Criticism of Hollywood and its studio system has always been talked about by film directors, and good films of this kind have appeared one after another, such as Robert Altman's "Big Player", David Lynch's "Mulholland Road", And Woody Allen's "Hollywood Ending". The 1950 film noir masterpiece "Sunset Boulevard" is a monument in this category. "Sunset Boulevard" shows the dark side of the Hollywood dream. It is worth mentioning that some scenes of the film were produced by Paramount. Paramount has absolute confidence in director Billy Wilder. Xixi Dimir plays himself in the film. In the scene where Norma Desmond came to see him, he was directing "Samson and Delilah" (Samson and Delilah) on Paramount's No. 18 stage, which was still in use in 2002. The title "Sunset Boulevard" is a metaphor for the mood and end of the stardom of a generation of stars, Norma Desmond (played by Gloria Swanson). In fact, Gloria Swanson herself was a famous movie star in the silent film era. Her Hollywood glorious years ended in the mid-1930s, but she did not disappear, and she was not like the role she played in the film. Neurotic. Diligent, she runs a company and hosts a radio show in New York. In order to play the role of Norma, Swanson divorced her fourth or fifth husband and moved to Hollywood. The title also refers to a real avenue in Los Angeles where Norma Desmond lives. The house in the movie (exterior view and back garden; interior view taken at Paramount) was built in 1924 and destroyed in 1957. In fact, it is not on Sunset Boulevard. Its owner is the ex-wife of oil tycoon Jean Paul Getty. The opening scene of the film is quite skillful: police cars and motorcycles lead the audience into a villa on Sunset Boulevard, and a male body floats on the swimming pool. At this time, the voice-over tells the audience that this person “always wanted a pool (always wanted a pool). )". The underwater scene is shot from the bottom of the swimming pool, supplemented by a mirror, you can see the police around the swimming pool. The original opening scene was not designed this way. At first, Billy Wilder thought of "The Preface to the Morgue": using the dead bodies of the morgue to announce everyone's different destiny, but due to the poor response from the preview, this scene was abandoned. In the film, the financially struggling professional screenwriter Joe Gillis (played by William Horton) and the elderly silent queen Norma Desmond have a dialogue that sums up the latter’s mentality and director Billy Wild’s views on the film industry. Criticism and satire. Gillis: "You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big."-Norma: "I am big. It's the pictures that got small."-Gillis: "Aha. I knew there was something wrong with them." In order to embody and emphasize the difference between the old and the new Hollywood, William Horton adopted a post-war performance style, while Gloria Swanson still uses the exaggerated body language and expressive performances of the silent film era. Way. In addition, the film's music director Waxman chose to use tango to introduce the emergence of Norma, and used a kind of American jazz in the 1940s-Bebop to set off Joe Gillis. In Billy Wilder's many films, one of the protagonists is always in a moral dilemma. In this film is Joe Gillis: doing what he hates to do-he betrayed himself. Norma milfs are half old, and the charm is still there. Joe Gillis is in his prime of life at the age of 31. It is not impossible that they have developed a romantic history between them. The casting of "Sunset Boulevard" is also top-notch. Eric von Strohheim (played as Norma's butler, former husband, and director) was a highly regarded director in the silent film era. When DW Griffith filmed the classic "The Birth of a Country", he was also a member of the creative team. His career went downhill when he directed "Greedy," and this 18-hour film epic is today regarded as a masterpiece. At the time, "Greedy" released in theaters was an incomplete version. Strohheim's "Queen Kelly" (1929) completely ruined his career as a director. The starring role of this film is no one else, it is Gloria Swanson! Her career as a performer also fell through. In "Sunset Boulevard", there is a scene of Norma Desmond and Joe Gillis watching a movie in Norma's private screening room, and it is "Queen Kelly" on the screen! This film was sponsored by JFK's father, Joe Kennedy. At the time, Swanson was still Joe Kennedy's lover. It is said that Swanson called Joe one day. Kennedy, told him that a madman was making a film, she was referring to Strohheim, and many people thought he was a strange guy on and off the stage. And when the filming of "Sunset Boulevard" was completed, Swanson and Strohheim had already laughed at each other. By the way, Montgomery Clift was the first choice to play Joe Gillis, not William Horton. Despite this, Holden became Billy Wilder's closest friend and starred in three movies of Wilder. "Sunset Boulevard" did not win the Oscar for best picture that year, and unfortunately lost to "Comet Beauty." Later, there was a musical based on Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard" and it is still being performed today. Among them, Glenn Close (Glenn Close) once played Norma Desmond.
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