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- 19
A 2.5 hour doc on AAE vs SB:
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- 25
- Awards
- 8
APPLAUSE was before my time, but there are clips on YT. It's ... not good. At the start of DEATH BECOMES HER, Meryl Streep plays a past-her-prime actress in a tacky musical version of SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH. I'm pretty sure that was parodying Bacall's stage work. I find it funny that Lucy got so much flack for her bad singing in the movie MAME, when Bacall won Tonys for her equally bad, toneless, deep voiced singing.
I did see SUNSET BLVD with Glenn Close on stage. I thought it was fine. SUNSET BLVD is more florid than ALL ABOUT EVE, so I think it lends itself better to bombastic music.
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- 11
Sunset Boulevard 75th Anniversary - Fathom Entertainment
Other Upcoming Releases
www.fathomentertainment.com
And it's coming to a theater like 30 minutes from me!
- Awards
- 19
- Awards
- 19
- Awards
- 11
I have my tickets for the August 4 show!
- Awards
- 11
So, we saw SUNSET BOULEVARD in the theater last night. We were accompanied by two older women. There were just the four of us in the theater, and it made for a wonderful experience.
It's been around six years since I've seen SUNSET BOULEVARD, so I was pleasantly surprised at how much of the story seemed fresh because I had forgotten some of the finer details of the plot and its characters.
First, let me just say this right from the start, the movie was nothing short of great. The story, the cast, the direction, the camerawork, the script. It all flows together seamlessly.
William Holden, in a career of well-remembered characters and films, has one of his finest hours here as Joe Gillis, a writer struggling to retain his originality in a system that wants him to conform to succeed. He's handsome, strong, and determined. He takes his chances at being "taken in" by Norma Desmond, but he really isn't all bad. He has more redeeming qualities than I personally remember, which makes his ultimate fate at the end of the movie a little less deserving than one might think. But that's the tragedy of it all.
Gloria Swanson is Norma Desmond -- well, in the since that she completely falls into the character and brings her to life. Norma is theatrical and stuck in an era that's long out of style and mostly forgotten in the present. Her grip on reality is slight, and it only weakens as the story progresses. The fate and reality of Norma is honestly quite sad, and you end up feeling sorry for her as she completely reverts into a falsified reality that will never again be true for her.
Eric von Stroheim is simply great as Norma's faithful servant, Max, who keeps her false reality alive by assuring Norma of her greatness as a star and by sending her fake fan letters in the mail. His performance is actually better and more crucial to the story than I remembered it being.
I cannot express my utter enthusiasm for seeing SUNSET BOULEVARD on the big screen. It was simply flawless. It's exactly what I wanted it to be. I wouldn't change anything -- not anything -- about any part of the story, the cast, the execution. Billy Wilder is truly a cinematic genius. He thought of it all and it shows. The lengths he went to definitely show up on screen.
I came away from SUNSET BOULEVARD completely mesmerized. You can analyze the movie from multiple perspectives -- from Joe's point-of-view at how Hollywood squishes talent into submission; from Norma's view and how Hollywood pushes older women aside like unwanted old leaves; and even from Max's perspective, as he gives up his own life and devotes it to a women and his desire to keep her fantasy alive.
It was truly a wonderful experience.
It's been around six years since I've seen SUNSET BOULEVARD, so I was pleasantly surprised at how much of the story seemed fresh because I had forgotten some of the finer details of the plot and its characters.
First, let me just say this right from the start, the movie was nothing short of great. The story, the cast, the direction, the camerawork, the script. It all flows together seamlessly.
William Holden, in a career of well-remembered characters and films, has one of his finest hours here as Joe Gillis, a writer struggling to retain his originality in a system that wants him to conform to succeed. He's handsome, strong, and determined. He takes his chances at being "taken in" by Norma Desmond, but he really isn't all bad. He has more redeeming qualities than I personally remember, which makes his ultimate fate at the end of the movie a little less deserving than one might think. But that's the tragedy of it all.
Gloria Swanson is Norma Desmond -- well, in the since that she completely falls into the character and brings her to life. Norma is theatrical and stuck in an era that's long out of style and mostly forgotten in the present. Her grip on reality is slight, and it only weakens as the story progresses. The fate and reality of Norma is honestly quite sad, and you end up feeling sorry for her as she completely reverts into a falsified reality that will never again be true for her.
Eric von Stroheim is simply great as Norma's faithful servant, Max, who keeps her false reality alive by assuring Norma of her greatness as a star and by sending her fake fan letters in the mail. His performance is actually better and more crucial to the story than I remembered it being.
I cannot express my utter enthusiasm for seeing SUNSET BOULEVARD on the big screen. It was simply flawless. It's exactly what I wanted it to be. I wouldn't change anything -- not anything -- about any part of the story, the cast, the execution. Billy Wilder is truly a cinematic genius. He thought of it all and it shows. The lengths he went to definitely show up on screen.
I came away from SUNSET BOULEVARD completely mesmerized. You can analyze the movie from multiple perspectives -- from Joe's point-of-view at how Hollywood squishes talent into submission; from Norma's view and how Hollywood pushes older women aside like unwanted old leaves; and even from Max's perspective, as he gives up his own life and devotes it to a women and his desire to keep her fantasy alive.
It was truly a wonderful experience.
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- Awards
- 19
Nancy Oleson is 97!