Sunset Blvd. (1950)

* * * * ½

The mixture of reality and fantasy that infects every element of this film, from the actual making to the nuances added by the director, creates a crazy and haunting story that is fascinating and enjoyable enough to mean that watching this film twice in two days is not a chore.

The whole cast were fantastic and helped to drag the audience into the weirdest of worlds, Gloria Swanson and Erich von Stroheim were particularly strong. Swanson played the batty character with such commitment that even when everything was slightly exaggerated she never lost the audiences belief while Stroheim was subtle and his character seemed to teeter on the edge of sanity.

Such strong characters were aided wonderfully by the magnificent use of sets (and even sets within sets). Going behind the scenes of film making during a film makes the whole film more believable and almost like a documentary rather than a narrative. The most wonderful set, however, is Norma’s house as every shot contains publicity shots of Swanson and it creates a comical vanity for Norma’s character but also a piteous view into her past.   

The whole film is twisted within itself as a lot of characters play themselves or versions of themselves and Norma’s constant struggle with reality is echoed in the audiences’ confusion over what parts of the film are simply plucked from truth rather than written just for the film. This amazingly clever casting and writing immediately elevates this film into an incredibly clever film and not simply an entertaining one.