So says Norma Desmond, the iconic former silent movie star who is the focus of Sunset Boulevard.
Considered by many to be the iconic film noir about the vacuity of Hollywood, it is well worth seeing. Norma Desmond was played by Gloria Swanson, who herself had been a star in silent films and didn’t make the transition to ‘talkies’, her young lover was played by William Holden. Neither was the first choice for their respective parts but they each played them well.
Characters in the film include Cecil B DeMille, Buster Keaton, and Hedda Hopper all playing themselves. Desmond’s driver and 1st husband, Max, was played by Gloria Swanson’s real-life silent film director, Erich von Stroheim. The movie was directed by Billy Wilder and was rated in the top 20 films in history by AFI.
I was struck by a very young, smiling Jack Webb, who I had only seen on the TV Dragnet before seeing this film. Toward the end of the film, William Holden makes a comment about how old Norma Desmond/Gloria Swanson is: “There’s nothing tragic about being fifty. Not unless you’re trying to be twenty-five.” These days, at least to me, fifty doesn’t seem old enough to be old.
As Norma Desmond said about stars “We didn’t need dialogue. We had faces!”. You’ll remember hers long after the film ends.
The story about the film is worth reading including how Wilder worked to avoid being censored during a time of pretty strict film censorship in America:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset_Boulevard_(film)
and here:
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6980/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sunset_boulevard/
A 98 from Rotten Tomatoes.
Four stars, out of five, from me.