The film opens with a corpse floating in a swimming pool, and the story of the film unfolds in the monologue of the deceased. A dead man tells a story, like a "dead" silent actor in a sound film, dead horizontally and vertically, lifeless and dazed.
The male protagonist, Joe, is a penniless 18-line screenwriter who can't sell a script. He ran into a creditor while driving and hid in a villa on Sunset Boulevard. He abandoned the car in the garage to avoid the creditor and planned to leave this movie mecca full of opportunities but not his. Curiosity drove him to check at the door of this old, gloomy, retro-looking villa, but was invited by the housekeeper to enter the house and met the hostess Norma, a nearly 50-year-old who used to be beautiful, but now The silent actress that nobody cares about. Norma asked Joe to write a screenplay for a sound film with features of silent films for himself, and was willing to pay a large sum of money for it. The depressed Joe accepted the job and was forced to live in the villa, becoming a A man who "besides a rich woman" and "eats soft rice".
The film uses a lot of details to portray Norma, a lonely old woman living in the past. For example, there are plenty of photos of Norma in her youth in the room, which allows her to relive every moment of her youthful face and past glories. The butler Max is actually her ex-husband and director. Max still has feelings for Norma, and feels sad about Norma's current loneliness and depression, so he accompanies Norma as a housekeeper, and insists on acting as a fan. The identity writes to Norma, thereby creating the illusion that Norma is still loved and noticed. And Norma lived "at ease" in these illusions. The scene where the three former silent film titans headed by Buster Keaton and Norma play bridge around the table is both comical and embarrassing. In addition, Norma and Joe will watch their own past in the screening room together. A silent film. Each of Norma's reminiscences of the silent era represents an entire cast of actors who were eliminated from the talkie era. And Norma's feelings for Joe are more like a kind of self-suggestion, an act of finding self-identity, and being with a young man to prove that he is also young and can still win the hearts of young people, even if it is Bought with work and money. Joe and Norma's deserted New Year's ball at the villa stands in stark contrast to the hilarious New Year's ball held by the friends Joe joins after he leaves. Norma went to the Hollywood studio due to a misunderstanding. She was supported by the actors and staff on the set, but was disliked by the director. It turned out that the crew called Norma just to rent her classic car instead of inviting her to perform. Joe secretly writes the script with the girl he met at the dance, and sparks love. This should be his real life, not parasitic in the house of an old woman who is intoxicated with herself. They are all lost people, both knowingly or unknowingly taking advantage of each other. When Joe decided to leave, he told Norma what the real world was like, he told Norma that all the fan letters she received were from Max, and he told Norma that the crew just wanted to rent her car. For Norma, Joe's departure also shattered her last illusion about youth. The bullet fired was Norma's challenge to reality again, and it was also the price Joe paid for his own shortcuts. In the end, in front of the police, reporters, and documentary cameras, under the guidance of Marx, Norma slowly walked down the stairs with her head held high, with a hideous face. At this time, she is again surrounded by spotlight lanterns and reporters. She will once again make headlines and be hotly discussed by thousands of people. This is the second "spring" in her life.
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