#78 Sunset Blvd. (Wilder) at Orinda Theatre
It took some historical context for me to understand why this noir, which initially felt campy and predictable, has endured as a masterpiece. Compared to modern films like The Substance or Black Swan that also explore what happens to women when they are no longer seen as desirable, Sunset Blvd. (1950) feels restrained, classical, and polite. What I didn't realize was that Sunset Blvd. was the first film brave enough to tell the truth about what how Hollywood treats leading ladies as they age.
Gloria Swanson, a real silent-era icon --- at one time the most famous woman in the world --- was cast as Norma Desmond, a forgotten middle-aged silent-era star living in a decaying mansion on Sunset Boulevard. The film follows struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis, played by William Holden, who becomes Norma's (ambivalently) kept (much younger) man. Norma is convinced she’s on the verge of a comeback, while the audience can see she’s descending into madness.
When it premiered, studio executives were furious at Billy Wilder for exposing how the female stars who built their studios’ fortunes were routinely discarded once they aged out of desirability. At one point, when Desmond arrives at the studio to pay a surprise visit to Cecil B. DeMille, she tells the guard at the gate, "Tell him without me he wouldn't have any job, because without me there wouldn't be any Paramount Studio." Wilder infuriated Hollywood further by casting actual relics of silent Hollywood films including famed director Erich von Stroheim as Desmond's discarded director/husband and Buster Keaton as one of her bridge-playing “waxworks" friends. Wilder even included footage from Swanson’s own film career. The whole production was a big eff you to Hollywood.
Seeing Paramount Pictures' 75th anniversary 4k restoration of Sunset Blvd. at the Orinda Theatre as part of Matias Bombal’s Hollywood Classic Movie Matinees was a genuinely delight. (Extra points for the qualified projectionist from Local 107 of the IATSE.) Held on the last Tuesday of each month, the series is hosted by a well-suited Bombal, a longtime Bay Area film critic, historian, and former theater manager. And the Orinda Theatre, a beautifully preserved 1941 Art Deco movie palace, is the perfect setting. Watching Sunset Blvd. there felt communal, affectionate, and exactly how a classic like this should be seen.