I wasn't expecting this to be film noir, but it worked. I liked it because it was different - it's hard to peg. Silent screen star Norma Desmond still believes, 30 years later, that she's wonderfully famous and doesn't want to face the fact that people have forgotten her. She's living in the past, and once struggling screenwriter William Holden stumbles into her world, he finds he can't easily leave it.
Gloria Swanson was campy and overdramatic, but that's what the character called for. I think Holden had the same clause in his contract that Matthew McConaughey must have - one that says he has to appear shirtless in every movie. And I loved that Ms. Desmond's bridge club was made up of cameos by other silent film stars, including my favorite, Buster Keaton.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKfBCitChcg
8 comments:
that's a scandalous clause for an actor back then, isn't it?
one would think. but apparently william holden liked to take off his shirt.
i see
incidentally, i think that must have been in faye dunaway's contract too
oh my
yeah. i find it very annoying
oh, and back to sunset boulevard - glenn close was once norma desmond. she so looks like a silent movie star.
indeed she does. was that the musical version?
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