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Sunset Boulevard

Presented by The Colonial Theatre at The Colonial Theatre

February 6, 2011

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Starting out our month of films dealing with the less glamorous side of the show business community, we’re presenting a truly classic rendering (in every sense of the term) of Hollywood’s “old guard.” Billy Wilder’s direction provides a tongue-in-cheek, often witty, and sometimes macabre take on the post-war film community, with William Holden starring as a hack screenwriter, on the run from creditors, who seeks sanctuary (and a bit more) with has-been silent actress Gloria Swanson and her brooding Prussian butler, Erich von Stroheim (the ever-popular “man you love to hate” of the silent era). To give you an idea of just how unusual this film is, it’s narrated in flashback by a dead man, seen at the outset floating face down in an ornate swimming pool. As the fascinating tale unfolds, we are treated to a wild conglomeration of madness, vanity, obsession, and murder, as well as cameo appearances from such silent stars as Buster Keaton, Anna Q. Nilsson and director Cecil B. DeMille. If you like your satire on the dark side, then Sunset Boulevard is the film for you. (Bill Roth)

Billy Wilder, US, 1950, NR, 110m