{"id":2469,"date":"2025-03-15T13:33:29","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T12:33:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/champagne-bond500.com\/?post_type=product&p=2469"},"modified":"2025-03-15T13:42:41","modified_gmt":"2025-03-15T12:42:41","slug":"sunset-boulevard-tour","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/champagne-bond500.com\/eng\/produit\/sunset-boulevard-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunset Boulevard Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunset Boulevard<\/b><\/i>\u00a0is a 1950 American\u00a0dark comedy<\/a><\/sup><\/sup>\u00a0film noir <\/a><\/sup>directed by\u00a0Billy Wilder<\/a>\u00a0and co-written by Wilder,\u00a0Charles Brackett<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0D. M. Marshman Jr.<\/a>\u00a0It is named after a\u00a0major street<\/a>\u00a0that runs through\u00a0Hollywood<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The film stars\u00a0William Holden<\/a>\u00a0as Joe Gillis, a struggling\u00a0screenwriter<\/a>, and\u00a0Gloria Swanson<\/a>\u00a0as Norma Desmond, a former\u00a0silent-film<\/a>\u00a0star who draws him into her deranged fantasy world, where she dreams of making a triumphant return to the screen.\u00a0Erich von Stroheim<\/a>\u00a0plays Max von Mayerling, her devoted butler, and\u00a0Nancy Olson<\/a>,\u00a0Jack Webb<\/a>,\u00a0Lloyd Gough<\/a>, and\u00a0Fred Clark<\/a>\u00a0appear in supporting roles. Director\u00a0Cecil B. DeMille<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0gossip columnist<\/a>\u00a0Hedda Hopper<\/a>\u00a0play themselves, and the film includes\u00a0cameo appearances<\/a>\u00a0by silent-film stars\u00a0Buster Keaton<\/a>,\u00a0H. B. Warner<\/a>, and\u00a0Anna Q. Nilsson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Praised by many\u00a0critics<\/a>\u00a0when first released,\u00a0Sunset Boulevard<\/i>\u00a0was nominated for 11\u00a0Academy Awards<\/a>\u00a0(including nominations in\u00a0all four acting categories<\/a>) and won three. It is often ranked among the\u00a0greatest movies ever made<\/a>. As it was deemed \u00ab\u00a0culturally, historically,<\/p>\n

or aesthetically significant\u00a0\u00bb by the U.S.\u00a0Library of Congress<\/a>\u00a0in 1989,\u00a0Sunset Boulevard<\/i>\u00a0was included in the first group of films selected for preservation in the\u00a0National Film Registry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/sup>In 1998, it was ranked number 12 on the\u00a0American Film Institute<\/a>‘s list of the\u00a0100 best American films<\/a>\u00a0of the 20th century. In 2007, it was 16th on their\u00a010th Anniversary list<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At a mansion on\u00a0Sunset Boulevard<\/a>, police officers and photographers discover the body of Joe Gillis floating face down in the swimming pool. In a\u00a0flashback<\/a>, Joe relates the events leading to his death.<\/p>\n

Six months earlier, Joe, a down-on-his-luck screenwriter, tries to interest\u00a0Paramount Pictures<\/a>\u00a0in a story he submitted.\u00a0Script reader<\/a>\u00a0Betty Schaefer harshly critiques it, unaware that Joe is listening. Later, while fleeing from\u00a0repo men<\/a>\u00a0seeking his car, Joe turns into the driveway of a seemingly deserted mansion inhabited by forgotten\u00a0silent film<\/a>\u00a0star Norma Desmond.<\/p>\n

Learning that Joe is a writer, Norma asks his opinion of a script she has written for a film about\u00a0Salome<\/a>. She plans to play the role herself in her return to the screen. Joe finds her script abysmal but flatters her into hiring him as a\u00a0script doctor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Joe moves into Norma’s mansion at her insistence and sees that Norma refuses to believe that her fame has evaporated. Her butler, Max, secretly writes all of the\u00a0fan mail<\/a>\u00a0she receives in order to maintain the illusion.<\/p>\n

At her New Year’s Eve party, Joe realizes that she has fallen in love with him. He tries to let her down gently, but Norma slaps him and retreats to her room, distraught. Joe visits his friend Artie Green and again meets Betty, who thinks a scene in one of Joe’s scripts has potential. When he phones Max to have him pack his things, Max tells him Norma has cut her wrists with his razor. Joe then returns to Norma, and their relationship becomes sexual.<\/p>\n

Norma has Max deliver the edited\u00a0Salome<\/i>\u00a0script to her former director\u00a0Cecil B. DeMille<\/a>\u00a0at Paramount. She starts getting calls from Paramount executive Gordon Cole but refuses to speak to anyone except DeMille. Eventually, she has Max drive her and Joe to Paramount in her 1929\u00a0Isotta Fraschini<\/a>. DeMille welcomes her affectionately and treats her with great respect but tactfully evades her questions about the script. Max then learns that Cole only called her because he wants to rent her Isotta Fraschini for use in a film.<\/p>\n

Preparing for her imagined comeback, Norma undergoes rigorous beauty treatments. Joe secretly works nights in Betty’s office, collaborating on an original screenplay, and she eventually confesses she has fallen for him. After learning of Joe’s moonlighting, Max reveals he was once a respected film director who discovered Norma, made her a star, and became her first husband. Following their divorce, he abandoned his career to become her servant.<\/p>\n

Norma discovers a manuscript with Joe and Betty’s names on it and phones Betty, insinuating that Joe is not the man he seems. Overhearing the call, Joe invites Betty to the mansion to see for herself. When she arrives, he pretends that he is satisfied being a\u00a0gigolo<\/a>\u00a0so that she can be with Artie. However, after she tearfully leaves, he packs to return to his old newspaper job in\u00a0Dayton, Ohio<\/a>. He bluntly informs Norma that there will be no comeback, that Max writes all of her fan mail, and that she has been forgotten, though Max refuses to break her delusions. Joe disregards Norma’s threat to kill herself as she brandishes a gun; as he leaves the house, Norma shoots him three times, and he collapses into the pool.<\/p>\n

The flashback ends, and the film returns to the present day, with Norma about to be arrested for murder. The mansion is overrun with police and reporters with\u00a0newsreel<\/a>\u00a0cameras, which she believes are film cameras. Max pretends to \u00ab\u00a0direct\u00a0\u00bb her, and the police play along. As the cameras roll, Norma descends the grand staircase. Upon reaching the bottom, she stops and makes an impromptu speech about how happy she is to be making a film again. She then says, \u00ab\u00a0Alright, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.\u00a0\u00bb and approaches the camera.<\/p>\n

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