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george-karkaletsis
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Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Sunset Boulevard is definitely one of the best films of a sub-genre of films I might start calling "Hollywood and the passions of its people".
As the vast majority of everyone who have watched this film during the past 74 years, I am amazed. Not only thanks to the impeccable, and always masterful direction of Billy Wilder, who I like to call him as one of the Midas of Hollywood, but also thanks to the outstanding casting.
There is no reason to refer to each and every one of them individually, just take a brief look to the cast before you start watching it. When it comes to the main roles of Sunset Boulevard, Gloria Swanson's Norman Desmond & William Holden's Joe Gillis is a great couple of actors who portrayed a couple of two perfectly written characters.
The fade of the silent film star can be seen in the glare of Gloria Swanson in every scene of this (especially in the ending when we get the climax of that fade).
A parallel between the characters of Norman Desmond and Pearl can be easily found in this (I'm a Star), and I do believe that Gloria Swanson can be described as the cinematic grandmother of Mia Goth.
A person I should not fail to mention as is Nancy Olson who gives a calm, yet strong, and necessary to the plot, performance. Nancy Olson's Betty Schaefer clearly stole the show for me.
All in all, Sunset Boulevard is definitely one of the best films of a sub-genre of films I might start calling "Hollywood and the passions of its people".