Sunset Boulevard
Starring: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson
Director: Billy Wilder
The film: This acid-spitting satire on the Hollywood dream factory is not just the best movie ever made about movies, it is also one of Billy Wilder's finest.
The iconoclastic Wilder was the last great movie-making giant, writing and directing such screen jewels as Some Like It Hot, Stalag 17 and The Apartment. None, however, can match Sunset for resonance and power. His dark, biting script and flawless direction produced an ageless work that continues to reward fresh generations of film buffs (nominated for 10 Oscars, it lost out to All About Eve for the big one).
Brilliantly cast, it pits William Holden as down-on-his-luck B-grade screen hack Joe Gillis who hasn't penned a hit for so long he's defaulted on his car payments (tantamount to a death sentence on the mean streets of LA). While trying to out-run the repo man in Beverly Hills, he blows a tyre and pulls into the driveway of a seemingly abandoned gothic mansion.
But behind the tatty facade resides the delusional Norma Desmond - played with grotesque glee by the brilliant Gloria Swanson - a former silent star who believes she is still famous.
