“I am big, It’s the picture that got small,” is a notable quote from the Film.
At the time, Billy Wilder’s 1950 film Sunset Boulevard was the first to show the politics and powerplay of the Holywood studio system in a way never seen before by audiences.
Gloria Swanson plays Norma Desmond, a famous actress from the silent movie era who’s not been able to hang on to fame after ‘talkies’ came in. In the film, we witness her psychological breakdown while still longing for fame. Her world becomes ever more delusional, resulting in the demise of herself and others around her.
Interestingly, the film could have portrayed Gloria Swanson’s life, though she was one of the very few who did successfully carry on her glittering career in the silent movie era to that of the talking pictures. We come across the real life director Cecil B DeMille, who made Gloria Swanson a star. In the film we see DeMille actually directing his 1950 film Samson and Delilah. Another link to the ‘real world’ is the butler played by Erich von Stroheim who both in the film as in real life had discovered the actress and directed her in various films. But Gloria Swanson always denied that the story of the film reflected her own story. No dead bodies in her swimming pool!
In Hollywood everyone is ultimately replaceable. So come and join us on 25 October to see this film which everyone thought could / should not be made, but which is now still one of the best Hollywood film noirs of its time.
