"I am big! It's the pictures that got small!"

Masterfully snappy dialogue like only Billy Wilder and the golden age of 40's and 50's film-noir can deliver. A comeback performance from Gloria Swanson to redefine the very notion of a comeback (I still can't get over how expressive her face is). Incisive commentary on the process of filmmaking which extends to the real lives of its cast and crew (Gloria Swanson returning to film as Norma Desmond returning to film; Erich von Stroheim, the director of Gloria Swanson's early films, as Max von Mayerling, the director of Norma Desmond's early films). Prescient awareness of the critical lack of genuinely new stories two decades before anyone would use the term "postmodern" to describe literature. A truly one of a kind film.

Top 10 Film Noir | Metacinema
List of Shame | The Rewatch List

100

A final image can be ambiguous or illuminating, ill-defined or razor-sharp, but Billy Wilder takes a moment of supreme clarity and showcases it through gradual opacity; a star slowly succumbing to an out-of-focus recreation of the glory days, one which is, in actuality, confined to a homicidal reality. Ah, showbiz.

**Part of the Best Picture Project**

What a difference several years makes after having last seen a film!

As a younger still growing lover of film, when I first watched this, I merely watched it from a superficial standpoint. I enjoyed the "behind the scenes" aspect of the film, as well as the deteriorating mental state of Swanson's Norma Desmond.

But many years later, I am able to understand who Max was played by and why it was significant, as well as the many cameos (Shit, Buster Keaton!) and references.

Then there's Wilder's direction, which comes to employ silent film technique more and more as the film goes on and Norma Desmond's mental state begins to collapse, which serves as a contrast to how much more grounded William Holden's subplot is.

This is why revisiting films is important.

Week 11 (18-24 September 2017)

100/100
This was perfect.

She finally got the close up she wanted.

That ending gave me chills. A classic Hollywood tale indeed.

this movie should sue the hell out of ryan murphy's ass because nearly everything that made "feud: bette and joan" great comes straight from this movie, which at the same time proves how much of a masterpiece it is. the fact that nearly 70 years later it manages to stay this relevant is simply amazing. and joan was right. it was gloria swanson who got robbed in 1950.

Well, it's a classic. And a damn good one too.

great performance from gloria swansen.

combination of my two favorite things faded actresses and noir oh and Norma Desmond is my baby

Hidden Gem

So they were turning after all, those cameras. Life, which can be strangely merciful, had taken pity on Norma Desmond. The dream she had clung to so desperately had enfolded her.