, and then to the summer of 2021, before being delayed once more to 2022 -- due to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic.

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. In 2019, it was announced that a film version of the musical — with Close once again [[RoleReprise reprising her role from the stage production]] — had entered development. However, it was delayed twice -- first to October 2020, and then to early 2021 -- due to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic.

* ActorAllusion: In the musical-- 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''.

--> Then, later that evening, [[spoiler: she slits her wrists with his razor in a half-hearted suicide attempt]].

** Norma's writing a screenplay based on the story of Theatre/{{Salome}}, the Biblical princess who helps pull off a successful plot to behead John the Baptist. Naturally, Norma feels attracted to this role. She fancies herself a young, still-famous actress who could pull it off. The role also mirrors Norma's own destructive tendencies. Joe Gillis may not be a John-the-Baptist-type, but he's seer-like enough to gaze past Norma's illusions and into the abyss of loneliness and sadness lying behind them. And, like John the Baptist, he gets murdered. Plus, the story of Salomé is similar to the kind of Biblical epic that Creator/CecilBDeMille would direct (he would later do ''Film/TheTenCommandments'' starting Charlton Heston as Moses). And since [=DeMille=] is the director Norma wants for the project it seems like a match.

* TitleDrop: "Sunset Boulevard," the Act 2 opener.

* SkirtOverSlacks: Norma Desmond [[http://silverscreenmodes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Swanson1.jpg wears a hostess dress, a type of dress popular in the 1950s which was worn with pants under it.]]

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. In 2019, it was announced that a film version of the musical —with Close once again reprising her role from the stage production— had entered development. However, it was delayed twice--first to October 2020, and then to early 2021--due to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic.

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: The monkey is deceased. Norma Desmond sees to it that it's buried in style.

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 (Creator/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" rendered her and every other silent-film star on the block obsolete. Once Norma learns that Joe is 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 [[InsistentTerminology return]].

A classic 1950 FilmNoir directed by Creator/BillyWilder, ''Sunset Boulevard'' is a dark meditation on the film industry and the fleeting nature of fame, and to this day one of Hollywood's most scorching (yet wistful) [[HorribleHollywood depictions of itself]]. While the characters are deeply flawed, some of them [[MoralEventHorizon beyond any redemption]], the film still manages to present them all as complex, sympathetic, and even endearing. It is generally regarded as one of the best films of all time.

As the film opens, a man (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.

At first, Joe sees her as a sap he can use to bide time and make some easy cash, but it becomes [[GreyAndGrayMorality increasingly blurred just who's playing whom]]. More and more, he's trapped in his gilded cage: Norma buys him expensive things but never actually pays him, leaving him more and more dependent on her [[ClingyJealousGirl every fickle whim]]. Convinced her script (which is juvenile, trashy, and hours too long) will restore her to her rightful place as the greatest star of her day, she puts herself through a strict and at times absurd regimen to prepare herself for her return. She chooses to forget that she's now fifty rather than twenty-five, and for a Hollywood beauty queen, fifty might as well be one hundred.

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 (Gloria Swanson) 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" rendered her and every other silent-film star on the block obsolete. Once Norma learns that Joe is 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 [[InsistentTerminology return]].

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

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sunset_boulevard_365.jpg]]
''[[caption-width-right:300:"We didn't need dialogue. We had faces."]]''

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

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]]. 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. It is generally regarded as one of the best films of all time.

* NotSoDifferent: It's subtle, but Joe and Norma are both equally [[DramaQueen obsessed with drama]]. Norma's [[WhiteDwarfStarlet failings]] [[ItsAllAboutMe are]] [[ClingyJealousGirl numerous]] [[IRejectYourReality and]] [[{{Yandere}} obvious]], but pay attention, and Joe is not much better. He had every opportunity to escape 10086 Sunset Boulevard, with or without Betty, with or without leaving Hollywood altogether, with or without as much loot as he felt he could get away with, nothing physical was trapping him in the house, but he chose not to. And when Norma and Betty finally catch wind of each other, he invites the latter to the house (thus dragging her into danger) to BreakHerHeartToSaveHer... then decides to break up with the former anyway right there and then, to her face, despite knowing more than anybody how unstable she could be. He probably didn't expect [[spoiler: to get shot]], but everything he did was, consciously or not, designed to maximize the drama. Even earlier it's evident, as he tends to [[TheSnarkKnight make jokes even where it's inappropriate]], and at the New Year's party, where not an hour after having escaped from one bad situation, he's macking on the fiance of the guy who he just asked to board him for the next few weeks(!), not ten minutes after learning of their engagement(!!!). If Norma is delusional and stuck playing a dramatized version of herself from twenty-five years ago, Joe seems all-too-happy to play her victim.

* FamousLastWords: "All right, Mr. [=DeMille=], I'm ready for my close-up." To clarify, Norma's not dying, but it marks her final descent into insanity.
** "Goodbye, Norma" - [[spoiler: Joe Gillis]].

''[[caption-width-right:300:"I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. [=DeMille=]."]]''

-->''"Alright, Mr. [=DeMille=], I'm ready for my closeup."''

''[[caption-width-right:300:"I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. {{DeMille}}."]]''

''[[caption-width-right:300:I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. Demille.]]''

** Norma's writing a screenplay based on the story of Theatre/{{Salome}}, the Biblical princess who helps pull off a successful plot to behead John the Baptist. Naturally, Norma feels attracted to this role. She fancies herself a young, still-famous actress who could pull it off. The role also mirrors Norma's own destructive tendencies. Joe Gillis may not be a John-the-Baptist-type, but he's seer-like enough to gaze past Norma's illusions and into the abyss of loneliness and sadness lying behind them. And, like John the Baptist, he gets murdered. Plus, the story of Salomé is similar to the kind of Biblical epic that Creator/CecilBDeMille would direct (he would later do ''Film/TheTenCommandments'' starting Charlton Heston as Moses). And since DeMille is the director Norma wants for the project it seems like a match.

** [[spoiler:Norma's "fan mail" which she keeps using to justify what she does aren't real, their just forgeries made by Max.]]

* INeverGotAnyLetters: Norma Desmond receives hundreds of fan letters a day, [[spoiler: 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]].

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