Sunset Boulevard (or Sunset Blvd.) is a classic movie still taught in film classes today, 72 years after its release. The film was written and directed by the legendary Billy Wilder and starred William Holden as struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis, Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, a former star of silent films who desperately wants to transition into talking pictures, and Erich von Stroheim as Max von Maylerling, her loyal butler. Director Cecil B. DeMille, iconic gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, and even silent star Buster Keaton appear in the film as themselves.

Sunset Blvd. is one of the best movies ever made about Hollywood. It is a film about a movie star of the silent movie era who is left behind as she ages and films become talkies. Norma Desmond lives her present in the past when she was in her heyday as the most celebrated actress of her generation. She is desperate to make a comeback. Joe Gillis is a down on his luck screenwriter who meets Norma while he's fleeing men who are trying to repossess his car. He is drawn into her wealth and fading glamour and sees a way to better his station in life through her. Max von Mayerling has the most thankless role at Desmond's butler -- he was a director of silent films, many of which Desmond starred in, and is later revealed to be her ex-husband. Sunset Blvd is a story of aging, careers failing, and time moving on.

Sunset Blvd was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won three -- Best Story and Screenplay, Best Art Direction-Set Direction Black and White, and Best Score. It was nominated in all four acting categories, as well as Best Picture and Best Director. It is largely considered to be one of the greatest movies ever made and is preserved in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry.

Sunset Blvd is a classic example of film noir. It is also very meta, and its dark, cynical tone, voiceover, and dialogue remain relevant to this day. Let's take a look at a few reasons why this classic movie still resonates today.

Sunset Boulevard - A Famous Hollywood Story

Norma Desmond's mental breakdown at the end of Sunset Boulevard
Paramount Pictures

At its core, this film is about making movies, about celebrities and those who would like to become celebrities. In Sunset Blvd., the film industry is crumbling due to the rising popularity of television and the McCarthy-era communist witch-hunts. Norma is an actress whose star has faded, while Joe is a scrappy nobody only out for himself. Max just wants to be around Norma and make sure she's okay, as she slowly loses her mind and her grip on reality. In her Sunset Boulevard mansion, she can pretend she is still the young ingénue and toast of the town, even if the mirrors tell a different story. In her home she can pretend she's about to book the next big picture, even if the phone never rings and the studio chief doesn't take her calls.

It is a Look at the End of an Era

Nancy Olson poses in character for "Sunset Boulevard" (1950).
Paramount Pictures

Norma Desmond was the queen of silent films -- and still is, only silent films are no longer being made. The industry changed and left her behind (or, as Desmond famously says, "I am big! It's the pictures that got small.") She had the skills of exaggerated facial expressions that made her a star of the silent era, something perfected by actress Gloria Swanson, who literally was a queen of the silent era whose star had faded into obscurity; Swanson actually starred in films directed by Erich Von Stroheim, who plays the former director-turned-butler Max von Maylerling in the film. In fact, Desmond even watches clips from an old movie they made together, Queen Kelly.

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In the era of talking pictures, Desmond's (and Swanson's) kind of overacting is no longer needed, and Norma cannot come to terms with that fact. This mirrors the way the film industry has been changing for years now, from the introduction of Netflix and other streaming services that are competing with traditional studios for audiences, to the reduction in independent movies in favor of franchises and cinematic universes, along with all the changes the Covid-19 pandemic brought to the film industry.

Sunset Boulevard's Bleak Look at Aging

Gloria Swanson Cecil B. Demille Sunset Boulevard 1950 Paramount
Paramount Pictures

Norma Desmond is middle-aged. She sits in her Sunset Boulevard mansion screening her own films, watching her much younger self light up the screen. Meanwhile, time has stopped in her house for everyone and everything except her, a fact she's faced with every time she examines her roughly 50-year-old face. None of the studios wanted a 50-year-old leading lady in a world where Doris Day and Grace Kelly are the biggest stars of the day (and they still don't, for the most part).

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Joe Gillis compares Desmond's mansion to Miss Havisham's in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. Miss Havisham spent her days and weeks and months and years in her wedding dress after being jilted at the altar. Joe sees Norma in a similar light -- she's been rejected by the film industry and is spending her days and weeks and months and years living as if she was still the biggest and brightest star in Hollywood.

Billy Wilder Satirizes Celebrity

Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond drinks in Sunset Boulevard
Paramount Pictures

Gloria Swanson gave one of the greatest performances of her career in Sunset Blvd. Norma Desmond is a tortured soul who believes she's more famous than she is, due in large part to the fan mail she receives (the fan mail is tragically fake, written by her loyal butler Max in order to prop her up). She believes she's more important to the modern movie industry than she is. Her enormous plans for a comeback are delusional and contribute to the increasing breakdown of her mental health. She is a caricature of herself: Norma Desmond, movie star -- the role she was born to play and cannot leave behind. She feeds off the fame and money and notoriety, because without it, who is she?

As long as she stays in her mansion she can keep the ruse going. In her mansion and in her mind, she will make her comeback film. She will make Joe, the young screenwriter, fall in love with her. She will be on top again. She won't accept any other option.