Sunset Boulevard [Paramount Centennial Collection] [2 Discs]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard ranks among the most scathing satires of Hollywood and the cruel fickleness of movie fandom. The story begins at the end as the body of Joe Gillis (William Holden) is fished out of a Hollywood swimming pool. From The Great Beyond, Joe details the circumstances of his untimely demise (originally, the film contained a lengthy prologue wherein the late Mr. Gillis told his tale to his fellow corpses in the city morgue, but this elicited such laughter during the preview that Wilder changed it). Hotly pursued by repo men, impoverished, indebted "boy wonder" screenwriter Gillis ducks into the garage of an apparently abandoned Sunset Boulevard mansion. Wandering into the spooky place, Joe encounters its owner, imperious silent star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Upon learning Joe's profession, Norma inveigles him into helping her with a comeback script that she's been working on for years. Joe realizes that the script is hopeless, but the money is good and he has nowhere else to go. Soon the cynical and opportunistic Joe becomes Norma's kept man. While they continue collaborating, Norma's loyal and protective chauffeur Max Von Mayerling (played by legendary filmmaker Erich von Stroheim) contemptuously watches from a distance. More melodramatic than funny, the screenplay by Wilder and Charles Brackett began life as a comedy about a has-been silent movie actress and the ambitious screenwriter who leeches off her. (Wilder originally offered the film to Mae West, Mary Pickford and Pola Negri. Montgomery Clift was the first choice for the part of opportunistic screenwriter Joe Gillis, but he refused, citing as "disgusting" the notion of a 25-year-old man being kept by a 50-year-old woman.) Andrew Lloyd Webber's long-running musical version has served as a tour-de-force for contemporary actresses ranging from Glenn Close to Betty Buckley to Diahann Carroll. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 2
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Features:
  • cc
  • Disc 1 - Commentary by Ed Sikov (author of "On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder")
  • Disc 2 - Sunset Boulevard: The Beginning
  • The Noir Side of Sunset Boulevard by Joseph Wambaugh
  • Sunset Boulevard Becomes a Classic
  • Two Sides of Ms. Swanson
  • Stories of Sunset Boulevard
  • Mad About The Boy: A Portrait of William Holden
  • Recording Sunset Boulevard
  • The City of Sunset Boulevard
  • Morgue Prologue Script Pages
  • The Score of Sunset Boulevard
  • Behind the Gates: The Lot
  • Hollywood Location Map
  • Paramount in the '50s - Retrospective Featurette
  • Edith Head - The Paramount Years Featurette
  • Original Theatrical Trailer

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Won Best Black and White Art Direction - 1950 (Ray Moyer, John Meehan, Sam Comer)
•     Won Best Drama or Comedy Score - 1950 (Franz Waxman)
•     Won Best Story and Screenplay - 1950 (Billy Wilder, D.M. Marshman, Jr., Charles Brackett)
•     Nominated Best Actor - 1950 (William Holden)
•     Nominated Best Actress - 1950 (Gloria Swanson)
•     Nominated Best Black and White Art Direction - 1950 (Hans Dreier)
•     Nominated Best Black and White Cinematography - 1950 (John F. Seitz)
•     Nominated Best Director - 1950 (Billy Wilder)
•     Nominated Best Editing - 1950 (Doane Harrison, Arthur P. Schmidt)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 1950
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actor - 1950 (Erich Von Stroheim)
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actress - 1950 (Nancy Olson)

• American Film Institute

•     Won 100 Greatest American Movies - 1998

• Directors Guild of America

•     Nominated Best Director - 1950 (Billy Wilder)

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Won Best Director - 1950 (Billy Wilder)
•     Won Best Original Score - 1950 (Franz Waxman)
•     Won Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama - 1950 (Gloria Swanson)
•     Won Best Picture - 1950
•     Nominated Best Cinematography - Black and White - 1950 (John F. Seitz)
•     Nominated Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Pictu - 1950 (Erich Von Stroheim)
•     Nominated Best Screenplay - 1950 (Billy Wilder, D.M. Marshman, Jr., Charles Brackett)

• Library of Congress

•     Won U.S. National Film Registry - 1988

• National Board of Review

•     Won Best Actress - 1950 (Gloria Swanson)
•     Won Best Picture - 1950

• Telluride Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 1974

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       William Holden - Joe Gillis
       Gloria Swanson - Norma Desmond
       Erich Von Stroheim - Max Von Mayerling
       Nancy Olson - Betty Schaefer
       Fred Clark - Sheldrake
       Lloyd Gough - Morino
       Franklin Farnum - The Undertaker
       Larry Blake - Finance Man
       Charles Dayton - Finance Man
       Cecil B. DeMille - Himself
       Al Ferguson - Phone Standby

• Director:

  Billy Wilder

• Producer:

  Charles Brackett

• Screenwriter:

  Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, D.M. Marshman, Jr.

• Cinematographer:

  John F. Seitz

• Songwriter:

  Ray Evans, Jay Livingston

• Composer (Music Score):

  Richard Strauss, Franz Waxman

• Editor:

  Doane Harrison, Arthur P. Schmidt

• Art Director:

  Hans Dreier, John Meehan

• Set Designer:

  Ray Moyer, Sam Comer

• Costume Designer:

  Edith Head

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  John Cope, Harry Lindgren

• Makeup:

  Wally Westmore, Carl Silvera

• Special Effects:

  Farciot Edouart, Gordon Jennings

• First Assistant Director:

  Charles C. Coleman, Jr.

REVIEW:

• Tackling the kind of movie "that never quite worked," Billy Wilder made one of greatest films about Hollywood. In his pungent satire of the industry's sordidness, Wilder turned Hollywood history back on itself, with the presence of silent film star Gloria Swanson as aging silent diva Norma Desmond and great silent director Erich von Stroheim as her butler eloquently commenting on the ephemerality of fame. Her writer/gigolo Joe Gillis incarnated corruptly desperate young Hollywood, dismissing forgotten greats like Buster Keaton as "waxworks" while imagining that he can escape unscathed from Norma's fantasy world. Shot in ultra-noir black-and-white in a 1920s Hollywood mansion, the looming ceilings, overstuffed rooms, and oblique lighting rendered Norma's environment alluringly sinister in its deteriorating decadence, while Joe's famous "entrance" -- floating face-down dead in Norma's pool while recounting his story in voiceover -- caustically upended narrative conventions. Greeted with raves, Sunset Boulevard became Swanson's cinematic triumph; William Holden's performance as Joe (replacing Montgomery Clift) reignited his own stardom. Despite offending the movie moguls, Wilder was rewarded with eleven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Actor, and Actress. Along with wins for Art Direction and Franz Waxman's score, Wilder, Charles Brackett and D.M. Marshman, Jr. took a Screenplay prize. Adapted as a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi