directed by: Billy Wilder
written by: Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder
starring: Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, William Holden
comment: 6th January, 2017
Well, I'm rather confused, and most of all by William Holden's part. (I would very much like to see the film with the original choice for this role - Montgomery Clift. I saw a picture of him and an older actress and his lover at the time, Libby Holman, and immediately I was under the impression that a much more unique film was stolen from me.) The living character of Holden's is a cynic and an opportunist, but his dead voice brings no other qualities, or I fail to recognize them, so it only doubles the informations I'm already seeing. I would like to see the film without the voiceover. Overall gravitas and eloquence would skyrocket, I imagine.
I actually compared Sunset Blvd. with A Streetcar Named Desire in my head a couple of times. The films were released closely to each other, they both deal with their heroines descending into madness, and their final scenes are almost identical, including the two memorable quotes proclaimed while already deranged. I also read that Billy Wilder knows nothing about further fate of Norma Desmond, except for the fact that she went insane for good, while Tennessee Williams said that Blanche flourished in the mental institution, she got the attention she needed and went on to achieve life's happiness. This also illustrates the difference I feel between these two works of art and while I enjoyed Sunset Blvd. and have respect for its "message", I would always prefer the Streetcar over it. Because when I try to imagine that the whole of "Streetcar" gets narrated by Stanley Kowalski's bland and informative voiceover, it instantly ages the film by a few decades and loses it's modern feeling. And that's how I perceive Sunset Blvd.
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